Lotus has launched a new sub-brand offering enhanced personalisation of its cars, ranging from unique colour combinations to one-off specials.
Named Chapman Bespoke after company founder Colin Chapman, it will offer three levels of customisation: ‘tailor-made’ for special colours and materials, ‘collection’ for limited-edition collaborations with luxury brands and ‘one-off’ for completely bespoke cars.
Qingfeng Feng, CEO of the Lotus Group, said: “The story of Lotus is the story of a bespoke car maker. The first cars were hand-drawn and hand-built at home by Colin Chapman, and that spirit lives on in us today.”
The move is likely to have been inspired by the huge bounties reported by rival companies’ similarly conceived personalisation services.
Bentley, for example, reported that 70% of all cars it sold in 2023 had bespoke content, worth more than €40,000 (£34,000). One buyer even added €400,000 (£342,000) worth of carbonfibre.
In turn, the Crewe-based firm attributed its success in 2023 – its second-best annual profit ever – to the Mulliner programme.
Similarly, Rolls-Royce set a new record for value and volume of bespoke cars in 2023, thanks in part to its coachbuilt Drop Tail models, understood to be worth more than £20 million each.
Every car that Goodwood now builds goes through the Bespoke programme, supported by a series of regional offices in which buyers can sample materials and paintwork.
Former Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös noted in the firm's 2022 results that commissions from the Bespoke programme were worth €500,000 (then £430,000) each. He added that some examples of the Phantom limousine went "beyond €2 million" (£1.8m).
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