Prices increase update from Lotus - and stopping of reservations for V6 FE

Please be advised that, as a result of significantly increasing costs, the Lotus Emira will later this year be subject to new pricing.

Whilst a significant level of cost increase has been absorbed, with effect from 1 June 2023, the retail price will increase to £81,995 (incl VAT) for the Emira V6 First Edition, and £77,795 (incl VAT) for the Emira First Edition 4-cylinder turbocharged variant. Full pricing details can be found on our website. However, your Emira reservation will not be affected by this increase, we can confirm your reservation has been price protected.

We are fully committed to our production schedule and in the next two weeks, we will be in touch via email to update you further on the progression of your Lotus Emira.

Due to overwhelming demand, we will be closing reservations for Lotus Emira V6 First Edition. We will be sharing the exact timings soon.

 

[Eagle7]

There seems to be a marked contrast between the experience on site at Hethel, versus the off-site communications. On site, the reports from everyone who goes there is just great, with glowing reports of the experience and the enthusiasm of the people there. Off site, there's virtually no communication, and very very little of the glowing enthusiasm that's reported from the people there at Hethel.

How does the same group of people behave so dramatically different on site versus off site? I'm now wondering just how much of the off site activity is actually under the control of those at Hethel? Is the off site communication under the direct control of Geely? It sure feels like it.

Geely's plan for Lotus was always about the electric portfolio, not the Emira. It may actually be an annoyance to them to have the Emira being so successful at gaining interest in the brand, when Geely wants that to be for the electric vehicles. We know they've been working hard on getting the electric side of production facilities and the Type 135 into reality. All these delays for the Emira certainly moves it much closer to the debut and presentation of the Type 135.

The FE may have been simply a trial run to get the Hethel facilities and staff up to speed, to get them ready for the Type 135 and everything coming after that, or at least that was/is the thinking at Geely. They may not have expected it to be a runaway hit, because none of the sports cars from Lotus before were like that. If Geely was basing their expectation of how the Emira was going to go on how the sales were with the Elise, Exige and Evora, they may not have expected the Emira to be much different. What seems like an almost deliberate void of off site enthusiasm and communication for the Emira customer experience, starts to make more sense if that's the case.

All these delays certainly can be due to global supply chain issues and logistics, no question, but I'm starting to wonder if the constant and repeated delay, stall, delay, etc. might not be in part because they're now close enough to the Type 135 debut, that they're pushing towards that event. I have no doubt the Type 135 will blow away the Emira in performance, but I also now have no doubt it will be £100k+. Based on the Evija and Emira, I'm sure it will be stunning in appearance and have a big wow factor. Now add about twice the power and performance compared to the Emira, and maybe Geely is concerned that all, or a great number of Emira customers will want to switch to the Type 135, which would leave them with a lot of unsold Emiras if they'd hurried to build them.

The main problem here I think is who are they focusing on to be their target customer? It's not the bargain customer. Probably the single biggest attraction of the Emira was its looks and the price point of £59,995 as the base price. That put it in range of a whole lot of people that otherwise wouldn't be a customer if the price was over £100k. I'm not expecting any of their electric sports cars to be anywhere close to the Emira base price, so in reality, the Emira customer base is probably not their target. If that's the case, that would sure explain a lot of things and the way it has gone the past 12 months.

Or... I could simply be completely off base, which I expect there will be some who will be eager to point that out lol.

 

[DrKB]

It seems that V6 FEs might be price protected and i4 FEs might not be. *sigh*

And potentially only V6FEs within a certain build/delivery date (e.g. MY23s).. but too early to tell until we get more responses.

I wonder if 1st June 2023 is the start of MY24 production? That might align with the I4 Being MY24 onwards and price protection only applying to MY23 vehicles... but this is speculation on my end right now.

I ordered within 2 days of online booking opening, July 9th, 2021. V6 and also subject to price increase. With APR rise, probably will cost £300/mth more for same care and no increase in residual. Not impressed and thinking of bailing too

 

[Lotustoronto]

The advertised used/flipped Emiras just got a reason not to lower their prices (and a couple have gone up in price £1-2k today).

Used late model Evoras just went up in value £2-3k.

Very disappointed for all the people with post 15 July deposits and i4 orders who have had this unwelcome news after such a long wait. We knew and Lotus knew that price increases were coming, but the handling of it could have been much better.

