Bee

I love the look of the Emeya, and really want to see it become the huge success that Lotus needs it to be. However, does anyone else think its pricing may need adjusting, in light of the unexpectedly impressive figures for the updated Taycan, its direct competitor? The base Emeya at £95K does 0-62 in 4.15s and has a claimed range of 310-379 miles. The £95K Taycan 4S manages 0-62 in 3.7s, has a range of 421 miles (and has been seen achieving that (or very close) in a few reviews). The Emeya R at £130K does 0-62 in 2.78s and has a claimed range of 270-301 miles. The £134K Taycan Turbo (Turbo !?! - answers on a postcard) manages 0-62 in 2.7s and has a claimed range of 370-390 miles. Personally, I'd still have the Lotus because I love Lotus and I do think it's a better looking car, too. To a completely neutral customer looking to purchase an electric sports GT car, I worry that the Emeya might struggle. I only hope the reviews come in pointing out that's it's dynamically very impressive and a better drive. I'm looking forward to the inevitable head-to-head duels, but feel the range disparity will hurt sales.

Looks a bit tasty...

Interesting that the Öhlins TTX made such a big difference (almost as much as the extra 65bhp). Komotec's recent Emira vid also highlighted how they thought the Öhlins TTX made for significant improvements, too! Wonder who'll have a 500bhp i4 first - endless A45s out there comfortably running 500bhp.

Fishing from the same pond? Polestar's roadster, aiming for 2026 deliveries... Polestar 6 - LA Concept edition I Polestar UK Porsche's 'E' Boxster and Cayman are launching in 2025; MG's Cyberster is to be released next summer. It does, I suppose, give Lotus a chance to benchmark against a few competitors, before it hits the road, four (or so) years from now, although they may well take it upmarket by that point. It will be interesting to see where they pitch/price it, as the 'sports car' in their range of SUVs and super-saloons.

Well, it is a Bond car... 😉

On a more positive note... Lotus produces record 2,200 sports cars in first half of 2023 | Automotive industry | The Guardian

It needs more oomph. but it can't do that without treading all over the V6. It's a little depressing that the 2016-2017 four-door hatchback A45, weighing 56kg more and boasting 376bhp, does 0-60mph in 4.2s. Delimited, they outstrip the i4's top speed, too. I'm sure the Emira 'S' or 'R' will be considerably quicker; I would have thought that a 440-460bhp version will drop the 0-60 time to under 4s and the top speed should start to look like supercar territory. Given that we're still on the launch editions, though, with base models coming in 2024 (at a guess), then I would imagine that an Emira S/R model is going to be 2025 at the earliest, as a last ICE hoorah before Lotus's electric sports car. I think the £81,500 price is a bigger issue, though. I appreciate that Lotus has been seriously hit by inflation but the Alpine S and GT are both £62,500 (and the base model £52,500, being only 0.1s slower to 60 than the Emira i4). A Cayman GTS with added leather and PDK comes in at £77,500, leaving you free to spend another £4000 of options. None of these would matter too much for a Lotus enthusiast, but for an unbiased customer considering their first Lotus...

I don't mean to come across as any kind of 'grammar Nazi', but it does not look great for a professional company, least of all its MD, to post the plural of Eletre as: Eletre's; it comes off as looking unprofessional on what should be a stunning photo.

If Lotus - as a whole - were happy to have the CEO make said statement 'I commit to you that these costs will not be passed on to you, the price you are being quoted will be the price you pay for your Emira. That is a promise.' then they have to ensure it is honoured, or raise serious question marks over his (which would be disrespectful and unfair), and their own, integrity. Yes, other car manufacturers raise prices for preorders, but I can't think of an example where they promised not to, and then did! Given the promise/commitment already made, an announcement should have been made much sooner, r.e. the increased pricing, and then applied to those ordering from that point.

Very good look at an Eletre in action - it's certainly not slow!

Great AutoTopNL drive of the Emira - no chat, just an extended POV country road drive!

Many congrat's! Looking forward to seeing the pics!

Not wishing to sound overly despondent. but it's October now: is there not one other Emira buyer with news of an imminent collection? Is it looking more like November for UK customers? Either way, I'm still looking forward to hearing TLF members documenting their early experiences!

Does anyone know whether first customer deliveries still on for October? I'm really looking forward to seeing some reviews for the Evija. I'd love to see what it can do on circuits like Spa or the 'ring!

