Race to the first i4

[Zayex]

I received the call yesterday. They told me 'by summer next year'. I was also offered an invitation to a Lotus event as a consolation prize. I asked whether it would be possible to get a refund even if my spec is locked and they said yes. Waiting to see how it goes for the time being.

Six months delay? This is not a production issue, it is a production redirection...

 

[CraigO]

I received the call yesterday. They told me 'by summer next year'. I was also offered an invitation to a Lotus event as a consolation prize. I asked whether it would be possible to get a refund even if my spec is locked and they said yes. Waiting to see how it goes for the time being.

Just had the same call. This time a prepared statement was read out. They are blaming "UK Certification" as the main reason for the huge additional delay. Likewise, an invite to a special event at Hethel. I did ask if we would have the actual cars by then, as if not, people arriving "on foot" would be yet further embarrassment for Lotus. I felt sorry for the poor CS guy having to deliver this news TBH. I'll sleep on it, and decide what to do in the coming days, likely to cancel though I think.

 

[PaulH]

I canceled already, it is very unprofessional how Lotus dealing with this, I have never seen this with other car brands that they are bring a car to the market that is not in order and how they deal with customers.

 

[Baldyash]

Just had the same call. This time a prepared statement was read out. They are blaming "UK Certification" as the main reason for the huge additional delay. Likewise, an invite to a special event at Hethel. I did ask if we would have the actual cars by then, as if not, people arriving "on foot" would be yet further embarrassment for Lotus. I felt sorry for the poor CS guy having to deliver this news TBH. I'll sleep on it, and decide what to do in the coming days, likely to cancel though I think.

Just received the call. Cancelled after July 21 order. So disappointed. Lotus have had so long to sort out the i4, and no excuse is acceptable now after all this time. I wonder how many are cancelling now after may be available in the summer statement. Would have been my 5th Lotus as well!

 

[JClem]

All of this makes me annoyed even though I backed out of the i4 in July and took an orphaned V6! A process that was not as smooth as it should have been.

I was still hoping to test drive the i4 but Lotus HQ have completely stuffed this up and now come across as dishonest, disingenuous, incompetent, dysfunctional etc.

If you’re reading this Lotus, I love my Emira, but you’ve really put me off buying another in the future.

 

[Zayex]

Just had the same call. This time a prepared statement was read out. They are blaming "UK Certification" as the main reason for the huge additional delay. Likewise, an invite to a special event at Hethel. I did ask if we would have the actual cars by then, as if not, people arriving "on foot" would be yet further embarrassment for Lotus. I felt sorry for the poor CS guy having to deliver this news TBH. I'll sleep on it, and decide what to do in the coming days, likely to cancel though I think.

Just had "the call". I am from Spain and we have the same delay, so "UK certification" seems not to be the whole truth. They also offers direct refund. Can it be that the production prices just gone up too much and they want us to just to give up?

Also the seller said that:

1) it is an all world delay, Lotus told yesterday no I4 will be delivered in no country for the next month's...
Let's see if son someone says he received a car.
2) they did no give new delivery dates, just said "around" second quarter.

I do not know what to do...

 

[New to Lotus]

Normal shit show

 

[Eagle7]

Hmmm. This announcement adds weight to the recent job posting for a certification specialist. Somebody must have gotten fired over all this. Anybody in China who's received an i4, are there problems with the car in China that would require "an all world delay"?

Also, summer of next year is Goodwood FOS 2024 where the Type 135 electric sports car would be debuted. I'm wondering how much time do they want to devote to ICE cars, when Geely wants to leave that technology behind and go all-electric. Curiouser and curiouser.

 

[Lotustoronto]

Emissions certification issues on an engine that is already sold world wide.... Agree with @Eagle7 that it does coincide with the new job posting. Very strange nonetheless, sorry to all i4 holders.

 

[PsymonR]

Emissions certification issues on an engine that is already sold world wide.... Agree with @Eagle7 that it does coincide with the new job posting. Very strange nonetheless, sorry to all i4 holders.

