Lotus halt all delivery to the US.

[ShootingSight]

Im curious, with the exception of VW, most European cars are luxury cars, whose consumers are better off than most. If Porsche and Lotus both raise msrp to match the tariff, would the market simply absorb it?

Do you think Ferrari or Lamborghini will see sales drop? If you can afford to spend $400k on a car, will you struggle to come up with the other $100k?

Personally, I like the Emira more than the 911, even tho the latter costs 50% more.

 

[Stella 凛]

when I picked up my car last weekend, my sales told me Lotus just cancelled all of their orders from Jan of this year... can anyone else confirm?

 

[JohnnyB]

I haven't reached out to my dealer and they haven't reached out to me either. I've felt all along that the tariffs are being used to negotiate new trade deals and my car isn't expected until sometime this summer. I don't see Lotus deciding to stop production while the UK government is in negotiations with the US.

 

[Tomwa]

Im curious, with the exception of VW, most European cars are luxury cars, whose consumers are better off than most. If Porsche and Lotus both raise msrp to match the tariff, would the market simply absorb it?

Do you think Ferrari or Lamborghini will see sales drop? If you can afford to spend $400k on a car, will you struggle to come up with the other $100k?

Personally, I like the Emira more than the 911, even tho the latter costs 50% more.

Hey now. Fiat sells some cars in the US, and own Jeep/Dodge.

 

[Wiz33]

when I picked up my car last weekend, my sales told me Lotus just cancelled all of their orders from Jan of this year... can anyone else confirm?

Not quite cancelled. Lotus is waiting to see how negotiation turns out before deciding if they will resume production and shipping.

 

[Beachbum]

The British government will be negotiating with the US within a week.

They were allegedly negotiating weeks prior and no luck yet
I think the bigger issue for the UK/Lotus is the fact that the administration imposed a 25% Tarif on ALL cars, irrespective of the calculations that were made for the other tariffs that were imposed. It would seem to indicate, that Cars are in a completely different category to other products and the desire to see production moved to the US is the driver, rather than seeing equitable/parable Tariffs applied to US cars going to other countries.

 

[cwfg]

It's going to be a lengthy process to see how this all lands. The rules of the game have changed significantly and everyone needs to reassess their new hand to work out how to leverage any advantage they may have as a result. Should the UK manage to negotiate lower tariffs on cars then not only will that be good for Lotus and US buyers of Lotus cars, but other EU manufactures may then consider moving some production to the UK to take advantage of that competitive edge - same for other products tbh. This will take at least a couple of years to play out though so what happens to prices in the meantime is anyones guess. I don't even think the manufactures know the answer to this yet. For Lotus at least, there is still hope for the US market depending on how negotiations go this week.

 

[ShootingSight]

Curious how much a 25% tariff on a $100k Lotus is. $100k is the MSRP, however tariff is charged based on the landed cost, ie what Lotus UK sells the car to Lotus USA for (plus shipping). I'm not an accountant, but know there are all sorts of shenanigans that can be played there eg, Lotus UK sells the car to Lotus USA at a ridiculous discount, but charges Lotus USA and the dealers a huge subscription fee for being the US distributors. That way, they only charge 25% tariff on maybe a $50k vehicle that gets marked up hugely by Lotus USA and the dealer. Total profits are unchanged, but they get paid through channels other than the car price that is subject to tariff.

 

[Orchardbike]

I think, unless the “other EU Manufacturers” already have a facility with capacity in the UK, they will just sit tight and try and ride out the next 4 years. It’ll take that long at least to build/open up a new car manufacturing factory.

 

[Beachbum]

I think, unless the “other EU Manufacturers” already have a facility with capacity in the UK, they will just sit tight and try and ride out the next 4 years. It’ll take that long at least to build/open up a new car manufacturing factory.

Only issue for manufacturers with that thought process is: What happens in 4yrs? Do we get a more lenient President, or a similar one.
Obviously those that wait are hoping for the former, those that start the process are expecting the latter. It will very much depend on how successful this approach is, to then determine which options is most likely

 

[cwfg]

I think, unless the “other EU Manufacturers” already have a facility with capacity in the UK, they will just sit tight and try and ride out the next 4 years. It’ll take that long at least to build/open up a new car manufacturing factory.

Andy Palmer recently suggested 2 years to get up and running in the US if required by an auto-manufacturer... which could be longer should it be in the UK and is still a big bet to make. He also suggested if he were still at the helm of AM he would be cutting production immediately while figuring out next moves which aligns with the rumoured end to new orders with Lotus if they have a similar mindset - makes a lot of sense as it's easier to reduce production now than it is to shift stock later should things get worse. One can only hope that once a new path is figured out they will open that up again.

 

[RoryBellows]

Only issue for manufacturers with that thought process is: What happens in 4yrs? Do we get a more lenient President, or a similar one.
Obviously those that wait are hoping for the former, those that start the process are expecting the latter. It will very much depend on how successful this approach is, to then determine which options is most likely

Have you ever known a politician to remove a tax? By the time someone else is in the crash and recovery will be over in the market. We are definitely in for some short term hurting but I bet by the time the administration changes again it will just become the new standard.

 

[ShootingSight]

How much of the car is US built that might be exempt from tariffs? Toyota manufactures Camry engines in Huntsville, Alabama. I think the manual transmission is TREMEC. They are global, so don't know where those come from. Tires are GoodYear, so there might be a good part of the car that is exempt.

 

[JohnnyB]

The Emira's window sticker says that Japan is the country of origin for the engine and transmission.

 

[RoryBellows]

How much of the car is US built that might be exempt from tariffs? Toyota manufactures Camry engines in Huntsville, Alabama. I think the manual transmission is TREMEC. They are global, so don't know where those come from. Tires are GoodYear, so there might be a good part of the car that is exempt.

The transmission is an Aisin unit

 

[3A3968M]

Doug’s and the carsandbids team take on the current car market and a possible affect of the tariffs

 

[Rcktmn]

My car is at the shop right now, but can anyone check their Eagle F1 tires and see if they're made in the US? Pretty sure Goodyear has factories all over the place

 

[gr1p]

The British government will be negotiating with the US within a week.

 

[Anothernimbus]

F1’s are from Germany.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

How much of the car is US built that might be exempt from tariffs? Toyota manufactures Camry engines in Huntsville, Alabama. I think the manual transmission is TREMEC. They are global, so don't know where those come from. Tires are GoodYear, so there might be a good part of the car that is exempt.

Don't think that's the way the tariff works. If the car is imported, it is taxed 25%, regardless of whether or not it contains some US-sourced parts. The parts only matter for cars built in the USA.