Can't understand a word, but a great look round a gorgeous green Eletre, especially the interior... And another (same vehicle)...

That's what you get for leaving said knickers on the seat instead of stowing them in the glovebox!

Seems a little harsh - a pre-production Emira with touring suspension/tyres up against 'that' lot. I appreciate the Cayman GT4's price is only 5-6K or so more than the first edition Emiras, but the 2022 models available on Autotrader are 100-118K. The Maserati, Ferrari and McLaren are 3-5 an Emira's price! All you really got from that test was that the Emira's powertrain and transmission are looking increasingly long in the tooth, and they are hoping the i4 will be a significant improvement. To be honest, I think the i4 Emira has a lot riding on it...

I would be livid: that's completely unacceptable!

That is a beautiful truck, Jack: you're a lucky man! 😜

I bet even their cheaper models, Roma (£170K), F8 (£203K) etc., typically come in at £200-250K once options have been added. I can completely believe the Ferrari average comes in north of £300K once you factor in the models with la la land pricing to find a mean retail figure. I know Geely want Lotus to be the Ferrari in their stable, but I think they're many, many years from being at that point. Not a bad thing for most people, however - we'd be priced out of pretty much every point in the model range were that to happen!

Really? Please substantiate that comment, given that Lotus have previously confirmed the engine and gearbox is good for more, or is just BS, or your point of view? Tuners will always happily take engine outputs far beyond the manufacturer's own limits, so yes, Komo-tec et al can clearly take the Toyota unit up to 500bhp. However, they are not working to the safer margins a car maker like Lotus has to, in order to guarantee the reliability of said gearbox over the lifespan of the car. Even without a cross-referenced video recording from any Lotus engineers, regarding the exact power limits they themselves chose to set, in order to appease your demands for cast-iron evidence, it seems mind-bleedingly obvious that Lotus would have released higher-powered variants of the Exige and Evora, if they could have, because, well - you know - they would have been better and thus sold more. So, it light of your eloquently phrased enquiry, I would say it's my point of view based on what seems reasonably clear. I could, of course, be wrong; I freely admit to not being perfect, far from it. Please feel free to consider it 'BS' should you wish to: with a great deal of time at my disposal, I would struggle to adequately covey the literally cosmically-scaled size of the sh** I don't give as to whether you do so or not. PS: I, too, bet you're fun at parties.

Given how many people will see that review, compared to all the YouTube guys, Chris Harris has probably just done more for the public perception of the Emira than all the previous positive reviews combined. There will be lots of casual car enthusiasts chatting about the Emira over the next week thanks to that little segment on Top Gear!

As others have said, I think the simple truth is that bhp and rev limits have been dropped so that they can be put back up again when the 'S' (or whatever equivalent they choose) model is released, when the Emira has its first refresh. In fact, I suspect that the V6 may not even soldier on beyond that point, with upcoming emissions regulations tightening around the world. The Mercedes powertrain will just be effortlessly stepped up to 400-420bhp, seeing that iteration of the Emira drop to sub four seconds to 60mph, and a top speed closer to 200mph. If the V6 Emira was launched at 430bhp, how would they find any extra power for the refresh, given that they clearly are not willing to take that powertrain any further with its existing gearbox?

Not exactly test conditions with specialist timing gear(and just one run shown), but that was around 4.7-4.9 secs to 60mph and 10.7-11.0 secs to 100mph. Really need to see it done with professional timing and several runs.

'only half of the brake light strip was working' I have to say that does not reflect well on Lotus at all. All these new customers they have lined up, holding deposits on new Emiras, and/or considering putting down deposits on the Eletre - what message does it send to them? Surely, now, there can be no excuse for sending out a car with a fault like that. Unless there's a genuine reason (damaged by another car at the last minute etc.), it just seems amateurish, giving a poor impression for a company claiming that quality control is now 'sorted'. I'm assuming it's an early/preproduction model but it's representing Lotus, at a well-publicised event, on the verge of one of their most important ever vehicle launches: it should have been checked over thoroughly. You can just imagine chuckles from the crowd about 'typical Lotus' when they saw only half the brake strip was working. Coverage has been exceptionally positive, thus far - it's clear people want the car/Lotus to do well. If faults like that crop up, however - something, where the police would pull you over - then some of those first reviews will leave a nasty aftertaste...