Information update

So ahead of the information update that is coming next week I was invited down to Hethel to be part of a small panel discussing new and existing questions.

Here's the headlines of what was learned:

Seen all the colours
Seats are going to be great
Finishes are superb
V6 sounds fantastic
Fancy new configurator coming very soon.

Obviously no picture taking allowed in the factory so these were just the ones I could / wanted to take on the day. Plus some renders that represent well the actual colours.

Starting with the hot potato the colours: Seen two cars in Dark verdant (my spec colour) Which IS dark but super classy and is going to be great. But even stood next to it in the factory from one angle green, from another almost black. Which is fine by me but I know many have issue with that. It's pretty exact in the image I’ve posted here of the 3 angles.

Magma red: Is not bright red (although they did have an almost Ferrari red one in the factory which looked cool) The renders I’ve posted with this is pretty spot on to what it looks like.

There was an actual silver car driving round the grounds of the factory which looked off the scale good! Silver with Silver forged wheels. They said they didn’t think it was nimbus grey (it was very close) but it looked sooooo good.

All other colours you have already seen and they look as expected.

Something that made me laugh was that they now have a production ready finished car which will be the first car going out to press. And the first guys to drive it will be on Top Gear. Guess what colour it is?……..White. Ha just brilliant. The first one out there and not in a launch colour. I think what they might have done is pay homage to the first Esprit. The famous story of the PR guy from Lotus Parking a pre production Esprit in the allocated parking spaces outside the main entrance at Pinewood studios so Cubby Broccoli would see it and want it in the Bond film. And the Spy Who Loved me white Esprit rocketed Lotus in to iconic status.

I saw the white one still with a few bits of wrapping on it parked outside and it looked great. In the factory there are all sorts of test colours, black (amazing) flat grey (amazing) dark metallic blue and then many, many flat blue mules. ALL of the cars you have seen in any factory pictures are verification prototypes. Customer production hasn’t started yet. They have screens all round the factory with a digital countdown. Counting down the days till production starts. 45 days, 6 hours, 25 minutes and 32, 31, 30 seconds. Pretty damn cool.


Next seats: There are many VP seats in the factory. And they are MUCH MUCH better than the show car seat. Much deeper, much more supportive and look much more sportier. And they were just production mules. So the fished ones will look great. The hard shell back looks great. Even with coat hooks on the back

There were also a few dashboards hanging round ready to go in cars. And the finish was superb. I think the dashes are made in Germany. The leather on the tops, stitching and finish of all the vents and buttons was really very good.

Spoke to the Head of dynamic testing and he did a few laps in one of the bright Emira liveried dynamic testing cars. V6 auto. And it was fast and loud and everything you’d expect from a Lotus.

The key has been designed in house. So although it will obviously have Geely innards the casing will be Lotus specific so hopefully it will be a nice thing.

There is a brand new configurator coming soon (next week?) and it will allow you to change the background from studio to natural settings and light so light will change etc. And the ability to watch a video of your spec driving down the Big Sur in California. So looking forward to seeing that.

Think that’s it but if you have any questions let me know I might know it or can find out.

 

[Tonyshepp]

All the colours are new.... lots of colour will look like.... but nope the FE colours are all new..... some of the cars built for testing my have old colours on them, they have just used paint they had hanging around. They are so invested in controlling the contanination in the paint area.... They did not let us go round in our size tens .....

So did you see a better Nimbus Grey model on the visit or is the lighting on the new configurator on Monday more realistic?

 

[andrew6382]

So did you see a better Nimbus Grey model on the visit or is the lighting on the new configurator on Monday more realistic?

The new configurator lets you change light, background and much more. Not sure what you mean by better Nimbus Grey... we did see a silver/grey ish car... nut not nimbus. The best i can say.... all colours looked better in person....

 

[Leonard]

The new configurator lets you change light, background and much more. Not sure what you mean by better Nimbus Grey... we did see a silver/grey ish car... nut not nimbus. The best i can say.... all colours looked better in person....

That's not what Tom just said

 

[jmn444]

That's not what Tom just said

they went on different days. so quite possible had slightly different experiences lol

 

[TomE]

Its awesome they are bringing consumers in to learn from and get their perspective but frankly the majority of the complains are really customer service 101, communication. But, it seems they are getting one consumer perspective only, the UK customer base. Or, are they getting feedback from other countries? Be great to hear if they have any new info for customers in the US market (or anywhere else). I hate the thought they are using the Dealer network as the voice for the US consumer. if it was not for this forum, we wouldn't know anything at all. Thank you to all of you!

Since experiences with dealers seems to be completely different, would be nice to see what and how they plan to control allocations without dealers messing things up. I wish they would have just let us order directly from Lotus. I ordered almost two months ago and just got my "welcome to the fast lane" email today.. I may be in the fast lane now but that on-ramp sure was slow. So, I don't know if that was a delay of communications from Lotus or the dealer did something wrong.

