June delivery delay - Lotus now says July…

I was down for a June delivery but I’ve just received this from Lotus…

As you’ll be aware from our previous communication, your new Emira specification is now fixed in our production system and scheduled to be completed in June 2022. Therefore, we are pleased to inform you that your new Emira will be ready for handover in July 2022. Ahead of this, we will be in contact to arrange the delivery and handover with you. We appreciate this is later than originally predicted, so please accept our sincere apologies for the slight delay.

In the coming weeks we will be providing more information regarding financial services, trade-in and insurance products that you may be interested in for your new Emira. Following that, a couple of weeks before handover we will be in touch to complete the checkout process.
We know you have been waiting and are excited to receive your new Emira but please be assured that it will be everything you’d expect and more from a Lotus car.

I’m not that surprised but was wondering if anyone else hoping for a June car has been told it’s still on or is everyone’s delayed a little?

 

[TomE]

They should have only taken 1 x deposit , and not the second one , they have broken their promise , why take 2x deposits ? And promise a June delivery

Except they didn’t “promise” a June delivery. They failed to highlight it was still a provisional estimate, as we’re now discovering.

So they mis-set expectations and are now mis-managing re-setting them.

If they’d said “we want to take some more time to make sure they’re perfect” we’d have found it easier to understand. Suggesting it’s about unprecedented demand is just misleading.

They’ve misjudged production capacity. OK, it’s a new car in a new factory to new quality standards and sometimes it needs more time.

 

[Tonyshepp]

I just received this today
It seems funny that a highly innovative company like Lotus gives delivery dates in seasons , when the leaves start falling you may receive your car , or may not if the weather changes

That's different to my response from customer services "unfortunately due to the broken pasty machine in the canteen production has slowed down. We hope to be back on track soon."

 

[andrew6382]

That's different to my response from customer services "unfortunately due to the broken pasty machine in the canteen production has slowed down. We hope to be back on track soon."

Its me realy drove down in my boat... hehe and stole the pasty machine

 

[Chadder]

That's different to my response from customer services "unfortunately due to the broken pasty machine in the canteen production has slowed down. We hope to be back on track soon."

That is very well said
We had overwhelming demand for the Pasties , which caused the machine to break
We are delaying your lunch

 

[Chadder]

That is very well said
We had overwhelming demand for the Pasties , which caused the machine to break
We are delaying your lunch

You can use my second deposit to buy a new Pastie machine , if you get production back on track

 

[andrew6382]

Except they didn’t “promise” a June delivery. They failed to highlight it was still a provisional estimate, as we’re now discovering.

So they mis-set expectations and are now mis-managing re-setting them.

If they’d said “we want to take some more time to make sure they’re perfect” we’d have found it easier to understand. Suggesting it’s about unprecedented demand is just misleading.

They’ve misjudged production capacity. OK, it’s a new car in a new factory to new quality standards and sometimes it needs more time.

Tom good that you still see the better side of all this....

But come on they been playing at making cars since the start of the year.... they should beale to put one together now with eyes closed

The way, once again...... they are dealing with this is a sham.... the way they are treating customers

 

[TomE]

Tom good that you still see the better side of all this....

But come on they been playing at making cars since the start of the year.... they should beale to put one together now with eyes closed

The way once again they are dealing this a sham.... the way they are treating customers

Quality - A+ (much improved)
Design - A+
Engineering - A+
Production - C (needs improvement)
Customer service - Fail (please see the headmaster)

 

[Chadder]

Quality - A+ (much improved)
Design - A+
Engineering - A+
Production - C (needs improvement)
Customer service - Fail (please see the headmaster)

How do we know quality has improved ? No body has driven a production one yet !
Design is A+
Engineering had to assemble
Production Fail
Customer service

 

[andrew6382]

Quality - A+ (much improved)
Design - A+
Engineering - A+
Production - C (needs improvement)
Customer service - Fail (please see the headmaster)

I do wonder..... did they workshop.... the reason they have given for the delay..... did they sit and think about how to spin it...... sorry just have idea for comedy scit

 

[Joel]

Trying to be an optimist, perhaps this customer demand is all of us asking and emailing for extras on the FE, things like coloured stripes on the steering wheel, factory PPF and the adas system.

Perhaps they've worked out if they delay everyone a couple of months that can fulfil more of those requests and give more of us the car we want?

(Very much doubt my own proposal here but hey, it would be nice if I were right, right?)

 

[donskibeat]

Trying to be an optimist, perhaps this customer demand is all of us asking and emailing for extras on the FE, things like coloured stripes on the steering wheel, factory PPF and the adas system.

Perhaps they've worked out if they delay everyone a couple of months that can fulfil more of those requests and give more of us the car we want?

(Very much doubt my own proposal here but hey, it would be nice if I were right, right?)