I figure they will deliver about 600-800 UK cars before the price increase kicks in, but they should have delivered many times that per the original plans.

I wouldn't be surprised if UK i4 FE #1 got checkout in w/c 29 May at the old price, just so Lotus could claim they delivered one car at the originally published price.

If they do deliver that one car, it would probably solve any potential issues for them.... Honestly Tom, I get the feeling this was planned the whole time, the Matt video, the constant delay's, the stringing along.... they knew the car was not ready for production and knew that most if any would never have gotten that 59K UK price point. Unfortunately, this is the brave new world we live in today.

 

[Auto Smiler]

I ordered within 2 days of online booking opening, July 9th, 2021. V6 and also subject to price increase. With APR rise, probably will cost £300/mth more for same care and no increase in residual. Not impressed and thinking of bailing too

Is yours an auto? I received the price guarantee email but placed my initial deposit 6 days after you - V6 manual.

 

[Bigred911s1]

Has anyone in the US had any word on this potential price change?

Just silence from Lotus. No email or anything.

 

[DerTheDer]

Dark in the US OF A!

 

[idleuser]

They say getting married and moving home are two of the most stressful things you will ever do, now it’s getting married moving home and buying a car from Lotus

Actually buying a home was more of a straight forward process. I bought 2 homes within the last 10 years and I never had an issue where the house wasn't delivered as promised. In fact, anything that required fixing within the first 3 years was fixed immediately and not a single penny over what I put down as a deposit/price purchased.

The Emira is by far the most difficult purchase I've ever made.

 

[dgrace]

I suppose the alternative would be the Chinese real estate model, where you pay the full price up front and then hope they actually build the thing. Any takers?

 

[Concept24]

There seems to be a marked contrast between the experience on site at Hethel, versus the off-site communications. On site, the reports from everyone who goes there is just great, with glowing reports of the experience and the enthusiasm of the people there. Off site, there's virtually no communication, and very very little of the glowing enthusiasm that's reported from the people there at Hethel.

How does the same group of people behave so dramatically different on site versus off site? I'm now wondering just how much of the off site activity is actually under the control of those at Hethel? Is the off site communication under the direct control of Geely? It sure feels like it.

Geely's plan for Lotus was always about the electric portfolio, not the Emira. It may actually be an annoyance to them to have the Emira being so successful at gaining interest in the brand, when Geely wants that to be for the electric vehicles. We know they've been working hard on getting the electric side of production facilities and the Type 135 into reality. All these delays for the Emira certainly moves it much closer to the debut and presentation of the Type 135.

The FE may have been simply a trial run to get the Hethel facilities and staff up to speed, to get them ready for the Type 135 and everything coming after that, or at least that was/is the thinking at Geely. They may not have expected it to be a runaway hit, because none of the sports cars from Lotus before were like that. If Geely was basing their expectation of how the Emira was going to go on how the sales were with the Elise, Exige and Evora, they may not have expected the Emira to be much different. What seems like an almost deliberate void of off site enthusiasm and communication for the Emira customer experience, starts to make more sense if that's the case.

All these delays certainly can be due to global supply chain issues and logistics, no question, but I'm starting to wonder if the constant and repeated delay, stall, delay, etc. might not be in part because they're now close enough to the Type 135 debut, that they're pushing towards that event. I have no doubt the Type 135 will blow away the Emira in performance, but I also now have no doubt it will be £100k+. Based on the Evija and Emira, I'm sure it will be stunning in appearance and have a big wow factor. Now add about twice the power and performance compared to the Emira, and maybe Geely is concerned that all, or a great number of Emira customers will want to switch to the Type 135, which would leave them with a lot of unsold Emiras if they'd hurried to build them.

The main problem here I think is who are they focusing on to be their target customer? It's not the bargain customer. Probably the single biggest attraction of the Emira was its looks and the price point of £59,995 as the base price. That put it in range of a whole lot of people that otherwise wouldn't be a customer if the price was over £100k. I'm not expecting any of their electric sports cars to be anywhere close to the Emira base price, so in reality, the Emira customer base is probably not their target. If that's the case, that would sure explain a lot of things and the way it has gone the past 12 months.

