Lotus 3rd Phone Call

[EspritGuy]

I can't go into details right now. I'm optimistic the concerns have been heard and acknowledged by senior people at Lotus. Not just points from me but also from a few others who have been constructively vocal. There are things going on behind the scenes to gather more feedback, engage in dialogue and take steps to improve.

I will be agreeing with Lotus what I can share directly with the forums and what will be handled by them. More to come late this week or early next.

You have truly earned the title of Brand Ambassador.

 

[andrew6382]

Let's just hope Lotus can get a competent second shift going and we'll all be happy.

Competent.... yes...... not some temp that dont give...... about the build

 

[TomE]

Let's just hope Lotus can get a competent second shift going and we'll all be happy.

What will really help that is if more orders start flowing in once press reviews come out and dealers have demo cars. And then once customer cars start being delivered and people see them on the roads and at events.

The initial peak of deposits is great news and much larger than Lotus expected, but at the moment it just looks like a peak. They need to see evidence they can have sustained sales well over 5000 per year globally in order to justify a second shift. As far as I can tell, a second shift is a binary yes/no decision - you either add +5000 of capacity or you don't, you can't add +2500 with a "partial" second shift.

 

[TomE]

Still no 3rd Call.
Placed £1k deposit with Parks Hamilton (their 1st order) on 11th March
Deposit with Lotus at FOS on 11th July which was to be linked back to my 11th March deposit.
2nd Deposit 8th October.
I have been told not to worry as will get car in 1st batch and based on this I sold my Evora 400 to the dealer in November as would have been sorn until April.
This will be my 10th Lotus, but the way the order process is being handled leaves a lot to be desired.

That's odd. I think you should call Customer Care to ask why you haven't been contacted about being in the June delivery batch. Your original deposit date clearly puts you in that group.

You had your initial deposit with a dealer and converted it across. We know Lotus had problems with recording the original deposit date on their systems for a lot of people with dealer deposits. I was in this situation and it meant I got my second call after all the 6-8th July deposit people because they had my 9th July deposit conversion date logged.

If you don't get a resolution with Customer Care drop me a private message and I'll put you in touch with the relevant people at the factory to get it sorted.

 

[TomE]

Thank you Tom for your input , as a 7thJuly and two Deposits down i am of course interested in any information on this forum .
I am not sure what i would actually know about the process if it were not for this forum, i am more than happy to give Lotus lots of slack on this car as i very much want the car to be a success and its not helpful to just put the company down and moan about customer service.

Have you had a call or email about being in the June delivery batch? 7th July deposit should mean you're in that group if you're going for V6 FE.

 

[Emira]

Any more 3rd calls this week, gents? Still nothing for me (8th July PM 1st deposit).

 

[boozyjay]

Any more 3rd calls this week, gents? Still nothing for me (8th July PM 1st deposit).

See below email from Lotus Customer Services sent to me yesterday. Hope this helps.

I placed my order 8th July AM.

--------------------------------------------

Build allocations will be provided by factory based on each deposit being received. We are sorry we are unable to provide a queue position or indication of when you will receive one for your order. Rest assured as soon as factory confirm your order build we will contact you.




At present we have only contacted customer's who factory have confirmed for a June delivery. We expect another update in the coming weeks with further build allocations and will be contacting customer's accordingly.



If there is anything further I can do to help in the meantime, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

 

[Pav]

Yeah I've had same thing (and paid deposit 8am 9th July.)

 

[Yachtie]

Same reply 11am 8th July deposit

 

[Emira]

See below email from Lotus Customer Services sent to me yesterday. Hope this helps.

I placed my order 8th July AM.

--------------------------------------------

Build allocations will be provided by factory based on each deposit being received. We are sorry we are unable to provide a queue position or indication of when you will receive one for your order. Rest assured as soon as factory confirm your order build we will contact you.




At present we have only contacted customer's who factory have confirmed for a June delivery. We expect another update in the coming weeks with further build allocations and will be contacting customer's accordingly.



If there is anything further I can do to help in the meantime, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Very useful, thank you. I assume that this was a reply to an email you sent them asking for an update, rather than an email by Lotus initially?

