demo cars at dealers ?

[Beady]

any thoughts on when demo cars will be available at dealers to test?

and then when will the i4 be available  to test?

[Mctaff]

I had my "how do you want to get your car call yesterday" (Hethel please!)... the person who called reckoned mid-May to early June. 

Just after I have to sign up for my car I imagine!!

[exeterjeep]

On 17/03/2022 at 09:57, Mctaff said:

mid-May to early June

This agrees to what I was told the other day, but I won't be holding my breath....Also not clear which dealers will have what spec and if just a couple of colours per dealer?.

[TomE]

Each UK dealer will probably only have two cars initially, one static for showroom and one for test drives.  I assume i4 dealer cars won’t be until end of the year.

I’d also heard May/June.

I’ve also been told Lotus are trying to sort out something else so June delivery people can get a test drive before having to commit their order in May.

[freefall_junkie]

Any idea what the something else might be - perhaps some kind of roadshow for June delivery folks? I had resigned myself to not being able to drive the car before delivery, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I could. 

[exeterjeep]

17 hours ago, TomE said:

Each UK dealer will probably only have two cars initially, one static for showroom and one for test drives.  I assume i4 dealer cars won’t be until end of the year.

I wonder which dealer will get the first car(s), or will Lotus be able to send out a fleet of trucks with the first car to each dealer on the same day?

[Bibs]

The dealers no longer have to buy demo cars, they're provided by Lotus. I'd imagine they'll send them out over a few days and dealers can all make them available at the same time once they've all got them. That would make the most sense. 

[exeterjeep]

5 minutes ago, Bibs said:

they're provided by Lotus.

Hendy suggested that they had specified what they wanted for their first demo/showroom cars eg sports or standard suspension etc.

[Bibs]

Traditionally, dealers are supplied with the cars as they specify and they are added to their stocking plan which they pay for. The change is that they don't pay for them, Lotus own them and 'lend' them to the dealership to use as demonstrators. They can still spec them as they wish and I'm sure sell them once their demo duty timescale is up. 

[PAR]

Also, the6 are not dealers anymore… 

[TomE]

2 hours ago, freefall_junkie said:

Any idea what the something else might be - perhaps some kind of roadshow for June delivery folks? I had resigned myself to not being able to drive the car before delivery, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I could. 

I'd heard it might involve an invitation to the factory to drive cars there, or possibly at other closed roads/circuits around the UK.  I think they're mindful the timing of approvals could mean June delivery people may not be able to drive a demo car at a dealer (agent!) before the D-30 date for final payment.  The nervousness at Hethel is this may result in some people asking to defer to July or even cancel.

I gather agents are being asked to prioritise demo drives for existing deposit holders in delivery month order, so June people should get first drives, then July etc.

[simonb]

16 minutes ago, TomE said:

I gather agents are being asked to prioritise demo drives for existing deposit holders in delivery month order, so June people should get first drives, then July etc.

How does that incentivise the agents?  deprioritise anyone coming in waiving cash

[freefall_junkie]

9 minutes ago, TomE said:

I'd heard it might involve an invitation to the factory to drive cars there, or possibly at other closed roads/circuits around the UK.  I think they're mindful the timing of approvals could mean June delivery people may not be able to drive a demo car at a dealer (agent!) before the D-30 date for final payment.  The nervousness at Hethel is this may result in some people asking to defer to July or even cancel.

I gather agents are being asked to prioritise demo drives for existing deposit holders in delivery month order, so June people should get first drives, then July etc.

Thanks, really pleased to hear Lotus are actively considering this. So, the bottleneck now for being able to get demo cars out is type approvals rather than the cars actually being available? Does this mean there is a potential risk that the necessary approvals won't have been achieved for the June deliveries to go ahead even if the cars have been built, or are they confident it will be sorted by then? 

[TomE]

5 hours ago, simonb said:

How does that incentivise the agents?  deprioritise anyone coming in waiving cash

Agents don't get commission on sales, so they basically don't care about selling or conversion ratios or any of that old-fashioned stuff  

[TomE]

5 hours ago, freefall_junkie said:

Thanks, really pleased to hear Lotus are actively considering this. So, the bottleneck now for being able to get demo cars out is type approvals rather than the cars actually being available? Does this mean there is a potential risk that the necessary approvals won't have been achieved for the June deliveries to go ahead even if the cars have been built, or are they confident it will be sorted by then? 

It's been known for a while internally at Lotus that the timing of type approvals was likely to become the critical path for customer deliveries.  It's why they've had to look at various other ways of handling press reviews, dealer demos and start of production.

They're building customer cars in April and May but having to stockpile them, so the delivery batch in June will be a lot more than a normal month of production.  That means by about August they will be back on plan with the cumulative volumes they expected last July, and by end 2022 will deliver as many cars as they'd planned to do for the year (or maybe more if the second shift starts sooner).  It's just the early depositors who are delayed a month or two.

They've done all the testing and prep needed to submit for UK approvals and wanted to get to that submission point before start of production and telling people about delivery dates.  So although there's a small risk the approvals process could be delayed, that shouldn't be because the car doesn't meet requirements.  Previous delays to the process were largely due to Covid affecting staffing and the agencies involved having backlogs as a result of staff shortages. That's still a slight risk.

[Bibs]

33 minutes ago, TomE said:

Agents don't get commission on sales

They do, it's just a fixed fee per car rather than a percentage. If they didn't get paid anything, there wouldn't be much point in staying in the network! 

[TomE]

But don't they only get the fee for cars delivered via the agent?  So if someone test drives then orders online and elects to pick up from another agent, collect from Hethel or get delivered to their home then the test drive agent gets nothing?

[Bibs]

There are quite a few commercially sensitive specifics I'm afraid I can't share online but the dealers, sorry, agents will still be paid for cars ordered through various routes subject to certain conditions and not just ones that are delivered via their forecourt. 

[PAR]

Any update on the additional agents to join the network?

[exeterjeep]

Spoke with Hendy on Sunday, they have 2 Emira's due for their showroom/demo, a seneca blue one and a grey one - but cannot remember which grey it will be. They want to run both suspension options, but that seems a bit difficult unless they have both as demos.

[marcfair]

Looking forward to have a dealer / retailer and service agent in the North East at some point as I've said many  times. 2.5hr drive each way to the nearest from up here in Newcastle 🚘

[Evotion]

It was my understanding that as soon as a dealer gets the nod that the customer will collect it from them, then they hit that £xxx fee. I suspect it will only be £xxx too.

For that, I expect that they will further PDI the car and prep it for collection and do the handover.

[Bibs]

1 minute ago, Evotion said:

It was my understanding that as soon as a dealer gets the nod that the customer will collect it from them, then they hit that £xxx fee. I suspect it will only be £xxx too.

Nope and nope! I did mention a little further up that there are a few conditions where the dealer will become 'custodian' of the sale and it's more than 3 figures otherwise there wouldn't be much commercial interest in being involved.

[Mctaff]

over a grand to accept a car off a truck, check it over, then pull a cover off it for the customer and get a few bits of paper signed?

anyone want to pick up from my house? I'll throw in a decent espresso too!

[Evotion]

Ha, yeah, you have a point but this might be the only way Lotus HQ can keep the agents on board.

Further to that though, the agents will be a part of the sales process as people will still want to go to their local garage to see the demo cars in the flesh and perhaps drive them.. This takes up some time so it part of that work deserving of the 'fee'.