DSC-off wrote:

With the Emira starting at £89,500, buying a new Lotus is no longer an attainable prospect for most people, especially if it's a second car for fun.

The Elise was just that, an attainable and fun sportscar.

I've no sympathy at all for car manufacturers moving their products upmarket, only to find no one is buying them anymore. It seems every Western brand has done this recently, abandoning their traditional market to make way for Chinese brands!

The production and engineering staff in Norfolk and their suppliers do have my full sympathy.

Spot on

Rashers wrote:

Chicken Drumstick wrote:

Viable is such a subjective and contentious word though... if low volume is not viable you wouldn't have companies like Caterham or Lotus either.

I have no idea how well or badly the Grenadier is selling, nor what Ineos' realistic targets are for the vehicle.

Ultimately it only needs to be profitable to be viable, world domination and record sales are not a requirement for this.

Lotus has been on its knees for years. There doesn't appear to be many months go by without talk of redundancies. They have just had another clear out. Most people who live in Norfolk will know someone who has been laid off by Lotus at some point or another.

Only this week, it was reported that Aston Martin has record losses and is also laying off staff. I'm not sure Aston Martin ever has made a profit?

These two marques have one thing in common. Wealthy owners. With Sir Jim's retro-chem business looking rocky, I don't think the Grenadier has that luxury?

Lotus would have been gone years ago if it hadn't been for foreign investment bank rolling the organisation. The same can be said for Aston Martin, but I have no idea who the previous owners were after David Brown. He made money building tractors, not cars. It was his tractor business that allowed Aston Martin to build cars.

DSC-off wrote:

pjm-84 wrote:

Ineos only sold 4 cars in February ........ 11 cars in January

Those are CAR registrations, if you add the Commercial vehicles it's still not great.
You've got to wonder how much the production halt affected those numbers and when vehicles started to arrive at the dealers again after the Recaro seats problem.

It will be interesting to see what the March figures are. Production is running, it's a new registration month and the last month before the new tax year, with all the tax hikes due in April.

Come to think of it, the rest of the year after April is going to be tough for the whole industry.

January, Cars 11, Commercial 25, Total 36
February, Cars 4, Commercial 22, Total 26

Rashers wrote:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx20yw9e8yqo

It seems a pretty easy fix.

What is more interesting is if you read lower in the story, it says that Ineos Automotive lost more than £1.1billion in 2023

That’s half way towards a new stadium for Man Utd

Does beg the question of what's the best way to lose a fortune - football club or car manufacturer.
Makes a change from drink and loose women

Chicken Drumstick wrote:

Yet both of those companies are still here with very long track records. And there are lots of other low volume makers, Caterham who I mentioned earlier, Westfield, Ibex and lots and lots of others, in the UK and the World over.

AMBxx wrote:

Rashers wrote:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx20yw9e8yqo

It seems a pretty easy fix.

What is more interesting is if you read lower in the story, it says that Ineos Automotive lost more than £1.1billion in 2023

That’s half way towards a new stadium for Man Utd

Does beg the question of what's the best way to lose a fortune - football club or car manufacturer.
Makes a change from drink and loose women

Owning a Defender?

Rashers wrote:

Chicken Drumstick wrote:

Yet both of those companies are still here with very long track records. And there are lots of other low volume makers, Caterham who I mentioned earlier, Westfield, Ibex and lots and lots of others, in the UK and the World over.

Couldn’t agree more and yes Lotus is still here and still churning cars out - but I am just telling you what the reality of the situation is if you live near Hethel. Redundancies are not unknown and if I am honest, not really a surprise when they are announced. They seem to have a an amazing PR department for churning out good news stories.

Every company that buys Lotus has great plans and somehow they always get bored and end up selling. As I said previously, they, at least used to, do a lot of R&D for other manufacturers and I expect that is quite profitable.

I honestly didn’t know they were producing cars in China. That was a surprise but under the current owners, it’s not surprising. What also wouldn’t be surprising is if production is moved out of the UK.

It will be a dark day if or when Lotus ever go to the wall or end up moving all of their production to China or elsewhere - especially for the county. I for one would be very sad.