Lotus shares are down 90% from IPO

[Lotustoronto]

Completely independent from the SPAC price which is irrelevant to actual performance of Lotus. Lotus in China has been going through a bit of an issue with the owners there because they cut prices of their EV lineup by 40%. Lots of complaints from Chinese social media customers. Lotus there even tried to rename all the cars to names of flowers and then rolled back the effort when all their influencers complained.

wow - while I am not an expert in what the Chinese customers would like or want, but dropping your MSRP by 40% is a terrible sign. Renaming models after a year or two is equally dumb.

 

[EspritGuy]

Completely independent from the SPAC price which is irrelevant to actual performance of Lotus. Lotus in China has been going through a bit of an issue with the owners there because they cut prices of their EV lineup by 40%. Lots of complaints from Chinese social media customers. Lotus there even tried to rename all the cars to names of flowers and then rolled back the effort when all their influencers complained.

This is called back-petaling.

 

[kitkat]

wow - while I am not an expert in what the Chinese customers would like or want, but dropping your MSRP by 40% is a terrible sign. Renaming models after a year or two is equally dumb.

It's 50% in some cases -- and that's the official price. The Emira is selling at an unofficial 30% discount at dealers.

 

[Tomwa]

They are selling so poorly that they are dropping that much below MSRP to sell? wow.

 

[Enut]

I think we should plan an Emira Forum group buyout

I have £4.50 and a packet of Polos I'm willing to throw in too, does that get me 10%?

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the publicly traded Lotus is only the Lotus Technology side of the company - the China-based portion focusing on EVs and EV technology. The fun cars made in the UK are under Lotus Cars, not Lotus Technology, right?

Yes and no. Lotus Cars Ltd is still an independent company and not owned by Lotus Technology, but:

1. Lotus Technology has an option to acquire Lotus Cars whenever it wants
2. Lotus Technology has the exclusive rights to market and distribute all cars made by Hethel worldwide
3. I'm 90% certain that Lotus Technology also owns the brand.

 

[Tomwa]

Yeah but if the stock price for Lotus Technology is in the crapper and they don't have the capital and funds to purchase Lotus Cars Ltd, then its sort of a moot point. (though these things are always tricky and they could claim to put the existing inventory and facilities up as collateral against the loan to purchase said future assets)

 

[kitkat]

They are selling so poorly that they are dropping that much below MSRP to sell? wow.

Unfortunately, yes. You have to wonder if sales in Europe and North America are not great — and sales in China are souring, what is left?

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Unfortunately, yes. You have to wonder if sales in Europe and North America are not great — and sales in China are souring, what is left?

Not much left, I'm afraid. I'm expecting the next financial results update to be a train wreck. Even if Emira is still selling at 5,000 units per year (which it probably isn't), the other two vehicles are an absolute and utter failure. And I'm not sure that sticking a hybrid engine into them will change things.