Our Factory Visit - Colours in the flesh, Suspension and Quality Control

[ramjet]

3 hours ago, jimichanga said:

I’m interested to know how someone with no previous Lotus ownership history gets granted such privileged access to the Lotus factory. Many very loyal long standing customers here with multiple new factory orders to their name who didn’t.

I suppose as others have said, Ade - new customer that is excited, TomE - returning customer.

In fairness, you lambasted Lotus and the presenters since the online launch. You probably were not on their radar.

[Pugwash]

2 hours ago, TomE said:

Because, for various reasons, Lotus were interested in feedback from a small cross-section of customers about various topics and took a decision on which customers they would like to hear from at this point in time.

They knew the four of us going would result in "why didn't I get invited" from various people.  But on balance they decided it would be beneficial to have us there and also to let us share what we had seen and heard, rather than gag us with NDAs.

Makes complete sense.  Working through Emira “influencers” is a good way to get the message out.  It also reinforces for me the transparency that Lotus would like to achieve when they are working under the pressure of a product which has probably exceeded their expectations.  Every interaction I have had with Lotus staff from Goodwood through to Hethel they have always shown extreme pride in what they have produced and delight that it seems to have gone down so well.  Really looking forward to June.  Be nice to see one in the flesh beforehand!

[MaJiK]

Nice write up 😀

 

When do you think that Ferrari red colour will be available?

[TomE]

1 hour ago, Murdock said:

I find this strange as in the last 2 months they have just made redundant/moved people to other departments that were doing this very trim work for many years....

Not on 5-10k cars a year they weren’t.  Lotus have decided to buy-in a lot of trim items, so they can get the required volumes and quality levels.

1 hour ago, Emiralust said:

Did you ask about factory collection? I’m very keen for this

I think they’re keen to do this if they can work out logistics.

They’re reviewing what would be included in some sort of package, such as briefing on all the Emira controls and features, factory tour, CTL tour, track session etc.

49 minutes ago, Pugwash said:

To do factory collections they will need a team on site doing the Pre Delivery Inspections (PDI) and registrations and handover that the dealers usually do.  

Yes, and they are gearing up to do that.

[TomE]

49 minutes ago, jep said:

I thought it was known policy that Lotus would no longer be trimming cars in-house. I recall this in a Lotus film in 2021 with an ex-trimshop staffer interviewed about her new role. 

Justin

 

Yes, the “Lotus: A New Dawn” programme last year. 

[Andy Jet]

1 hour ago, jep said:

I thought it was known policy that Lotus would no longer be trimming cars in-house. I recall this in a Lotus film in 2021 with an ex-trimshop staffer interviewed about her new role. 

Justin

 

Yes and she was there the day we went 😀

[ramjet]

Missed @Andy Jet - vocal early depositor. (and presumably new to Lotus?)

[SpyderBite]

A humble suggestion for anyone who gets a chance for Q&A with key Lotus staff about the Emira...

Though a minority of current orders, there are still a decent number of people planning to get the I4.  Or at least who would like more details to better choose between the I4 and V6 versions, before fully committing to the V6.  Please, ask lots of I4 questions even if you're buying the V6!  There's nothing much left to be discovered or confirmed about the V6, right?  The I4, on the other hand...

I'll admit I know a lot more information than is public, from one-on-one's with Matt, Gavin, and others.  (Amazing guys by the way, we are blessed to have them leading Lotus).  It's been frustrating since then seeing Lotus's lack of I4 communication with both the public, and with the Lotus dealer network.  With V6 orders needing to be finalized shortly, it also strikes me as wrong not to have revealed more I4 info for those on the fence.

Perhaps they are more willing now to "soft communicate" through the forum regarding some non-numeric details about the I4, at least comparatively to the V6, versus when I spoke to them.  If I was in the UK and had an early spot in the queue, I very well could have made the wrong choice or at the least had to change up at the last second given the pressure to get V6 orders in.

[Evotion]

10 hours ago, MaJiK said:

Nice write up 😀

 

When do you think that Ferrari red colour will be available?

Well, it might never be released but the more people talk about specific colours, the more chance of them being available, as Lotus ARE listening.

If it was to made available in the next edition - what we call on here the 'Own Spec' or Base - then it will come down to when Lotus release the configurator with the Base option. This will be well before the FE production ends to build up the orders.

