World's first Emira customer delivery?

[kratedisease]

Oh, did I happen to forget to mention that the delivery notification was by USPS tracking ??

 

[Mr D]

Any way to get this customer to write a post on here once they take delivery?

Those wheels! The dark 'Graphite Grey" look so much better.
Attention to detail is everything at this paypoint, the fact that if you look at front calliper Lotus is spelt top to bottom. Look at rear then its bottom to top. Its all about the detail that separates the Brands!
Luxury point perhaps but it does show to me a lack of real attention.
Apparently Mr Geeley is at Hethel next week if there are any complaints. Just saying as customers.

 

[Callabrator]

Those wheels! The dark 'Graphite Grey" look so much better.
Attention to detail is everything at this paypoint, the fact that if you look at front calliper Lotus is spelt top to bottom. Look at rear then its bottom to top. Its all about the detail that separates the Brands!
Luxury point perhaps but it does show to me a lack of real attention.
Apparently Mr Geeley is at Hethel next week if there are any complaints. Just saying as customers.

Good eye. WTF is up with that?! It's not like all the calipers are the same as a cost savings measure or something. They're all bespoke per corner.


EDIT: I just looked at other cars. While the Ferrari 488 is consistent all going top to bottom, the Porsche GT4 is not. Great, this is now another thing I won't be able to unsee from now on. Thanks Mr D!

 

[hagen111]

But they told everyone the deliveries would be broadly in deposit date order, with UK deliveries starting first, then Europe then US then Asia.

The actual delivery sequence we’re now seeing has nothing to do with strategic thinking by Lotus or Geely. It’s entirely based on what parts arrive in what order and therefore what cars they can build and ship.

Sorry Tom, your first assumption is a UK assumption. They didn’t tell everyone deliveries would be in deposit order date with UK first. That‘s a misconception. They told international markets a different story...I have been told a different story from day 1.

Your second assumption…not really...its not 100% based on what parts arrive. EU allocations are going exactly as communicated more than a year ago, only with 3 month delay.

 

[ksegg]

View attachment 8654Some might have already been delivered?

If that is the case, where are pics of the actual production versions? Exterior, interior, etc.

So far, the pics I keep seeing are a mix-match of prototype, pre-prod, and who knows what else.

I still have no idea what the actual finished product looks like.

 

[TomE]

Sorry Tom, your first assumption is a UK assumption. They didn’t tell everyone deliveries would be in deposit order date with UK first. That‘s a misconception. They told international markets a different story...I have been told a different story from day 1.

Your second assumption…not really...its not 100% based on what parts arrive. EU allocations are going exactly as communicated more than a year ago, only with 3 month delay.

The first isn’t an assumption, it’s what Matt Windle and Scott Walker told me at Goodwood 2021, reconfirmed a further two times through 2021 and again in Jan 2022.

The second is what Lotus Customer Care and several UK and EU dealers told me two weeks ago, supported by anecdotal info from Lotus production staff and factory tours.

Curious what you were told on Day 1 and was that by your dealer or Lotus HQ? Interested to know where these differences come from. Message me if you’d prefer not to post the details.

 

[TomE]

If that is the case, where are pics of the actual production versions? Exterior, interior, etc.

So far, the pics I keep seeing are a mix-match of prototype, pre-prod, and who knows what else.

I still have no idea what the actual finished product looks like.

Take a look on the dealer demos thread as well as pics earlier on this one. The Lotus Oostende and Lotus Antwerp cars have got plenty of pictures on their websites and/or Facebook and Instagram feeds.

 

[Lotustoronto]

I believe it is very 'fair' Emira's get distributed to important markets for Geely in EU and a 'first come first served' principle feels very unfair, if you realize that Emira was also presented at different dates around EU... Also it is common sense for Geely to allocate them to different markets, as that's where the future business is.

It makes no sense to spend all the money to develop a new Lotus Emira to accordingly allocate all first produced cars to an Island, and bet your future on the same island for total EV production. I would actually do it the other way around - ship to international markets first ;-)

While I agree that Lotus will want to deliver to all markets world wide in a timely matter... I do disagree with the first come first served as being unfair. In fact when people are willing to place their money down on an item to reserve in advance, it should be honoured by sequence. Now if it's an EU Market reservation or a different market (N/A, UK, China etc.) should still follow in that order, within that specific market. I don't know if Lotus always planned to launch EU Emira's first or if it was supply chain issues. They did launch the Emira in the UK, first test drives done by UK companies, first reviews by UK magazines. You would think that would lead to first customers being in the UK. I would imagine they would stagger market launches to EU, N/A, Asia, Australia etc. So if your number 600 in the UK and 600 in the US, the American might get the car first because that market allocation will be larger.

