Who will buy a 131?

[Beady]

On 01/05/2021 at 20:25, scotty435 said:

I have been told dealers will have demo’s in there showrooms from mid July ready for potential customers to see in the flesh, spec, order for early 2022 delivery.

Whoooaaa - in showrooms July 21 ?? I was expecting July 22 as they’re always late 

[exeterjeep]

1 hour ago, Neal H said:

I could live with dct

I had a Jeep with this type of gearbox and I would not buy another, probably a manual or, less likely, a full auto.  

[Gashead1105]

I'm not going to be a buyer of a new one at 80k plus, and if its "just" got the current Toyota V6 in it then that's another negative. I'd rather have the handmade Evora in that case.

However if the 4 cylinder engine is the 400hp one made by AMG, and its approximately 60k -65k for a new one, I could easily be persuaded to get the wallet out! Don't even care if its auto only and that would definitely be a plus from the wife's perspective!

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Why would Lotus fit the 400bhp AMG four pot for 60k - 65k, when the Toyota V6 will start at 85k for just a few bhp more. The four cylinder auto only car will be 300 bhp. I don’t think some people on here realise how good these prices are. Even an Evora GT410 is £90k.

[Gashead1105]

My V6 exige was 350hp and was 60k (including options) brand new in 2015. Final edition exige is 400hp for 70k. Don't see why they can't improve on that given economies of scale but perhaps I'm missing something. Anyway, all will be revealed later in the year. 

The Toyota V6 is constrained by the gearbox, if that has been resolved then I don't see why Lotus can't get it above 500hp to start with. That would create plenty of space for the 4 cylinder. 

[Bee]

It seems likely for the 300bhp version to clock in at around £55k as it will be head-to-head with the Cayman S at the same price point and power. Anything much above that, and it will need to be spectacularly ahead of said Cayman S in order to justify the extra £££, or look like poor value by comparison. Other competitors for the inevitable group tests with this lower price-point model are likely to be the Alpine A110, Z4 M40, Supra and possibly the TT RS.

 

Hopefully, it'll make mincemeat of the lot of them!

[theelanman]

Not yet........I'm still waiting for the suv......I need 4 seats......so don't need the elise or exige.......having said that......I presuming the Emira will be 2 seats...lol 😳👍😁

[Likuid]

3 hours ago, Bee said:

It seems likely for the 300bhp version to clock in at around £55k as it will be head-to-head with the Cayman S at the same price point and power.

Lotus isn't going to sell more cars matching Porsche's price and (on-paper) performance. They need to beat them by a clear margin in at least one of those categories. Lotus just doesn't have the cache or dealership network to demand compromise from their customers. So, unless Geely convinced a bunch of Volvo dealers to also service (and possibly sell) Lotus they are going to have to bring more to the table to pull in customers. Otherwise the Emira will be another Evora. Great car, terrible sales.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

I think when the world gets to see the Emira a lot of these statistical comparisons will go out of the window. When you look at a Cayman, it really is a bland design for a mid-engined sports car and it’s been around for donkeys years, so surely it’s time for something special to take some sales off it.

[jimichanga]

On 02/05/2021 at 09:35, DarrylV8 said:

Why don’t you think the first Emira won’t be coming out of the production hall early 2022?

I would have thought end of February (possibly sooner) beginning of March was very realistic with a new production facility 

Lotus haven't even built prototype Emiras yet.

[scotty435]

How do you know they haven’t?

[jimichanga]

"Today we're building our first prototype vehicles as they come off the line"

That was 'we are building' not 'we have built'. So testing hasn't even started yet. Gearing up a production line for mass production on a scale not seen before at Lotus won't be a simple or quick job either.

Edited May 4, 2021 by jimichanga

[DarrylV8]

good job were only in May 2021 then, not sure why you feel so confident Lotus wont have customer cars ready in 9 months when they are already building prototype cars down the new factory line?

[ramjet]

Ok. Playing devil's advocate.

Lotus would have recorded this months back. Yes, it was just released confirming the name etc, but it is possible that 'Today we're building our first prototype vehicles as they come off the line' started potentially months ago.

