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.

 

[Lotustoronto]

Watched a seen through glass podcast yesterday and Sam mentioned he sees a lot of Eletre SUV's driving around London. Perhaps some parts of Europe the Eletre is more successful than in China? Financial results will be telling this quarter.

 

[MTV]

What cause the 38% spike today?????

 

[Tomwa]

Post race weekend in F1 China? Where Lotus....crashed a car, and also had the medical car as the Emeya? That's my guess anyway. Also just Lotus kinda referring to getting back into racing.

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

Post race weekend in F1 China? Where Lotus....crashed a car, and also had the medical car as the Emeya? That's my guess anyway. Also just Lotus kinda referring to getting back into racing.

Doubful in my mind considering in my understanding LOT has little to do with Lotus internal combustion and is solely made up of the Geely parent's EVs. So....Trump on Friday hinted at a softening in his postion on tariffs (including China) with April 2 being the witching date. TSLA responded today to the tune of nearly 12%. Seems to me more likely this could account for the jump in LOT. But I could be wrong, consideringt LOT's bounce started around 11am market time, whereas TSLA was climbing right at the open.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Most of the EV makers had a nice pump after Trump hinted at softer tariffs. BTW, Geely is clearly running out of patience, having just parachuted in two senior Polestar execs to try and turn around terrible Chinese sales.

 

[Lotustoronto]

Doubful in my mind considering in my understanding LOT has little to do with Lotus internal combustion and is solely made up of the Geely parent's EVs. So....Trump on Friday hinted at a softening in his postion on tariffs (including China) with April 2 being the witching date. TSLA responded today to the tune of nearly 12%. Seems to me more likely this could account for the jump in LOT. But I could be wrong, consideringt LOT's bounce started around 11am market time, whereas TSLA was climbing right at the open.

Team Lotus has been recreated as a motorsport factory works team. Also, all Lotus' including Eletre and Emeya will be getting hybrid tech - Lotus has already announced it is walking back its EV only idea. So Lotus tech / racing / F1 / Team Lotus is certainly all wrapped into one. The rumours of Lotus returning to F1 in 2027 are gaining a lot of momentum online.

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

Team Lotus has been recreated as a motorsport factory works team. Also, all Lotus' including Eletre and Emeya will be getting hybrid tech - Lotus has already announced it is walking back its EV only idea. So Lotus tech / racing / F1 / Team Lotus is certainly all wrapped into one. The rumours of Lotus returning to F1 in 2027 are gaining a lot of momentum online.

Interesting, didn't know. But is Team Lotus now officially organized under LOT now? Or maybe just an impression that could be driving the stock? And while I realize the EV only idea is morphing into hybrid tech (walking back my internal combustion comment), my tariff comments wrt to the stock was mostly that these cars, regardless whether pure EV or hybrid, would be coming from China, and hence signficantly impacted by tariffs, which could significally impact the price of LOT. But... if more futures are in store in F1 for LOT,

 

[R1272]

The common theme on here years ago was that Lotus was going to build and sell tens of thousands of Emiras per year. It was a pipe dream then and it's even more so now.

The niche market for cars like this is nowhere near as big as that. Emira saturation hit it's peak long ago. Like my 4C, once the 'crazies' bought theirs, the market dried up, fast.

I've seen 2 Emiras here in Vegas and they are show stoppers for sure. GORGEOUS. I loved all 3 of my test drives. It's definitely an amazing car.

It feels like Lotus just makes bad/untimely decisions. The Eletre? Please. Too late and the price is insane. Maybe some youtubers will buy one, but...

 

[Teshoo Lama]

Watched a seen through glass podcast yesterday and Sam mentioned he sees a lot of Eletre SUV's driving around London. Perhaps some parts of Europe the Eletre is more successful than in China? Financial results will be telling this quarter.

I see a surprising number of Eletres around West London. There are at least two in my immediate neighbourhood. Kind of on par with a Urus or something like that in terms of sightings. No doubt some sweet lease deals got these cars sold.

 

[Beachbum]

The Eletre lease deals were supposedly very good for Businesses. I'm guessing EVs do well in London, as exempt from the congestion charge and the clean air zone charge.
Hendy Lotus in Southampton, shifted a crazy amount of Eletres in February. I think they mentioned 30, but it could have been more. Not sure if the Lease deal is still available though

 

[Nick in Sydney]

The common theme on here years ago was that Lotus was going to build and sell tens of thousands of Emiras per year. It was a pipe dream then and it's even more so now.

That's just not true. Lotus themselves have only ever set a target of 5,000 Emiras per year and the Hethel factory is only designed to build that many. They hit that number last year, but I suspect they won't be able to sustain it in 2025.