This all reminds me this:

 

[Bilbao-Emira]

Sorry Tom, your first assumption is a UK assumption. They didn’t tell everyone deliveries would be in deposit order date with UK first. That‘s a misconception. They told international markets a different story...I have been told a different story from day 1.

Your second assumption…not really...its not 100% based on what parts arrive. EU allocations are going exactly as communicated more than a year ago, only with 3 month delay.

Sorry @hagen111 , my dealer in Spain told me at the launch last year that the info he had at the time was Continental Europe would be 1/2 months after UK start deliveries.
However, you are right about not following deposit date in EU, same as not any mention whether they would deliver to dealers and customers of different countries in EU first units at same time, which would have been consistent with Global approach and logic with priority customers as to timeline being the first depositors in each country.
we discussed this topic in the Forum many times without a clear answer,
But we now find out that this is not happening as we were told, regardless of the delays.

 

[VL3X]

While I agree that Lotus will want to deliver to all markets world wide in a timely matter... I do disagree with the first come first served as being unfair. In fact when people are willing to place their money down on an item to reserve in advance, it should be honoured by sequence. Now if it's an EU Market reservation or a different market (N/A, UK, China etc.) should still follow in that order, within that specific market. I don't know if Lotus always planned to launch EU Emira's first or if it was supply chain issues. They did launch the Emira in the UK, first test drives done by UK companies, first reviews by UK magazines. You would think that would lead to first customers being in the UK. I would imagine they would stagger market launches to EU, N/A, Asia, Australia etc. So if your number 600 in the UK and 600 in the US, the American might get the car first because that market allocation will be larger.

This all reminds me this:

Classic. "You know how to take the reservation. You just don't know how to hold a reservation."

 

[EspritGuy]

While I agree that Lotus will want to deliver to all markets world wide in a timely matter... I do disagree with the first come first served as being unfair. In fact when people are willing to place their money down on an item to reserve in advance, it should be honoured by sequence. Now if it's an EU Market reservation or a different market (N/A, UK, China etc.) should still follow in that order, within that specific market. I don't know if Lotus always planned to launch EU Emira's first or if it was supply chain issues. They did launch the Emira in the UK, first test drives done by UK companies, first reviews by UK magazines. You would think that would lead to first customers being in the UK. I would imagine they would stagger market launches to EU, N/A, Asia, Australia etc. So if your number 600 in the UK and 600 in the US, the American might get the car first because that market allocation will be larger.

This all reminds me this:

Decent analogy (last sentence) but for the fact North America only received 700 cars allocated while UK/EU continued to accept FE deposits for 6 or more months after NA supplies were exhausted.
The salt in the wound was 'Anyone who wants an FE can get one' quote by Matt Windle.
The Lotus Envy

 

[Lotustoronto]

Decent analogy (last sentence) but for the fact North America only received 700 cars allocated while UK/EU continued to accept FE deposits for 6 or more months after NA supplies were exhausted.
The salt in the wound was 'Anyone who wants an FE can get one' quote by Matt Windle.
The Lotus Envy

True.

What I meant was assume 5K annual production

Split between regions; 20% UK - 15% EU - 30% N/A - 10% Australia / Middle East - 25% Asia / ROW (I don't know if this is correct, just example)

The deposit holder for an Emira F/E or Base that is in sequence number 1,252 in all regions would not receive a car this year - Except if your in N/A as they would receive 1,500 cars for the year assuming 5k production number. So just because you deposited months earlier, the more important is the allocation split for your region and then what number you are within you region/country. To go even further it may depend on your dealer and how many allocations they are allotted. That's another rabbit hole.

Who should have received the first cars by region is another matter. Personally I would think the home country would have the upper hand. In this case it seems EU get's the win. I personally believe it's supply chain, however there is evidence to suggest that it may have been set up this way on purpose. Right or wrong not for me to decide, I'm just in Canada waiting. Patiently.

 

[Bilbao-Emira]

True.