Or... I could simply be completely off base, which I expect there will be some who will be eager to point that out lol.

Yes, you certainly may be over-thinking things, but my experience with sportscar afficionados is that the handling and engine/exhaust sound are major factors in the pleasure derived from driving. That cannot be understated. Many greenies think that everyone will simply fall in line to spend $20,000 more than they would have, just to join the green club. Geely may think the vast majority of buyers would rather have an electric sportscar that weighs 4500 lbs and is faster but as someone who does NOT live in Montana, I can attest that excellent handling is more important than acceleration bragging rights to those who own real sportscars and not Model 3 Performance posers.

 

[idleuser]

I'm not a lawyer by day but play one on the weekend ... can you show examples that are very similar/the same as what is going on with Lotus as all the ones I'm familar with aren't really applicable. Did Rivian revert back due to pending lawsuits - can you share that info especially from the company? I have a contact who told me it had to do with perception of the tarnished brand with so much outcry from customers. You have to assume (dangerous) that they already had consultation from internal (and likely external) legal before announcing.

I think this is a complete charlie foxtrot and they brought it on themselves. As Eagle mentions, it is different in UK than US for how ordering is done. Here those people that have an actual deposit that turned into an order placed against an allocation at the dealer, those would be protected (legally). But just having a deposit doesn't constitute an order (thus not price protected), just the ability to future order if available. Imagine you have a deposit at a dealer and you are #30 but the dealer only gets 10 allocations a year, no manufacturer guarantees a specific price point for 3 years.

I wish idleuser the best of luck in CA filing in small claims court (seriously) but it is a waste of $100 because the only way this would go in your favour would be if you had placed an actual order against an allocation (all FE orders in the US were done last year) and got the notice from Lotus that your order was accepted by production AND then Lotus changed it then yes I'm right there with you. (sorry that was the longest run on sentence
View attachment 22702
It 100% bites for everyone else with base v6 as you'll be hit with an increase. Now the i4 FE is interesting though because they haven't produced but no orders have been accepted by the factory either so technically they are just deposits for future orders. Experts in contractual law especially in the automotive industry can weigh in but my lawyer friends (other areas) say this is grey and think Lotus can do it. Not in their best interest from a PR/customer perspective but legally they can. Rivian didn't want to deal with that and gave in, maybe Geely doesn't care and said just give them the finger.

I wish Lotus would do more to protect those early depositors but without transparency we have no idea what is going on. I would respect them more if they came out and said ok, the cost of goods and services have increased by 22% (and give a more detailed breakdown) from when we originally set the price. We are going to absorb ~ 12-15% for anyone that has had a deposit for a year or less and ~18-20% for everyone else as a way to recognize their committment. Effective immediately all new orders will be subject to full increases. At least I would feel better to understand their thought process. Hiding and sticking your head in the sand only makes it worse for them.

I do hope Lotus does some reversal but their actions thus far in the past two years indicate that will not be the case. I don't know MattW but everything I've seen or heard, makes it seem like he is a genuine legit guy. His integrity is now taking a beating and wonder how much is being driven above him

I appreciate your honesty and advice. However, I'll have to disagree because I've been told more times in my life that I was wrong. In the end the courts have always sided with me and I have yet to lose a contest in small claims. I'll let the judge interpret the evidences when I present them the exhibits. Lastly even if I'm wrong, I may still win if Lotus fails to show up in court. This can be played out many ways. Just saying.

 

[Concept24]

I appreciate your honesty and advice. However, I'll have to disagree because I've been told more times in my life that I was wrong. In the end the courts have always sided with me and I have yet to lose a contest in small claims. I'll let the judge interpret the evidences when I present them the exhibits. Lastly even if I'm wrong, I may still win if Lotus fails to show up in court. This can be played out many ways. Just saying.

Ah, but how many of your cases involved auto manufacturers? If they constitute the bulk of your cases, then perhaps you are right, but I still believe that most here would prefer a lightweight ICE vehicle. Let's find out.

 

[idleuser]

Ah, but how many of your cases involved auto manufacturers? If they constitute the bulk of your cases, then perhaps you are right, but I still believe that most here would prefer a lightweight ICE vehicle. Let's find out.

