'when will we know options/colors for non first edition?

[simonb]

well I would take white or black above the launch colours. Seems nuts, pay less for more choice

 

[Jon_N]

Was told from Lotus customer service (for what it's worth anyway) this morning, the Base configurator will be live by end of October

Did they say which year?

 

[John777]

Any news on this?

 

[VL3X]

Any news on this?

Probably not til Q1 next year sometime.

 

[TomE]

Lotus told me earlier today that Base Edition info will be published "sometime in the New Year".

 

[EspritGuy]

Lotus told me earlier today that Base Edition info will be published "sometime in the New Year".

Glad they narrowed that down.
#ForTheAnxiouslyWaiting

 

[1stczechemira]

Lotus told me earlier today that Base Edition info will be published "sometime in the New Year".

That's perfect - much earlier than SOON

 

[Bilbao-Emira]

Lotus told me earlier today that Base Edition info will be published "sometime in the New Year".

Translation:
"sometime" means "later"
"New Year" means "any New Year to come" 23, 24, ...

 

[TomE]

Specifically, it won’t come before me and a bunch of other early First Edition folks have to commit to our cars. So we’ll have little idea what the price difference will be, for example if you didn’t want the KEF audio or premium seats.

 

[Captain.Kirk]

Lotus told me earlier today that Base Edition info will be published "sometime in the New Year".

So just for clarification, which would come first...”sometime” or “soon”?

 

[TomE]

They overlap. “Soon” runs from “just wait a moment” to “nearly forever” but “sometime” starts a bit later than that and runs to “possibly never”

 

[Evotion]

for example if you didn’t want the KEF audio or premium seats.

That is a good point now.
I was happy to have all the bells but now I have heard the stereo I would rather just delete it.
The seats I found to be excellent BUT I'd sooner pay less and then strip them out for something fixed, carbon and MUCH lighter.

The real questions is will Lotus really be able to offer a base V6 for less than the current FE price...

 

[Jon_N]

Depending on cancellations I’d assume they have enough FE orders to fill most of 2023?

 

[Evotion]

Yes, they have but they are all now committed.

We will only know when the V6 has run out when they actually close the order book for it.
That can also be affected by any knee jerk reactions by the Green Brigade.

 

[TomE]

Depending on cancellations I’d assume they have enough FE orders to fill most of 2023?

Probably, but they will start production of i4 FE and then of Base V6 and i4 before they have finished building all the V6 FEs. That will spread out the V6 FE deliveries to be only a percentage of total output from about mid 2023 onwards.

 

[Lotustoronto]

They certainly have launched the F/E - Base - i4 in a strange way. Some places have many F/E allocations like the UK, then North America was a tiny 700 units.(yet a much larger potential market to service) Then introduce base model while still building F/E's for other markets, then throw in an i4 F/E mid 2023 AND THEN a base i4 at some point in 2023 probably 2024. Yet they advertise the base i4 price in the UK for two years prior to building one. In all honesty I have never seen anything like this.

 

[DF_Toronto]

Probably, but they will start production of i4 FE and then of Base V6 and i4 before they have finished building all the V6 FEs. That will spread out the V6 FE deliveries to be only a percentage of total output from about mid 2023 onwards.

Are you sure they’re doing i4 FE before V6 base? In North America many customers put down deposits before July 21 and didn’t get FE allocation but have been told they should have a order sheet for V6 base in Jan/Feb, build March/April…this may be wrong but this is what ppl have been told and was confirmed still on track as of a couple weeks ago…

 

[TomE]

They certainly have launched the F/E - Base - i4 in a strange way. Some places have many F/E allocations like the UK, then North America was a tiny 700 units.(yet a much larger potential market to service) Then introduce base model while still building F/E's for other markets, then throw in an i4 F/E mid 2023 AND THEN a base i4 at some point in 2023 probably 2024. Yet they advertise the base i4 price in the UK for two years prior to building one. In all honesty I have never seen anything like this.

It's driven by a mixture of development timelines, regional type approvals, production ramp up, emissions requirements and initial assumptions about volumes. Possibly a few other factors as well.

The V6 powertrain was already well understood and hence quicker to bring to market. The i4 was less familiar and needed more development time (about another 6 months). Launching a full loaded First Edition with limited choices makes (in theory) procurement and production start/ramp easier. Lotus took a similar approach with the Evora Launch Edition, although only for 400 cars.

The original assumptions about volumes would have seen V6 FEs largely completed before i4 FE production started and then V6/i4 Base starting together alongside the tail of the i4 FE run and ramping up. But demand was much higher than expected, particularly for the V6 FE, and they wanted to maintain the same spacings on the staggered starts for i4 FE and Base, so had to re-plan around bigger overlaps as well as adding a second shift.

 

[TomE]

Are you sure they’re doing i4 FE before V6 base? In North America many customers put down deposits before July 21 and didn’t get FE allocation but have been told they should have a order sheet for V6 base in Jan/Feb, build March/April…this may be wrong but this is what ppl have been told and was confirmed still on track as of a couple weeks ago…

Yes, they may end up being closer together now, but the original plan was to start deliveries of Base V6 and i4 about 3 months after start of i4 FE. this was in terms of the global production starts for each and first UK deliveries. With the limited V6 FE run for NA it may be that V6 Base starts earlier.

 

[Lotustoronto]

It's driven by a mixture of development timelines, regional type approvals, production ramp up, emissions requirements and initial assumptions about volumes. Possibly a few other factors as well.

The V6 powertrain was already well understood and hence quicker to bring to market. The i4 was less familiar and needed more development time (about another 6 months). Launching a full loaded First Edition with limited choices makes (in theory) procurement and production start/ramp easier. Lotus took a similar approach with the Evora Launch Edition, although only for 400 cars.

The original assumptions about volumes would have seen V6 FEs largely completed before i4 FE production started and then V6/i4 Base starting together alongside the tail of the i4 FE run and ramping up. But demand was much higher than expected, particularly for the V6 FE, and they wanted to maintain the same spacings on the staggered starts for i4 FE and Base, so had to re-plan around bigger overlaps as well as adding a second shift.

I can very much see where Lotus where over whelmed by the response to the Emira and didn't plan / see the success coming. Sprinkle in some covid lockdowns and supply chain issue and voila.

I just don't get their idea behind the launch - In N/A markets (not sure about Australia/Asia) F/E's were cut off by a production figure amount. Yet in most other places, like UK/EU it was cut off by a certain date/time. Yet they allocate 2,400 to the US market for 2023 production. 1,700 of these will have to be base spec cars. Yet they almost certainly have a full production schedule of F/E cars to build. Potentially you can have a V6 F/E being built for a UK customer, 6 months after a US customer is receiving his V6 base spec. Either that or I have no idea how Lotus can project 2400 allocations to the US market and still build the 5K+ V6 F/E earmarked for the UK market. All this without adding in ROW F/E's. I am just preparing myself for a potential disappointment.... I did not make the F/E cut off despite depositing September 2021. I do get the feeling it will be sometime in 2024 I actually see an Emira unfortunately.

Only other theory I have is that Lotus will do a U-turn on doing base orders in 2023 at least until Q4 and make the remaining 1700 US allocations into V6 / i4 FE specs.