Therefore, it would not surprise me if this started soon. 

There will still be a waiting list of builds and deliveries will likely not start until Spring 2023 - at best.

At least people will be able to see the base spec and prices and start building them up.

 

It was kind of like this:

4 hours ago, SpyderBite said:

A humble suggestion for anyone who gets a chance for Q&A with key Lotus staff about the Emira...

Though a minority of current orders, there are still a decent number of people planning to get the I4.  Or at least who would like more details to better choose between the I4 and V6 versions, before fully committing to the V6.  Please, ask lots of I4 questions even if you're buying the V6!  There's nothing much left to be discovered or confirmed about the V6, right?  The I4, on the other hand...

 

Correct, the V6 is pretty much now all done and duster so I am personally expecting i4 details to be available either, hopefully, next week or about March time.  This will coincide with opening up the order books. We know the configurator is being refreshed next week so it might even be in there. We do not know for sure.  They can't leave it much longer as i4 prospects need to start thinking about the spec as they will surely be building them later this year.

[simonb]

51 minutes ago, Evotion said:

 

It was kind of like this:

Correct, the V6 is pretty much now all done and duster so I am personally expecting i4 details to be available either, hopefully, next week or about March time.  This will coincide with opening up the order books. We know the configurator is being refreshed next week so it might even be in there. We do not know for sure.  They can't leave it much longer as i4 prospects need to start thinking about the spec as they will surely be building them later this year.

TBH the radio silence is getting a little tedious.  Have quite a reasonably timed deposit on a i4FE car, and happy to take the package of options that will bump up the price, but other than the call to either jump into the V6FE queue or wait, I have heard nothing.

There has been no official update on i4 deliveries starting autumn this year, but I would happily wager that will become 2023

There is no clue on price for the i4 compared to the v6

If Lotus are changing the colours of the v6FE cars from the samples that went around the dealerships, all they will do is create chaos in the orders they have and kick everyone else further down the road.  If they have cars in each colour, it cant be that difficult to put a picture on instagram 

[TomE]

13 hours ago, ramjet said:

Missed @Andy Jet - vocal early depositor. (and presumably new to Lotus?)

Andrew was there with Greg on Thursday for a similar visit 👍

 

9 hours ago, SpyderBite said:

A humble suggestion for anyone who gets a chance for Q&A with key Lotus staff about the Emira...

Though a minority of current orders, there are still a decent number of people planning to get the I4.  Or at least who would like more details to better choose between the I4 and V6 versions, before fully committing to the V6.  Please, ask lots of I4 questions even if you're buying the V6!  There's nothing much left to be discovered or confirmed about the V6, right?  The I4, on the other hand...

I'll admit I know a lot more information than is public, from one-on-one's with Matt, Gavin, and others.  (Amazing guys by the way, we are blessed to have them leading Lotus).  It's been frustrating since then seeing Lotus's lack of I4 communication with both the public, and with the Lotus dealer network.  With V6 orders needing to be finalized shortly, it also strikes me as wrong not to have revealed more I4 info for those on the fence.

Perhaps they are more willing now to "soft communicate" through the forum regarding some non-numeric details about the I4, at least comparatively to the V6, versus when I spoke to them.  If I was in the UK and had an early spot in the queue, I very well could have made the wrong choice or at the least had to change up at the last second given the pressure to get V6 orders in.

3 hours ago, simonb said:

TBH the radio silence is getting a little tedious.  Have quite a reasonably timed deposit on a i4FE car, and happy to take the package of options that will bump up the price, but other than the call to either jump into the V6FE queue or wait, I have heard nothing.

There has been no official update on i4 deliveries starting autumn this year, but I would happily wager that will become 2023

There is no clue on price for the i4 compared to the v6

If Lotus are changing the colours of the v6FE cars from the samples that went around the dealerships, all they will do is create chaos in the orders they have and kick everyone else further down the road.  If they have cars in each colour, it cant be that difficult to put a picture on instagram 

A lot more information will be published in 2-3 months time (before, during and after the press reviews come out) and will cover things like final specs for V6 and i4, pricing for i4 FE and Base + options, ordering process and timing for finalising spec, timings for deliveries etc.