If I recall correctly, others have mentioned that dealers have been to the factory as well. While they might have seen just renderings and spoken about things, it is possible that Lotus have built prototypes.

Also, what was under the cover beside the Evija in that photo that made it on here months ago? And wasn't there three cars in one photo?

[brightoncorgi]

51 minutes ago, ramjet said:

If I recall correctly, others have mentioned that dealers have been to the factory as well. While they might have seen just renderings and spoken about things, it is possible that Lotus have built prototypes.

 

Also, what was under the cover beside the Evija in that photo that made it on here months ago? And wasn't there three cars in one photo?

Dealers have seen crappy looking photos of Emira

[ramjet]

So I presume that snippet came 'as a quote' from a dealer? And how long ago was that?

[C8RKH]

26 minutes ago, brightoncorgi said:

Dealers have seen crappy looking photos of Emira

And already the pre-factory dealer order books are filling up!  What is not to like?

[ramjet]

I can't help but think that a lot of people try to read between the lines to fill in the gaps that have been left intentionally.

I'm not a customer. I have already said that. However, I have taken the announcement from the other day at face value. I haven't tried to fill in the gaps. Maybe I am being naive. Maybe I haven't been around Lotus long enough.

Just wait until GFOS and wait and see what happens. Lotus must have had something going on or what would they be bringing to GFOS?

Yeah I know. Glass half full.

 

[jimichanga]

1 hour ago, ramjet said:

Also, what was under the cover beside the Evija in that photo that made it on here months ago? And wasn't there three cars in one photo?

Pixels. All CG renders. As everyone knew some time ago.

They will be bringing prototypes to GFOS obviously.

Edited May 4, 2021 by jimichanga

[Bibs]

8 minutes ago, DarrylV8 said:

they are already building prototype cars down the new factory line?

VP - "Validation of Production" cars and yes, that's where Lotus are currently with Emira's on the production line.

[Likuid]

 

1 hour ago, ramjet said:

Also, what was under the cover beside the Evija in that photo that made it on here months ago? And wasn't there three cars in one photo?

The one by the Evija next to the Lotus Tech center building looks to be the Emira (its a rendering). The teaser with the 3 cars under cover we thought may all be 131 cars. We thought Lotus may release 3 different cars under the 131 chassis, but so far that doesn't look to be the case, especially since they hammered it home that the Emira was the last ICE in that video and interviews. So we have no idea what the other 2 cars are. They look larger than the Emira, my only guess is they are future electric cars. Although both of them being larger is kind of confusing if so. Lotus did recently trademark the name Elevo, which sounds like an electric car name to me, who knows?

Unless this is all a ruse and they will actually be announcing 3 cars and not just the Emira in July, but I find that very hard to believe.

[TomE]

There are several different types of prototype.  Engineering Prototypes (EPs) are the various cars used to prove handling, drivetrain, ABS etc - what are often called mules and mostly look like hacked about Evoras.  There have been "spyshots" of these.  The final cars won't look like these.

Validation of Production (VP) cars are after the design is proven and to iron out how they are going to build them.  Lotus are building these, some dealers have seen and sat in them.

Lotus followed the same approach for the Evora and some of us were lucky enough to see the EP and VP cars.

Goodwood is the Emira's "dynamic debut", so it will be a completed and running pre-production car.  Technically you can call that a "prototype" but it'll be very close to how the final car will look, sound and drive. 

[C8RKH]

1 hour ago, ramjet said:

I can't help but think that a lot of people try to read between the lines to fill in the gaps that have been left intentionally.

I'm not a customer. I have already said that. However, I have taken the announcement from the other day at face value. I haven't tried to fill in the gaps. Maybe I am being naive. Maybe I haven't been around Lotus long enough.

Just wait until GFOS and wait and see what happens. Lotus must have had something going on or what would they be bringing to GFOS?

Yeah I know. Glass half full.

 

You are taking the right, and the best, approach Michael.

[marcfair]

Wonder if lotus will do some good finance  deals  on the new car? 

£50k is out of my reach but you never know  once the 'man maths' gets going 🤔

Edited May 4, 2021 by marcfair

[DarrylV8]

@marcfairdo we need to lend our calculator?