If it's the same HVAC issue that UK and EU cars have experienced, it's not actually AC related, it's the blower fan resistor pack in the front of the car. A thing that techs are colloquially calling "the hedgehog". Apparently it gets wet due to water following the path of a particular wiring segment from just under the cowl.
To be fair, what has been described here with the AC might be something else... but I kinda doubt it.
I encourage you to read this entire thread, but note the dates.
Has anyone on here had the air con issue and had it resolved/still waiting on lotus? Air con worked for 2 days, failed, took it to service, they reset it, but explained its a known fault lotus are working on and it would probably go again. It did a couple of days later. Doesn’t need regassing...
www.emiraforum.com
Lotus have made a number of production changes to address the problems described in this thread, but it's an ever-developing story, and things may change at any time. The issue could already be permanently fixed. It sure would be nice if they would issue TSBs through their VSIC system so that dealers and independent mechanics (including us) could know one way or the other.