USA/Canada Delivery Thread

[ttvetdoc]

Thanks. I'm a 2.0, non-CARB state (Charlotte dealer), Seneca. Also finalized my build in August after dealers were provided their 2.0 allocations. This gives me hope that mine could be earlier than expected.

I'm also in Charlotte (Matthews) but moved my deposit to Cape Fear for this very reason (I could get my car sooner). We should get together once you have your car. Would love to meet other local Emira owners.

 

[Art1faqt]

My dealer "estimated" that the configurator for BASE models would open Q4 of 2024. I don't understand this. Based on what's been said in this forum Lotus is building cars close to their max level. It seems to me that most of the worldwide FE 1.0 & 2.0 will be built soon. Why so long to start taking BASE configurations?

This would have made a lot if sense if the I4 and V6 autos were still on schedule. Based on numbers, it only makes sense that FE builds are nearly completely finished by Feb/March, unless Lotus is expecting a huge delay for some reason that they dont want to tell us about. Would it not makes sense from a revenue stand point to build and deliver base cars next if other trims are delayed?

 

[Medic518]

Nobody wants these.... (taken from another forum, not mine)

--REMOVED PHOTO WITH PHONE NUMBER SINCE @robrmon STATED THAT THEY WERE ACCOUNTED FOR--

"for person reasons' - good to know it wasn't for plant, animal or mineral reasons..

 

[CHEESE]

Finalized my FE 1.0 V6 manual back in the first week of April 2022 and have yet to hear about my specific car coming over (even though my dealer was among one of, if not the first to send out official word of cars finally coming over).

Starting get super annoyed that 2.0s are getting confirmed before mine; people who literally finalized their orders just a few months ago.

I haven't yet seen anyone with a Hethel Yellow get confirmation, so maybe that's the differentiator...

 

[Nova]

Finalized my FE 1.0 V6 manual back in the first week of April 2022 and have yet to hear about my specific car coming over (even though my dealer was among one of, if not the first to send out official word of cars finally coming over).

Starting get super annoyed that 2.0s are getting confirmed before mine. I haven't yet seen anyone with a Hethel Yellow get confirmation, so maybe that's the differentiator...

Ext Color?
Int Color?
CARB/non-CARB?

 

[Art1faqt]

They are probably trying to sell as many "First Edition" cars as they can. These probably represent better margins on a per-unit basis than the base model with minimum options. For certain they are better in terms of revenue. Once FE sales start to slow down, then they will likely open ordering for the base cars.

Delaying base availability also allows more time for people to become accustomed to higher prices. Based on my and other people's guesses, the base model for the US will likely be not that much less than the FE 1.0 prices. My guess would be $89,999. The more time Lotus allows to pass between the delivery of FE 1.0 cars and the availability of base cars, the fewer customer complaints they have to deal with.

And as far as customer satisfaction goes, FE customers are happy theyre finally getting their cars, and that with price protection and likely a considerable discount from a fully loaded base car. If starting base price comes in at just a few grand under I dont think anyone will be complaining. And delivering base cars earlier will obviously make the base customers happy(er). So Lotus only stands to lose both revenue and customer satisfaction by delaying base builds/delivery

 

[Pegasi]

This would have made a lot if sense if the I4 and V6 autos were still on schedule. Based on numbers, it only makes sense that FE builds are nearly completely finished by Feb/March, unless Lotus is expecting a huge delay for some reason that they dont want to tell us about. Would it not makes sense from a revenue stand point to build and deliver base cars next if other trims are delayed?

Thanks for the response. It jarred my memory a little. My dealer did say Lotus doesn't have the pricing established yet for the BASE. I wish I would have taken notes but he caught me in the middle of something.

Someone please ask your dealer about BASE too. You know we need to have several corroborations before we can even remotely think anything is good info.

 

[CHEESE]

Ext Color?
Int Color?
CARB/non-CARB?