It would be great if you were right, but I seriously doubt it.......

 

[Sir Donald Trump]

I just received this today
It seems funny that a highly innovative company like Lotus gives delivery dates in seasons , when the leaves start falling you may receive your car , or may not if the weather changes

Yep got the same today. I ordered the day after the images were released. August it is, but its no big deal when you consider whats going on in the rest of the world......I can wait

 

[jamesbxxx]

I can’t see why people are surprised by this? The disappointment is that Lotus seem to believe they are immune to the global supply issues. Even said so on the London leg of the roadshow. Meanwhile in my world of IT kit is still being quoted with a lead time of over a year (usually 3-4 weeks)

 

[Blue97]

At least we will now be able to read reviews of production cars before we have to decide. Will dealer demo cars also be delayed ? They probably ought to delay them !

 

[Chadder]

At least we will now be able to read reviews of production cars before we have to decide. Will dealer demo cars also be delayed ? They probably ought to delay them !

They said to me this afternoon that there would be No deliveries in June

 

[Eagle7]

It has to be a supplier that's notified them at the last minute of an issue. The unprecedented demand is not only on Lotus, but on every one of their suppliers who originally signed on thinking they were going to supply far fewer items than they're now being asked to. They also have to contact their suppliers too and renegotiate new quantity and delivery contracts, and so on.

We just have to be patient (or not for those that decide to cancel) until they get things sorted out.

 

[Andrew]

"...due to unprecedented interest we have to delay"

'Victims of our own success' approach... I'm very familiar with this kind of approach unfortunately, from other business fields as well - especially Real-estate developers & SW companies

In the end it won't be a good result... the delayed time will NOT be spent on 'refining the product and make it bug-free', but rather to be able to get the absolute minimum QA standard required for product launch.

I don't want to be a Grinch here, but usually that's how things go...
I'd rather wait 1-2 more years to get a decent build-quality car.

But let's hope I'm wrong!

 

[TXEMIRA]

It has to be a supplier that's notified them at the last minute of an issue. The unprecedented demand is not only on Lotus, but on every one of their suppliers who originally signed on thinking they were going to supply far fewer items than they're now being asked to. They also have to contact their suppliers too and renegotiate new quantity and delivery contracts, and so on.

We just have to be patient (or not for those that decide to cancel) until they get things sorted out.

Buying Wendy’s when they can’t get the drive thru right and there is a delay they’ll at least say “we are waiting on fresh fries”.

Lotus could share some of the details so we are informed if we ask nice…

Who knows? Maybe something to even know about and help with.

Could be an opportunity for them to test communication strategies too.

 

[Eagle7]

Buying Wendy’s when they can’t get the drive thru right and there is a delay they’ll at least say “we are waiting on fresh fries”.

Lotus could share some of the details so we are informed if we ask nice…

Who knows? Maybe something to even know about and help with.

Could be an opportunity for them to test communication strategies too.

We don't know how dramatic and serious it is. It could be a supplier saying they can't deliver something at all, which would mean Lotus scrambling to find an alternate supplier. It could be paint, a particular paint color, the company supplying the LED headlights, anything. Company's typically don't like to air their internal issues publicly, so it's not unusual to not be saying anything. Having a supplier find out they've been outed, or an alternate supplier finding out how critical what they're being asked to supply is, could affect price negotiations.

We just have to keep the faith and understand that Geely gave Matt over 100 million pounds to kick start all this, and they're spending even more right now, so it's reasonable to assume that Lotus isn't just screwing around and not taking things seriously. Something important has happened at the last minute, and they're letting us know there will be a delay as a result. It's not just Lotus. Chevy and Ford announced they're shutting down the production line for Camaros and Mustangs for the time being due to supply issues they're having. It's difficult times for manufacturers everywhere right now; just the way it is.

 

[TXEMIRA]

We don't know how dramatic and serious it is. It could be a supplier saying they can't deliver something at all, which would mean Lotus scrambling to find an alternate supplier. It could be paint, a particular paint color, the company supplying the LED headlights, anything. Company's typically don't like to air their internal issues publicly, so it's not unusual to not be saying anything. Having a supplier find out they've been outed, or an alternate supplier finding out how critical what they're being asked to supply is, could affect price negotiations.

We just have to keep the faith and understand that Geely gave Matt over 100 million pounds to kick start all this, and they're spending even more right now, so it's reasonable to assume that Lotus isn't just screwing around and not taking things seriously. Something important has happened at the last minute, and they're letting us know there will be a delay as a result. It's not just Lotus. Chevy and Ford announced they're shutting down the production line for Camaros and Mustangs for the time being due to supply issues they're having. It's difficult times for manufacturers everywhere right now; just the way it is.

Got it. I’ll wait and have my hot fries.