What I meant was assume 5K annual production

Split between regions; 20% UK - 15% EU - 30% N/A - 10% Australia / Middle East - 25% Asia / ROW (I don't know if this is correct, just example)

The deposit holder for an Emira F/E or Base that is in sequence number 1,252 in all regions would not receive a car this year - Except if your in N/A as they would receive 1,500 cars for the year assuming 5k production number. So just because you deposited months earlier, the more important is the allocation split for your region and then what number you are within you region/country. To go even further it may depend on your dealer and how many allocations they are allotted. That's another rabbit hole.

Who should have received the first cars by region is another matter. Personally I would think the home country would have the upper hand. In this case it seems EU get's the win. I personally believe it's supply chain, however there is evidence to suggest that it may have been set up this way on purpose. Right or wrong not for me to decide, I'm just in Canada waiting. Patiently.

Correct.

The split is not easy and creates big differences in delivery for the same product, which derivates in GLOBAL but not at the same time and makes a lot of people not very happy compared to others, but that's what we get for almost every new product.

Just as an example:

Take the case of Spain (not representative at all of the whole picture)

Total allocation for FE V6: 12 customer cars + 1 Demo + 1 Showroom
Population: 47.4 Million.
Imagine all the dealers in California and New York together would get only 12 cars !

Belgium:
Population 11.56 Million.
I don´t have data of how many FE have been allocated by Lotus, but much more than Spain for sure,
and customer cars are already been delivered.

The number of allocations where preset by Lotus per country, so the big differences for number of first depositors per country/region where set by Lotus at least in July last year (right after official launch and the boom of first depositors)

What has happened lately in my opinion is that due to the lack of more components in RHD than LHD they just shipped out a few units of what they had ready to start cash flow instead of keeping cars in stock to fullfill the preset schedule. This is totally understandable after all the delays in production caused by external factors throughout the year, but clearly not nice for UK dealers and customers which according to the original plan were supposed to be the first out of production.
Take into account that the cars delivered now in Europe, even for dealers, are paid in full to Lotus, whereas my understanding (maybe wrong) is that the UK dealer cars are property of Lotus, therefore not paid even if delivered now.
All supposed, but I think the moment they get all the components for RHD they will go back to revert the situation to the original plan, and the only difference overall at the end would have been only a few cars sent to Europe ahead of UK customers, maybe a dozen or so, and the dealer demos for part of Europe (not all) ahead for a few weeks.

Overall the big problem which cannot be solved is the at least 6 months delay for everybody over the original plan.
All this mess with change of initial deliveries on top, clearly generates a frustration for most of the customers, but I am pretty confident sooner or LATER we are all going to enjoy this car. I personally KEEP CALM AND ENJOY EVORA in the meantime.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Take the case of Spain (not representative at all of the whole picture)

Total allocation for FE V6: 12 customer cars + 1 Demo + 1 Showroom
Population: 47.4 Million.
Imagine all the dealers in California and New York together would get only 12 cars !

Why so low? I assume based on relatively low historical sales of Lotus in Spain,
Australia, population: 25 Million . . . 100 FE cars allocated
But we have historically been one of Lotus' strongest markets

 

[Bilbao-Emira]

Why so low? I assume based on relatively low historical sales of Lotus in Spain,
Australia, population: 25 Million . . . 100 FE cars allocated
But we have historically been one of Lotus' strongest markets

i am pretty sure it's due to that. They kept on changing dealers through the last 15 years and never succeeded to introduce the brand properly.
Now the say they consider Spain as a potential and very interested to grow for the future EV´s, and at the same time they cap themselves with probably the best image car on hand to expand the brand.

Funny business decisions, but who knows anymore!

 

[TomE]

True.

What I meant was assume 5K annual production

Split between regions; 20% UK - 15% EU - 30% N/A - 10% Australia / Middle East - 25% Asia / ROW (I don't know if this is correct, just example)

The deposit holder for an Emira F/E or Base that is in sequence number 1,252 in all regions would not receive a car this year - Except if your in N/A as they would receive 1,500 cars for the year assuming 5k production number. So just because you deposited months earlier, the more important is the allocation split for your region and then what number you are within you region/country. To go even further it may depend on your dealer and how many allocations they are allotted. That's another rabbit hole.