None but why does it matter? Are you the judge? Everyone seems to be an expert in law. Everyone is telling me I'm going to lose but who cares because its only 100 dollars for the filling fee and a few hours of work. It's a low hanging fruit. I'm also ending the small claims issue here. But if anyone wants to talk about it they can go ahead and send me a DM.
|
Bottom line is that I think Lotus should do the right thing and uphold the quoted prices 2 years ago with early deposit holders. They can easily track it by submission ID and the date of paid deposit. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and not just some Youtubers out there who skipped the line.

 

[Concept24]

None but why does it matter? Are you the judge? Everyone seems to be an expert in law. Everyone is telling me I'm going to lose but who cares because its only 100 dollars for the filling fee and a few hours of work. It's a low hanging fruit. I'm also ending the small claims issue here. But if anyone wants to talk about it they can go ahead and send me a DM.
|
Bottom line is that I think Lotus should do the right thing and uphold the quoted prices 2 years ago with early deposit holders. They can easily track it by submission ID and the date of paid deposit. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and not just some Youtubers out there who skipped the line.

Rivian did try to raise prices for reserved orders by customers. There was such an outrage that they had to rescind that decision. Maybe the same thing will happen in our case. I certainly hope so. By the way, I did create the poll in the Emira alternatives section.

 

[KAR120C]

Just silence from Lotus. No email or anything.

It’s been discussed in this thread and the USA/Canada thread. No price increase for US FEs. The communication was only meant for the UK.

 

[GetawayDriving]

Yes, you certainly may be over-thinking things, but my experience with sportscar afficionados is that the handling and engine/exhaust sound are major factors in the pleasure derived from driving. That cannot be understated. Many greenies think that everyone will simply fall in line to spend $20,000 more than they would have, just to join the green club. Geely may think the vast majority of buyers would rather have an electric sportscar that weighs 4500 lbs and is faster but as someone who does NOT live in Montana, I can attest that excellent handling is more important than acceleration bragging rights to those who own real sportscars and not Model 3 Performance posers.

Hey now, some of us lot have also owned Model 3 Performance.

I used to love tracking mine.

 

[MPD]

If they do deliver that one car, it would probably solve any potential issues for them.... Honestly Tom, I get the feeling this was planned the whole time, the Matt video, the constant delay's, the stringing along.... they knew the car was not ready for production and knew that most if any would never have gotten that 59K UK price point. Unfortunately, this is the brave new world we live in today.

I agree that I think they've known this for a LONG time and could have been out front and open. No way you can run a company at that level and miss the mark on so many fronts. I don't believe they are incompetent but rather cagey ... instead of telling people about price increases and no price protection months ago (as they would have had to forecast). They could still do the right thing but I think the Lotus is old is not the Lotus of new

 

[Concept24]

Hey now, some of us lot have also owned Model 3 Performance.

I used to love tracking mine.

Was it a better track car than your Evora? I wonder which one would have a better time on VIR?

 

[Maurice R]

Was it a better track car than your Evora? I wonder which one would have a better time on VIR?

Not the model 3 lol

 

[Maurice R]

None but why does it matter? Are you the judge? Everyone seems to be an expert in law. Everyone is telling me I'm going to lose but who cares because its only 100 dollars for the filling fee and a few hours of work. It's a low hanging fruit. I'm also ending the small claims issue here. But if anyone wants to talk about it they can go ahead and send me a DM.
|
Bottom line is that I think Lotus should do the right thing and uphold the quoted prices 2 years ago with early deposit holders. They can easily track it by submission ID and the date of paid deposit. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and not just some Youtubers out there who skipped the line.

Seems to me you love small claims court and suing

 

[FlyNavy01]

Not the model 3 lol

Stock for stock maybe not, but with aftermarket suspension and R compounds mine kept pace with a stock 570S on a 1.6 mile course. VIR has some longer straights which takes away a lot of the EV advantage, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were very close.

Was it a better track car than your Evora? I wonder which one would have a better time on VIR?

I can't speak for an Evora as I haven't driven one, but I second @GetawayDriving, my Model 3 was the most "fun" car I've ever tracked after an Atom. For me that's the main reason I go. Lap times don't mean much outside of wheel to wheel racing.



Edit: To get back on topic, I'm also very close to cancelling and seriously looking at Porsche's at this point. Lotus anecdotally seems to be quite amateurly managed for the size of the business...