Emissions certifications are car specific not engine specific. The Emira is tuned differently to the A45S implementation and is a different weight, as such it is likely to put out different CO2 figures. More generally you can even see a difference in CO2 for some car models where the engine remains the same but the trim level is different (eg. with the Merc A35: Premium 193 g/km, Premium Plus 195 g/km). As such I wouldn't have expected the certification to be a wave through due to the engine already being sold.

If it is indeed emissions certification related then it does suggest someone at Lotus screwed up big time. Messing up the NA V6 certifications was bad enough but to also mess up UK/EU certifications for the I4 does make it look like the job adverts are part of the fallout... It isn't just the one posting related to type approval either (date of job advert in brackets):

• Director of Type Approval (15th Nov)
• Principal Engineer - Type Approval (Emissions) - Contingent (16th Nov)
• Principal Engineer - Type Approval (Propulsion) (9th Nov)

Btw I wouldn't necessarily read too much to the fact the jobs are advertised on the Geely website, that is just where all of the Lotus roles are posted. I've seen the same for job adverts for other companies controlled/owned by larger organisations.

 

[simonb]

Just had "the call" myself (my deposit was returned months ago)
supply chain constraints....delivery timeline.... certification.....before next summer.....event at Hethel
Poor sods who have to make the calls, hope they are well paid

 

[freefall_junkie]

What a mess - I feel for all the I4 deposit holders. I wonder how the process works if it is related to emissions certification. I can see how the car might get a higher CO2 rating than Lotus were hoping for, but how would it fail certification altogether leading to this delay? And if it has failed does this open up the possibility of Lotus having to detune the engine further to make it compliant?

 

[Kibbbs]

What a mess - I feel for all the I4 deposit holders. I wonder how the process works if it is related to emissions certification. I can see how the car might get a higher CO2 rating than Lotus were hoping for, but how would it fail certification altogether leading to this delay? And if it has failed does this open up the possibility of Lotus having to detune the engine further to make it compliant?

And no doubt the price will go up in the intervening period …

 

[JClem]

What a mess - I feel for all the I4 deposit holders. I wonder how the process works if it is related to emissions certification. I can see how the car might get a higher CO2 rating than Lotus were hoping for, but how would it fail certification altogether leading to this delay? And if it has failed does this open up the possibility of Lotus having to detune the engine further to make it compliant?

Why would emissions be any higher than the A45s?

If it is to do with emissions certification why would this have been left so late in the day? Surely this is something to be completed before releasing the car to the press?

 

[JClem]

I dropped into the Lotus Piccadilly a couple of hours ago to see if they had any pearls of wisdom. It was a longshot but they did say that if you put in a order for an i4 now its an 18 month wait.

No info on when demonstraters would be delivered to agents or when the first i4 customer delivers would be. They did say they would try to find out but I’ll be amazed if they ever get back to me.

 

[adamrj]

Is anyone else who still has an order seeing this?

 

[PsymonR]

What a mess - I feel for all the I4 deposit holders. I wonder how the process works if it is related to emissions certification. I can see how the car might get a higher CO2 rating than Lotus were hoping for, but how would it fail certification altogether leading to this delay? And if it has failed does this open up the possibility of Lotus having to detune the engine further to make it compliant?

I've no idea how the process works, but it may not be a certification fail instead they could perhaps have messed up the testing process somehow. This may then need time for additional testing to be carried out, verified etc which would then need to be re-submitted back into the process.

And no doubt the price will go up in the intervening period …

I wonder if this may in part depend on how many people cancel their orders... The fewer people with a lower price "locked in" the greater the ability they may have to absorb the costs. Will be keeping my fingers crossed that's for sure!

 

[PsymonR]

Is anyone else who still has an order seeing this?

View attachment 33670

Things seemed to get messed up when they updated the website which doesn't seem to pull details over correctly. If you use the link below you should still be able to view your order details.
https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/my-lotus/complete-purchase

 

[Cutting42]

Is anyone else who still has an order seeing this?

View attachment 33670

Yup, the same. I really am losing the will to continue with this; I have no words really.

 

[adamrj]

Things seemed to get messed up when they updated the website which doesn't seem to pull details over correctly. If you use the link below you should still be able to view your order details.
https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/my-lotus/complete-purchase

Thank you, that works.