The "commit" date for each person will be around 3-4 months before delivery, so July delivery batch will probably need to finalise spec by March/April.  All the to-be-published info, press reviews and road tests, pictures of physical cars will be available by then.  So the only people having to make decisions with significantly less info are the ones in the first delivery batch in June.  Those people have been spoken to (still a few to be contacted) and have an option to defer into July and an option to cancel their order up to 30 days before delivery.  Anyone who wants to wait for test drives of a demo car can also defer their order.

This seems like it's about as fair as it can be given the constraints on when some info will be available, and only a small group of people are having to finalise spec before they get that.  The upside is that Lotus are taking a lot of mitigating actions to overcome obstacles and the delayed start of customer deliveries from May to June.  This means there will actually be a large batch released in June, so those early adopters who were happy to go ahead with less info will still get cars in June rather than May and June.  Again, anyone who wants to wait for more info can do that and slip down the delivery timeline by a month or so.

I know it's frustrating about the lack of info and patchy/non-existent comms.  That was one of the items of feedback that I'd raised and resulted in this visit, and was a topic of discussion with Matt, Geoff and Scott.  Lotus decided their comms strategy a while ago and chose not to publish much until information was more certain.  Many of us disagree with that.  They acknowledge they need to do more and that action is being taken to review their plans.  As we were reminded, this is still a pre-production car and some things aren't finalised and/or haven't been approved by third parties.  With the pace of testing and approvals, a lot of information is becoming final over the next few weeks, so March-ish should see a lot more.

I also fed back that many people had been told things either at roadshows or during Customer Care calls that were inconsistent or had factually changed since they were said.  Examples included what people were told Oct/Nov last year about timing of next stage for i4 FE people, and what V6 FE people were told at 2nd deposit about 3rd deposit and ability to change spec.  Lotus accepted that where they had given indicative dates about the process, they needed to meet those expectations or update people.  They were taking this point away to consider how to update people before the major update in 2-3 months time - which is probably the major update most people were expecting to get in January.

[mdavies]

That's all helpful and reassuring, Tom, thank you.  It seems a very reasonable position and approach from Lotus now after the uncertaintainties and confusions stemming from making the initial launch probably about six months ahead of an appropriate stage of the car's design and development.  Goodwood was an excellent launchpad of course and I suspect some need to impress Big-G, also to minimise the "Yes, we've got no cars" situation. 

[Eagle7]

From what I understand, they received more deposits in 5 days at Goodwood, than they normally get for an entire year, so it's perfectly understandable that they had no idea they would get the response they have, and thus were caught unprepared for that kind of response.  It's to their credit though, that they haven't buckled, but instead buckled down and got busy making this dream come true, and by all accounts they're doing it.  It may not be as transparent as we on the outside would like, but we on the outside have no real idea of what they've been going through, and have to go through on the inside to make all this happen.  

Lotus was a remarkable and legendary company in the 60's and 70's, establishing themselves as THE team to beat in Formula One with some of the best (and now legendary) drivers around.  I'm starting to think this new Lotus is going to become the rebirth of that legend, with the same élan and esprit-de-corp that made the original Lotus what it was.  There were reasons why Chapman chose Elite, Elan, and Esprit for car names; that was the attitude and image he wanted to create, and managed to achieve in racing.  But that was then.  At this new Lotus, there seems to be a common impression from people who've been there, and seen it in action, that the place seems 'happy'.  That's the sign of extremely good management, who care about their people and what they're producing.  That kind of élan, of esprit-de-corp is also the result of when you're doing something for more than just money.  The team at this new Lotus is making something great, and they know it.

From these latest reports and impressions, it's now becoming apparent that our patience and understanding is going to be not only rewarded, but greatly rewarded with the best Lotus that has ever been produced.  What a privilege it is to be alive and able to be a part of something like this, which, when looking back, will be chronicled as something historic and epic.  I have no doubts whatsoever, that Colin Chapman would be incredibly proud of what's going on at this new Lotus.

[Graham Ridgway]

5 hours ago, TomE said:

So the only people having to make decisions with significantly less info are the ones in the first delivery batch in June.  Those people have been spoken to (still a few to be contacted) and have an option to defer into July and an option to cancel their order up to 30 days before delivery.  Anyone who wants to wait for test drives of a demo car can also defer their order.

