Lotus looks to boost sales 5 times by 2015

[Toaster]

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2013/01/lotus-l...

[V8 FOU]

Oh dear....

Danni Boy hasn't been in there has he?

I thought the sales last year were about 140, so 5x = 700 sales by 2015. Quite achievable then......

[BibsTLF]

Those figures were for the UK, the factory built over 1,000 cars last year (itself, a figure down from 2,500 the year before).

[Hedgerley]

You have to put 2012 production into the context of the takeover of Proton and the hiatus of DB's plans unravelling. There was a 3 month production shut down and a moratorium on non-essential spend whilst DRB-Hicom carried out their due diligence (under Malaysian Stock Exchange rules)

It took several months to get production back up to speed once outstanding supplier bills had been paid and component deliveries were able to resume. Let's not forget that DRB wrote a cheque for this, to the tune of £100m, to keep Lotus afloat in 2012.

DRB then held back the production and customer deliveries of the Exige S whilst they worked on what were perceived to be quality shortfalls on this and the Evora/Elise family.

Based on the previous years 2,500 I would estimate that Lotus 'lost' production of around 750 units in 2012 i.e they would have come in at around 1,800 for the year. Not great but better than the raw numbers suggest.

In polite terms, I hope we can look back on 2012 as a year of 'consolidation' and Lotus does go on to achieve the numbers DRB are indicating. I also sincerely hope we see the Evora GTE and most importantly a new Esprit emerge from Hethel in the coming months/years.

But I am an eternal optimist - I cannot countenance a future without Lotus.....

[Maulden7]

The all new Exige S was awarded Car of the Year by EVO mag, & "the existing order bank for the Exige alone will more than double the total 2012 registrations."

The quote is from Guy Munday of the Stratton Motor Company (long time Lotus main dealer)

[Toaster]

Hedgerley said:

But I am an eternal optimist - I cannot countenance a future without Lotus.....

Same here

[V8 FOU]

Me too.

But the competition is so far ahead now it's worrying. For instance, the Alfa 4C, amongst others.

As usual, everything crossed. Bit like the cheques arriving from DRB......

[Andyk44]

Have a look at this review on you tube, the exige S come across as a great car in my eye, just need to get people driving it

I'm not in a position to get one ( I'm a classic car type lotus owner) but surely anyone who has or has got an Elise is going to twitch a thought at affording one of these?

http://youtu.be/Y_X-cyhk63I

[Frimley111R]

Evora GTE has been cancelled. No more after about 5 initial ones were built/sold.

[Frimley111R]

Also, the Esprit is still in development but they are unsure whether to make their own engine or buy one in.

[WayneB]

Toaster said:

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2013/01/lotus-l...

I'm pretty sure the main reason for that press release was as an re-assurance to DRB-Hicom shareholders that Lotus was going to be viable in the future.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/marketwatch/charts/l.asp...

You can see that the shares were low at the end of December 2012 and bounced back up at the beginning of the new year after that statement.

You can also see though that the shares are again falling in value so the shareholders may not be buying into it.

There was also an recient article in the Wall Street Journal reciently in which the CEO of DRB Hicom revealed he was "open" to selling Lotus, despite all of the companies last 6 months worth of denials that that was the case.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240529702044...



I feel there is definately a "temporary" status to DRB's current ownership of Group Lotus and that ultimately the company will end up in the hands of a certain investment group based in Luxembourg, and that is when we will see definate progress regarding the future of Group Lotus.

Edited by WayneB on Monday 4th February 18:51

[Thorburn]

WayneB said:

There was also an recient article in the Wall Street Journal reciently in which the CEO of DRB Hicom revealed he was "open" to selling Lotus, despite all of the companies last 6 months worth of denials that that was the case.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240529702044...

That article is January 2012, so not recent. The statement was made shortly after they acquired Proton.