Lotus managing director Matt Windle has told Autocar that “it feels like Lotus is alive again” as the British brand gears up to finally start delivering its long-delayed Evija electric hypercar, having overcome a series of setbacks.
Meeting Autocar at company headquarters in Hethel, Windle also spoke of quality improvements on the Emira production line, Lotus’s enduring passion for sports cars and potentially transformative partnership opportunities that could one day become reality.
Has the Evija (revealed in 2019 and priced at £2.04m) been a financial success for Lotus, or will it be?
“It will be. We’ve said we will build a maximum of 130 and sales are good. We’ve got enough sales for next year. It had two purposes for us. It had to break even; we weren’t looking at it for massive profits. It’s a halo product, and we wanted to not only show what we could achieve technically but also redefine the design language as well.”
Is Hethel big enough to deal with Emira demand?
“Yes it is, definitely. We had teething problems, no doubt, mainly around parts supply; we do still struggle a bit. But what we’ve done is slow down production. We were aiming for a target, but we were missing it every week, and it was demoralising. We’re now getting good-quality cars coming out. “UK deliveries will start next week, so cars will be with the dealers the week after. It’s later than we wanted to be, but I can guarantee that everyone here has been working a lot of hours to try to get them out.”
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Lol. I have a memorandum of understanding with some ham in my fridge, which both parties fully intend to make good on, along with fellow investors the wholemeal bread, the tomato, a conglomorate of spring onions, with some much needed liquidity from the mayonaisse.
"We have a memorandum of understanding with (Britishvolt). I think Britishvolt is a long way from having products available. We’re still investigating how we can work together"
I know Autocar have to keep something back for the weirdos that pay sixty-six quid a month, but I hope the natural conclusion to that sentence was "but we are also exploring other supply avenues", because they sure as sh|t won't be getting any service from Blyth.
"I think Britishvolt is a long way from having products available."
No sh1t, Sherlock!