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.

 

[idleuser]

Yes but the rub there is "...if it is intended to entice a consumer into a transaction different from that originally represented." I don't think that can be proven in court, because there is a raft of extenuating circumstances involved here which can easily be pointed to as the cause of the change in price.

I'm waiting to hear from my dealer or Lotus as to what the situation is going to be here in the U.S. My deposit was converted into a hard order and accepted by the factory in April of last year, so I'm hoping I'm price-protected. If I'm not, and there's an 8% increase, then I'll cancel and deal with the legal issues with the dealership. With an 8% increase, with destination charge (I'm guessing at least $2,000), sales tax, all associated fees including have it delivered to me (I'm 500 miles away from the closest dealer) the cost of the car gets upward towards $115,000, and that's without the cost of ppf which I want to get for it. That would put it closer to $120k. That's simply more than I want to pay. It's a beautiful car and I certainly would love to have one, but I don't need it. I wasn't looking for a car to begin with when I first saw the Emira. It was simply a want car, not a need car.

I'll just have to wait and see, but then that's been this journey the whole time anyway, so nothing new there.

Agreed, I will have to wait and see what Lotus decides to do with pricing for NA market. Until then, I can't take any further action.

 

[Max]

Most other manufacturers have increased prices - so this isn't a F*** you to lotus customers - it's the state of economic factors generally. Your bread is more expensive. Your fuel.

Lets stop with the Lotus hate, they held out longer than Porsche for example, and increased prices by less % also.

If it's the car you want, stick with it if you can absorb the increase I'd say. Residuals should be helped also.

Uh, I think a deal is a deal, and if you signed a contract to deliver a car at a named price, then you honor that price.
I've been in several businesses in the course of my working life. If I tell a customer something, my word will be honored. And believe me: sometimes, I had to eat it.
This is great car, or COULD be, but between the sloppy QC issues, sandbagged delivery schedules and price increases, this is not a legitimate organization to do business with. God knows what awaits the owners in the long term.

 

[JasonR]

Most other manufacturers have increased prices - so this isn't a F*** you to lotus customers - it's the state of economic factors generally. Your bread is more expensive. Your fuel.

Lets stop with the Lotus hate, they held out longer than Porsche for example, and increased prices by less % also.

If it's the car you want, stick with it if you can absorb the increase I'd say. Residuals should be helped also.

I agree to an extent but Matt Windle made a video against this for existing deposit holders….

Principle does matter.

This is such a frustrating situation for everybody, including Lotus. Being delayed through issues and circumstances they had no control over. Incredibly unfortunate timing trying to get a new model into production in a new facility with a new production process, what with the Covid debacle and all the problems that caused worldwide. Not being prepared for an avalanche of deposits beyond anything they've ever had before. It's all just terribly unfortunate for everyone involved.

Now we get price increases we all knew had to happen due to inflation which is hitting everything everywhere globally. The sticky issue now is what is the legal definition of an order versus a deposit, with a company that the customer can order directly from (the U.K.)? Technically a deposit is refundable, so it's not the same as a hard order which is not refundable. At least that's how it is in the U.S. I don't know how British law would rule on that. Matt's video could technically be classified as referring to actual orders versus deposits. If he had said "The price quoted for your order" instead of "Emira" it would have been clearer. Because a deposit is refundable, technically it can be viewed as a 'maybe' you'll order, but because it is refundable, it's not a guarantee you're going to place an actual order. And therein lies the issue here.

Since it wasn't possible to place a hard order on the models for which prices were quoted, does that legally bind Lotus to those prices? For PR purposes it would, but would it in a court of law? If you've made a non-refundable down payment on an agree-to-purchase hard order, that's a separate issue, and those seem to be price-protected. A deposit isn't a guarantee that you're going to go through with an actual hard order.

If all models were already in production and people had been ordering and buying them at advertised prices, it would be different, but this is really fuzzy right now. Promised models that haven't been produced yet, being advertised at price points based on pre-production prototypes, that brought in thousands of deposits as a result. It's a PR nightmare for sure, but the legalities of it are something else again. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

I’d be interested to know the legalities of Matt Windles promise of not raising the price, on video.

I’d also be interested to know, seeing as they were still developing the car last year, if they used deposits to fund production.

Seems suspect

 

[R1272]

Waiting for information on US deposits. Mine went in 7/14/21, and I believe my build was submitted 5/22/22.

 

[Lotustoronto]

I think Lotus could definitively say they did not do any of this to entice a person into a bait and switch situation. You're seeing black helicopters if you think this whole situation is a set up to deceive buyers. Not saying it's a good situation, just not a bait and switch.

I don't know about that. If you look up bait and switch legal cases that have been won, they seem very similar to Lotus'. Rivian was in the exact same situation and they had to back track it due to the pending law suits. The whole point is they did not deliver a single car for the advertised price. If they did and raised the pricing for they rest, than that is fair game. They are treading a fine line in regards to advertising law, not so much contractural law, IMO.

 

[Twin Cam]

Waiting for information on US deposits. Mine went in 7/14/21, and I believe my build was submitted 5/22/22.