 

[boozyjay]

Very useful, thank you. I assume that this was a reply to an email you sent them asking for an update, rather than an email by Lotus initially?

Yes, it was for an update.

 

[TomE]

They don't need to start production scheduling for the July delivery batch yet. I expect people in that batch won't need to finalise spec until March/April-ish. I was told the "commit" point would be 3-4 months before each delivery month.

June batch includes deposits up to sometime during morning of 8 July from what I can tell.

 

[DJS]

I don't think all the June allocations have gone out yet so fingers crossed all you 8th of July depositors

 

[TomE]

I don't think all the June allocations have gone out yet so fingers crossed all you 8th of July depositors

Interested to understand why you think that. Outbound calling appears to have finished for the June batch and I haven't seen anyone pop up to say "I've just heard I'm June" for about a week.

I got the impression at the factory last Friday that the June batch is now all locked in for production scheduling. They don't need to start contacting July people for another 1-2 months.

 

[DJS]

The reason I say that is because production starts early march and even if you went low and said 30 cars a week to the beginning of June that would be well over 400 cars. My feel off of here and other forums and speaking to dealers and other people in the trade is that nowhere near that number as been allocated yet.

Unless there is a lot of cars going elsewhere that we dont know about.

I know some of you believe that lotus will build up to 100 cars a week, if that was the case come June there would be around 1400 cars built. Not sure I believe that.

However this is just me putting 2 and 2 together so could be wrong.

Would be interested to know how you would calculate this Tom.

 

[TomE]

It's around 550 cars in the June batch, which will be built in April (ramp up) and May (full month). My assumption is the March-built cars will actually be press cars and dealer demos rather than customer cars.

 

[DJS]

It's around 550 cars in the June batch, which will be built in April (ramp up) and May (full month). My assumption is the March-built cars will actually be press cars and dealer demos rather than customer cars.

You would probably know more than me as you have been lucky enough to do the Hethal tour and from what you are saying it actually make sense if a lot of those build slots are for demo and press cars.

What delivery date would you predict for me on a 10th July 7am online deposit? (I won't hold you to it lol)

 

[TomE]

This is what I published after visiting the factory - it's based on a lot of interpretation and guesswork but is consistent with various things that have been said:

My educated guess for UK V6 FE deliveries versus deposit dates:
- deposits up to mid 8 July 2021 (Goodwood Day 1) = June 2022 delivery
- rest of 8 July, 9 July = July delivery
- 10 July = Aug delivery
- 11 July (last day of Goodwood) = Sept delivery
- after Goodwood up to 31 Dec 2021 = Oct/Nov delivery
- 2022 deposits = Nov/Dec delivery
I could be out by a month but think this is a reasonable guesstimate

 

[Yachtie]

This is what I published after visiting the factory - it's based on a lot of interpretation and guesswork but is consistent with various things that have been said:

My educated guess for UK V6 FE deliveries versus deposit dates:
- deposits up to mid 8 July 2021 (Goodwood Day 1) = June 2022 delivery
- rest of 8 July, 9 July = July delivery
- 10 July = Aug delivery
- 11 July (last day of Goodwood) = Sept delivery
- after Goodwood up to 31 Dec 2021 = Oct/Nov delivery
- 2022 deposits = Nov/Dec delivery
I could be out by a month but think this is a reasonable guesstimate

On that basis I will be very early July as my deposit was 11.01 on 8th July at Goodwood

 

[andrew6382]

This is what I published after visiting the factory - it's based on a lot of interpretation and guesswork but is consistent with various things that have been said:

My educated guess for UK V6 FE deliveries versus deposit dates:
- deposits up to mid 8 July 2021 (Goodwood Day 1) = June 2022 delivery
- rest of 8 July, 9 July = July delivery
- 10 July = Aug delivery
- 11 July (last day of Goodwood) = Sept delivery
- after Goodwood up to 31 Dec 2021 = Oct/Nov delivery
- 2022 deposits = Nov/Dec delivery
I could be out by a month but think this is a reasonable guesstimate

Tom........ Can I kind of take from that.... Oct 18th first payment 3rd Dec second..... Oct/Nov delivery i know its not set in stone.... nothing is