Who should have received the first cars by region is another matter. Personally I would think the home country would have the upper hand. In this case it seems EU get's the win. I personally believe it's supply chain, however there is evidence to suggest that it may have been set up this way on purpose. Right or wrong not for me to decide, I'm just in Canada waiting. Patiently.

The other factor is you're assuming supply to all markets can all start at the same time. Your analysis works when they are in steady state production. But Lotus had to get approvals in each market, sometimes before they could finalise build and sometimes before they could deliver.

They had factored the different approvals timelines and sequences (eg you can re-use most crash testing from one region for most others) into their plans, alongside various other factors. The original intentions back at the reveal in July 2021 included first deliveries starting in UK, then Europe, then US etc. Hence why the original build of about 3000-3500 cars for 2022 was split differently to normal proportions.

After the demand at Goodwood they revised the country allocations to increase UK and reduce US. That's where the 700 for NA came from. Those allocations have been reviewed and revised fairly regularly in light of updated times for regional approvals and parts supply.

Country allocations have typically been based on historical sales, hence why Australia gets more per head than Spain. The same happens in deciding dealer allocations, particularly in the US. It's primarily driven by past sales rather than number of deposits, although US dealers had an opportunity in mid/late 2021 to pitch for their allocation based on deposits received in the first few months after the reveal. They also have to allow for dealer network expansion and hold some allocation for the new dealers worldwide.

 

[Lotustoronto]

The other factor is you're assuming supply to all markets can all start at the same time. Your analysis works when they are in steady state production. But Lotus had to get approvals in each market, sometimes before they could finalise build and sometimes before they could deliver.

They had factored the different approvals timelines and sequences (eg you can re-use most crash testing from one region for most others) into their plans, alongside various other factors. The original intentions back at the reveal in July 2021 included first deliveries starting in UK, then Europe, then US etc. Hence why the original build of about 3000-3500 cars for 2022 was split differently to normal proportions.

After the demand at Goodwood they revised the country allocations to increase UK and reduce US. That's where the 700 for NA came from. Those allocations have been reviewed and revised fairly regularly in light of updated times for regional approvals and parts supply.

Country allocations have typically been based on historical sales, hence why Australia gets more per head than Spain. The same happens in deciding dealer allocations, particularly in the US. It's primarily driven by past sales rather than number of deposits, although US dealers had an opportunity in mid/late 2021 to pitch for their allocation based on deposits received in the first few months after the reveal. They also have to allow for dealer network expansion and hold some allocation for the new dealers worldwide.

All true. I was only stating that (outside of supply chain issues) all would depend where they fall within their region/country and if they have remaining allocations available to be allotted to that customer. It's just not as clear to say I deposited right after the reveal, so I should get a car early. If you live in Germany and there is only 10 (example) allocations for 2023 for the country and you deposited July 2021 but your number 11 on the sequential order, you may not get a car in 2023. Where as it is possible someone in the UK could have deposited in January of 2022, 6 months later and still get a car in 2023.

 

[TomE]

True, in countries with an allocation framework (most of them) it does depend on what each dealer's allocation is and when you join the queue. We see that in North America with widely different deposit cut-off dates for making it onto the V6 FE list.

That's one reason why the new UK model of single queue by deposit date was supposed to be fairer and more transparent. But as we've seen, that's been somewhat abandoned now.

 

[Hedge]

The first isn’t an assumption, it’s what Matt Windle and Scott Walker told me at Goodwood 2021, reconfirmed a further two times through 2021 and again in Jan 2022.

The second is what Lotus Customer Care and several UK and EU dealers told me two weeks ago, supported by anecdotal info from Lotus production staff and factory tours.

Curious what you were told on Day 1 and was that by your dealer or Lotus HQ? Interested to know where these differences come from. Message me if you’d prefer not to post the details.

It’s that man Scott again!
It’s like they’re Porsche 2014 onwards and they haven’t got past Porsche 1996.

 

[~el~jefe~]

True, in countries with an allocation framework (most of them) it does depend on what each dealer's allocation is and when you join the queue. We see that in North America with widely different deposit cut-off dates for making it onto the V6 FE list.

That's one reason why the new UK model of single queue by deposit date was supposed to be fairer and more transparent. But as we've seen, that's been somewhat abandoned now.

they are trying to spread them out around the country to get people excited for their chinese made flying turd 5200 lbs battery EV's. cannot blame them for trying.