Hethel yellow - that's why I mentioned it might be the differentiator; there haven't been any yellow confirmations as far as I know
Black alcantara w/ yellow stitching
CARB

 

[Art1faqt]

Thanks for the response. It jarred my memory a little. My dealer did say Lotus doesn't have the pricing established yet for the BASE. I wish I would have taken notes but he caught me in the middle of something.

Someone please ask your dealer about BASE too. You know we need to have several corroborations before we can even remotely think anything is good info.

I reached out to mine last week about base cars but no response. My rep is normally pretty good at replying so maybe he really doesn't know or just missed the email. Will try again this week.

 

[Nova]

And as far as customer satisfaction goes, FE customers are happy theyre finally getting their cars, and that with price protection and likely a considerable discount from a fully loaded base car. If starting base price comes in at just a few grand under I dont think anyone will be complaining. And delivering base cars earlier will obviously make the base customers happy(er). So Lotus only stands to lose both revenue and customer satisfaction by delaying base builds/delivery

There are a lot of possibilities as to why Lotus makes their decisions the way they do. The previous question was why would Base configurator be delayed until Q4 2024 as suggested by a dealer. My point is that Lotus has enough demand for FE cars to not worry about making Base available. If they never have to make any base cars and keep their factory busy building FE cars, that's what they can decide to do.

 

[VL3X]

I'm also in Charlotte (Matthews) but moved my deposit to Cape Fear for this very reason (I could get my car sooner). We should get together once you have your car. Would love to meet other local Emira owners.

Feel free to start a local thread in our US Southeast regional subforum!

 

[Pegasi]

There are a lot of possibilities as to why Lotus makes their decisions the way they do. The previous question was why would Base configurator be delayed until Q4 2024 as suggested by a dealer. My point is that Lotus has enough demand for FE cars to not worry about making Base available. If they never have to make any base cars and keep their factory busy building FE cars, that's what they can decide to do.

In this theory do people in the queue get moved up from BASE into FE 3.0 the same way people moved into FE 2.0?

 

[Dr.JDK]

Why is that? I remember it being confirmed (not sure by who) that the first 150 cars to land were all non-CARB state cars. If they are indeed prioritizing non-CARB state cars because those dealers can receive/store the cars with less regulatory risk, then they may have decided to build the FE 2.0 cars for those dealers as well.

That brings a bigger question of 500 cars being shipped, because that just about matches the number of manuals for FE 1.0 cars, but not for combined FE 1.0 and FE 2.0 cars. If 500 cars include all the manual V6 cars Lotus is shipping for now for FE 1.0 and 2.0 cars, then *some* FE 1.0 manual cars are simply not being shipped (they may have been built). Which cars are those?

I must missed it about the confirmation of 150 cars being non-CARB state cars. I heard from my dealer that my VIN is not included in the first shipment. I think what my dealer implies is that they are receiving cars among the first shipments but mine is not in the list. My dealer is in a CARB state. That is why I deducted that carb-vs-non-carb is out of discussion.
What you said makes sense because Lotus USA do want to minimize their cost of storing cars at the US ports.

 

[Zardoz]

I just received a call that my FE 2.0 (early 2.0 deposit) is on the Atlantic Ocean!! I'm with Cape Fear Lotus (Wilmington, NC). Hopefully I'll be able to 'visit' her in the showroom soon. Amazing news!!

I really do not understand how FE 2.0's are being delivered at the same time as FE 1.0 Logic would dictate that cars are produced in the order that deposits/final builds were submitted as I was told by the dealer. So, If 2.0 cars are on a boat, Are all FE1.0 cars alsoalready built and either in port or transit? What was the @#$#I#&Y point of my (*U#)(()&# Deposit over 2 years ago? Beyond pissed off.
( that stuff was nasty profanity)

 

[Dr.JDK]

I really do not understand how FE 2.0's are being delivered at the same time as FE 1.0 Logic would dictate that cars are produced in the order that deposits/final builds were submitted as I was told by the dealer. So, If 2.0 cars are on a boat, Are all FE1.0 cars alsoalready built and either in port or transit? What was the @#$#I#&Y point of my (*U#)(()&# Deposit over 2 years ago? Beyond pissed off.
( that stuff was nasty profanity)

Think about you pay 10k less than those FE2.0. That will hopefully calm you down. That calms me down every time FE 2.0 depositors report they got a VIN.