I have tried to feed back the frustration and concern of customers worldwide. There are some specifics for the UK market because of the new direct sales model. And there are some differences to how things work for the North America dealers and other non-UK dealers.

We discussed the ROW situation and some of the US specifics with senior Lotus management. Some things are out of Lotus control as they can't dictate various aspects of the sales process to the dealers. But they can for example take steps to limit people placing multiple deposits with several dealers and some unfair practices.

It appears a lot of the lack of comms is because the car is still in pre-production. So Lotus decided to say nothing rather than be vague or provide info which was then out of date. As of today they still can't say that customer X will get delivery in Y month, except for a few hundred UK people in June and even that is still subject to approvals which Lotus are still working through obtaining.

I think we will see more info and more certainty on dates, process etc over the next 2-3 months. North America dealers were briefed this week and will have more info by end Jan, so should be able to share that going into Feb.

 

[Tonyshepp]

The new configurator lets you change light, background and much more. Not sure what you mean by better Nimbus Grey... we did see a silver/grey ish car... nut not nimbus. The best i can say.... all colours looked better in person....

Fair enough

 

[TomE]

That's not what Tom just said

We saw a whole Nimbus Grey car in a different area. It sounds like Greg and Andrew didn't see it. Ade who was there with me on Friday has ordered Nimbus Grey, so Scott took us to find one. It was parked next to "my" Hethel Yellow one.

We teased him that it was a set up and someone was about to jump out with cameras and party poppers and say "tadda, here are your cars, enjoy the drive home"

 

[Leonard]

We saw a whole Nimbus Grey car in a different area. It sounds like Greg and Andrew didn't see it. Ade who was there with me on Friday has ordered Nimbus Grey, so Scott took us to find one. It was parked next to "my" Hethel Yellow one.

We teased him that it was a set up and someone was about to jump out with cameras and party poppers and say "tadda, here are your cars, enjoy the drive home"

That would have been amazing!

 

[andrew6382]

We saw a whole Nimbus Grey car in a different area. It sounds like Greg and Andrew didn't see it. Ade who was there with me on Friday has ordered Nimbus Grey, so Scott took us to find one. It was parked next to "my" Hethel Yellow one.

We teased him that it was a set up and someone was about to jump out with cameras and party poppers and say "tadda, here are your cars, enjoy the drive home"

Like i have said.... I had a fan boy head on.... sorry @TomE thanks for mentioning the tech.... i too was impressed in the new kit they have brought in..... the type of atention to detail you only see at high end builder.... That they have spent money to even test part are made to speck

 

[Leonard]

Like i have said.... I had a fan boy head on.... sorry @TomE thanks for mentioning the tech.... i too was impressed in the new kit they have brought in..... the type of atention to detail you only see at high end builder.... That they have spent money to even test part are made to speck

It does sound like Toyota levels of attention to detail. Exciting stuff

 

[jamesbxxx]

Was the height of the seats discussed and addressed?

 

[Maverick1]

I have no idea why they call it "Nimbus Grey" when in reality it's so much closer to silver.
Maybe should have called it Chatman silver.

 

[andrew6382]

Was the height of the seats discussed and addressed?

Sorry I did not.... but i know from the road show, the demo seat is 20mm higher.... I do know the picture in the AUTOCAR mag was a demo seat.... sorry can not be more help.... perhaps one of the others asked

 

[First Lotus]

We saw a whole Nimbus Grey car in a different area. It sounds like Greg and Andrew didn't see it. Ade who was there with me on Friday has ordered Nimbus Grey, so Scott took us to find one. It was parked next to "my" Hethel Yellow one.

We teased him that it was a set up and someone was about to jump out with cameras and party poppers and say "tadda, here are your cars, enjoy the drive home"

Did this Nimbus have black roof? If so, Could I ask your opinion on the black roof please? Currently my spec.

 

[Tonyshepp]

Did this Nimbus have black roof? If so, Could I ask your opinion on the black roof please? Currently my spec.

And mine

 

[First Lotus]

And mine

Yellow calipers, Alcantara and yellow stitch?

 

[Leonard]

And mine

I think it will look amazing with black pack. Only reason I have gone without is it will look equally as good without! So as you are able to add self healing black ppf for less than cost of Lotus black pack its a no from me

 

[First Lotus]

I think it will look amazing with black pack. Only reason I have gone without is it will look equally as good without! So as you are able to add self healing black ppf for less than cost of Lotus black pack its a no from me

I have thought of doing this. Considering full/half PPF the rest of it too. Not black though

 

[Leonard]

I have thought of doing this. Considering full/half PPF the rest of it too. Not black though

Options

 

[Tonyshepp]

Yellow calipers, Alcantara and yellow stitch?

Red callipers, black leather..