With the dollar (US) having been so strong of late, (I know it’s fallen back a bit) they might leave the USA FE prices as is, fingers crossed for you guys

 

[Lotustoronto]

I’d be interested how many drop out due to this announcement

a lot

 

[Lotustoronto]

It's very fuzzy. Many of us paid a non-refundable deposit which allowed us to have a named spot on the FE list, and the ability to specifically spec out the car we want built especially for us. Win or lose, you'd waste a bunch of money in court since that is very close to an actual order, if not technically one.

would need to be a class action law suit by all Emira depositors in the USA as one...

 

[KAR120C]

would need to be a class action law suit by all Emira depositors in the USA as one...

Given the price we received on our FE orders from Lotus USA was IN WRITING, I'm not seeing them change the FE prices. Deposits would have to be refunded on demand since Lotus was breaking the "contract". It would cause real pain to the dealerships, since non-refundable deposits were booked as income and have probably long been spent.

 

[dgrace]

It sounds like price increases will affect all MY2024+ cars, of which I believe all the US FE orders are included. But it gets sticky with the second deposit - I have a hard time believing Lotus could lock in an order and take a non-refundable deposit and then change the final price without legal blowback, but I'll have to read through my contract. It would certainly be a bad look for the brand.

 

[DJS]

How do you qualify for the protected price ?

 

[SJR202]

My girlfriend joked when I kept putting down deposits in 2021 that Lotus were crowd funding their build, with the continuous taking of deposits on FE and now those who even c18 months after 1st deposit are being faced with a substantial price increase she's probably right. Millions of pounds 'borrowed' c2 years in advance, interest free on the basis that they 'can choose to sell you a car when built' - if you then take your deposit back its now worth c10% less due to inflation anyway and Lotus have had an interest free loan.
So now, have your £5k back thanks, or pay us more for the car you wanted, we dont care...

 

[richbrown]

No great surprise, the world has changed in the last 18 months and we don’t expect Lotus / Geely to honour prices when Porsche as an example have hiked prices for base 911 Carrera to £90k+. You’re either in or out and I’ve had some recent wobbles but Lotus have been great about letting me delay into Q1 24 Vs July 23 (originally Oct 22). I’ve stopped posting as much as I did back in 21 when this was a more friendly forum of enthusiasts. I’m new to Lotus to be clear. The early adopters I respect as
it’s no great surprise of issues and I did suggest this might be the case given the upscaling of tech and a new production line. I still believe in the aspiration and values of lotus so have no plans to detract on the forum. Well done Lotus

 

[New to Lotus]

Are you matt?

 

[Auto Smiler]

I’m a v6 manual order from July 16th 2021 and I’ve missed out on the price protection despite Matt’s “promise”. He’s so out of his depth it’s untrue. He needs to go.

Ouch! Really sorry to hear that. My deposit was a day before yours and I've been given the price promise. I guess we can assume the cutoff date was 15th July?

 

[Guest142]

My girlfriend joked when I kept putting down deposits in 2021 that Lotus were crowd funding their build, with the continuous taking of deposits on FE and now those who even c18 months after 1st deposit are being faced with a substantial price increase she's probably right. Millions of pounds 'borrowed' c2 years in advance, interest free on the basis that they 'can choose to sell you a car when built' - if you then take your deposit back its now worth c10% less due to inflation anyway and Lotus have had an interest free loan.
So now, have your £5k back thanks, or pay us more for the car you wanted, we dont care...

Wow. I'm...wow. This is a nightmare. How is this...wow

Why didnt....wow. So they...wow!!

 

[Tonyshepp]

Why did the MD make a price pledge to those with an order then ?

Good luck in the courts , a video with good intentions from Matt isn't admissible evidence. Be grateful it's only a small increase. Next year it will be more again.

 

[dgrace]

 

[First Lotus]

Sorry if this has been asked and answered...

How many cars have Lotus actually delivered? How many do we expect to be delivered by June? What % of all Emiras is this likely to be?

If there was no video in August then I would be annoyed but not horrified! They knew then how long it would take them to deliver the EXISTING wait list and therefore if they could stomach the inflation issues (And let's be honest, inflation is actually on its way down now!). So if they knew they weren't going to get them out until Q2 2024 (my latest slot ordered Nov 21), then they should not have been sending that video to everyone who had already deposited

 

[FederGigant]

Too bad that all the lawyers are only active on the Porsche forums...

I honestly have no clue if anybody could sue Lotus for this, but obviously this is a really f***ed up situation, especially for those of us that should have gotten their cars already and got delayed over and over up to the point that they now have to pay more. I would be in shock and very disappointed as well if I had to pay that much more. Hard enough to swallow the risen interest rates.

On the flip side, we all knew that it had to happen eventually. Lotus sticked to their promised price way longer than anybody else and the increase is lower than it was for other cars from other manufacturers. All in all I get why they have to do it, with no conspiracy in mind like trying to kick some customers out to make room for a possible Emira S or the like, but in no way is it right to increase prices for people that just don't have the car yet because of the delays. They should have said that orders from now on have to pay more, or they should have communicated it differently in the first place, because they knew that they have to rise prices probably since last May. If they had told us in June of 2022 that they can only guarantee the communicated prices up until the end of 2022 for example, nobody would have complained.