 

[Nova]

In this theory do people in the queue get moved up from BASE into FE 3.0 the same way people moved into FE 2.0?

Yea. It was always a bit of a head-scratcher why the number of FE cars in the US is limited, but not for UK/EU. People would simply get called and asked if they are interested in a FE 3.0 allocation. Maybe Lotus is finding it much easier to mange the process of building FE cars versus base cars that would have a much larger set of variables.

 

[Nova]

I really do not understand how FE 2.0's are being delivered at the same time as FE 1.0 Logic would dictate that cars are produced in the order that deposits/final builds were submitted as I was told by the dealer. So, If 2.0 cars are on a boat, Are all FE1.0 cars alsoalready built and either in port or transit? What was the @#$#I#&Y point of my (*U#)(()&# Deposit over 2 years ago? Beyond pissed off.
( that stuff was nasty profanity)

Remeber, at this point the cars are simply shipped or not shipped. Until the CARB approvals are made, FE 2.0 cars are not becoming "available" earlier than FE 1.0 cars. If Lotus ships all FE 1.0 and 2.0 cars prior to CARB approval, then they can say that FE 2.0 cars are being made available at the same time as FE 1.0 cars.

IMO, the FE2.0 cars were probably manufactured in batches with similarly configured FE1.0 cars. We don't know what order they were made at Lotus. It may also depend on things other than just the main paint color. I can imagine how certain leathers need to come in batches, caliper colors, wheel colors, tinted/clear glass, etc.

The one saving grace for us FE 1.0 order holders is of course the lower price. Some of the FE 2.0 customers weren't that much later in putting their initial deposit down and are paying $10k more.

 

[Hell4Leather]

My dealer "estimated" that the configurator for BASE models would open Q4 of 2024. I don't understand this. Based on what's been said in this forum Lotus is building cars close to their max level. It seems to me that most of the worldwide FE 1.0 & 2.0 will be built soon. Why so long to start taking BASE configurations?

Mine was on the other end of the spectrum. I just missed the FE2 cutoff but they are expected to send my base configuration (which will be loaded AF) in June ish with a delivery ~6 months later. I deposited “early” mid 2022 because I wanted my car Q2 2025. This isn’t my first rodeo and actually I’m shocked how many of us were “surprised” at the delays. Even the dealer back then said I was too early for that time frame.

 

[DF_Toronto]

Finalized my FE 1.0 V6 manual back in the first week of April 2022 and have yet to hear about my specific car coming over (even though my dealer was among one of, if not the first to send out official word of cars finally coming over).

Starting get super annoyed that 2.0s are getting confirmed before mine; people who literally finalized their orders just a few months ago.

I haven't yet seen anyone with a Hethel Yellow get confirmation, so maybe that's the differentiator...

Don’t be too annoyed by this, I’m an FE 2.0 order and began my ordering process on announcement day during Goodwood 2021. Meanwhile there are FE 1.0 buyers who payed 1.0 cost who didn’t put a deposit until September 2021, so 1.0 vs. 2.0 doesn’t really mean you were ahead of anyone. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed all of us FE buyers who’ve been waiting what will be close to 3 years get our cars in time for the summer driving months, and can enjoy them throughly. Feel for the autos who got bumped and hope they get their cars during the summer as well, even if it’s mid-way.

 

[DF_Toronto]

I really do not understand how FE 2.0's are being delivered at the same time as FE 1.0 Logic would dictate that cars are produced in the order that deposits/final builds were submitted as I was told by the dealer. So, If 2.0 cars are on a boat, Are all FE1.0 cars alsoalready built and either in port or transit? What was the @#$#I#&Y point of my (*U#)(()&# Deposit over 2 years ago? Beyond pissed off.
( that stuff was nasty profanity)

You do realize you got a discount over others who probably put their deposit before you and paid more for their 2.0 based on Lotus making dealer allocations that were NOT based on deposit date to begin with?