And as I am now fond of saying, we haven't ordered Emiras and Lotus haven't committed to sell us Emiras.  For the June deliveries (and maybe others) the order date is 30 days in advance of delivery.

[MJON]

Just don’t get what all the fuss is about re information and delays. Let’s face it, a brand new vehicle launched at Goodwood in July with first customer deliveries within less than one year. If you order a standard Porsche 992S it’ll be two years before you get it and just seen that a Toyota Landcruiser is on four years! Now that would be frustrating 🤐. Thanks for the info @Evotion great write up @TomE👍

[TomE]

I think part of the problem is many people saw a car at Goodwood and thought it was finished!  So their expectations are calibrated against a production-ready car that's being delivered a year later, rather than a car with development and approvals still to be completed.  Oh yes, and finish building the factory to make them in, hire the staff to build it and overhaul the company and the dealer network at the same time.  While developing and launching a range of EVs one per year.

[PaperLawyer]

Ade, thank you for the write up.

I remain flip-flopping between Hethel Yellow (which was my preferred choice at the dealer reveal), the Magma Red (still harbouring a concern it will be too burgandy on a cloudy day) and what felt like the safer choice, Nimbus Grey. 

Your comment regarding bronze and brown tints unfortunately gave me flashbacks of my wife's previous car, a Civic which I believe also had "grey" in the colour title but was very much a bronze colour! (EDIT: This scruffy example wasn't her specific car!).

Edited January 23 by PaperLawyer

[Evotion]

  It is not that colour.

It is a silver but with some little bronze. From 10 yards away it will just look a fabulous silver.

[jimichanga]

Did anyone ask what on Earth ‘The Other sports car’ line is on about?

[aEdMIRA]

Now you've seen the Magma, would the Red interior work with it?...

 

 

I am finding it so hard to decide

 

My ideal spec would have been green with tan, I've provisionally ordered red with tan, I now am thinking nimbus with tan, but now ice grey is looking good and I do miss red leather! This is unfair, I wish all the FE specs were just one colour, yellow with black alcantara and yellow piping!

 

 

[TomE]

It would be good to have @Evotion's opinion on red interior with Magma, as he is ordering Magma and spent more time looking at the Magma car at the factory.  It's not the paint colour for me, so I haven't given it a lot of thought.  I think Nimbus with tan, red or grey interior would look good.  Verdant with tan will look great too.  Too many choices and we've got "only" six FE ones!

 

[Evotion]

On 24/01/2022 at 17:43, aEdMIRA said:

My ideal spec would have been green with tan, I've provisionally ordered red with tan, I now am thinking nimbus with tan, but now ice grey is looking good and I do miss red leather! This is unfair, I wish all the FE specs were just one colour, yellow with black alcantara and yellow piping!

 

 

First off, ALL of the colours look amazing, yes, even Shadow Grey as proven by @Bibslatest pic of it - stunning.

I have heard of at least one person going red-red. 

Red-Tan, Red-Ice, Red-Black will be much more popular but don;t let that sway you. We are all individuals.

More to the point, once in the car you need to feel completely happy. if red leather all around makes you happy then go for it!

I would have gone green. It is lush but still too dark for me to live with.

My video on the factory visit is up - should it help.

 

[aEdMIRA]

Thanks Ade. Both you, Tom, Eagle and a few others are so generous with your time.

Forget bikes, just do weekly updates on Lotus!

I've made my decision. Told my family to disown me if I change again.

After flirting with grey and believing it will throw the most shapes, hide stone chips and dirt, I have decided to stick with my original build but just changed the wheels.

Behold, minimal changes equivalent to 500 hours of thinking (I will need to source or tint the wheel logos though...)

 

[Evotion]

Red will be popular and it looks stunning.

No great surprise but the 3 stand out colours were as expected, in no order, Red, Yellow and Nimbus.

Damn really wanted the green. Just too dark for me but others may be very happy as it exudes utter class and with a contrast interior will be very cool. Stick some yellow highlights on it and wow.

Ha, at the end of the day, on that rare occasion we come across another Emira on our travels you will always say to yourself "wow - that looks epic" whatever the colour.

[Five50]

Evotion - did you get a look at any of the interior colours?

Reasonable likeness to the configurator?

Interior probably quite subjective and personal - am really drawn to the tan…