Lotus Eletre

[j2 lot]

I agree with comments above. An SUV is what buyers currently want but Lotus are behind the game and in 4 years they may well have missed the trend or be fighting for a very small corner of a crammed market.  Unless they come to market with hybrid / electric power or something innovative (like the Elise was in the 90's) I worry that it will be bought by ' grown up' current owners and won't increase the market they currently have or raise the brand.  

Lotus should have capitalised on the original Tesla tie-in and been producing cars using that tech for the last 10 years. 

[franjipane]

I'd buy I lotus SUV, like many families they're good for family trips with the dog.   All the choices available currently are a bit rubbish or boring in one way or another. If they can solve the handling issue and make it fun to drive then yea, I'm in.

I don't mind it not happening for a few years, lots of people will still need an SUV type of vehicle in 2020, 2025 and so on.

 

[j2 lot]

That's my point in a way, I would too but we're already Lotus owners, they need an SUV right now that people will buy instead of the new Alfa SUV or the capable and desirable RR, Discos, Jag, Porsche, Maserati, Jeep etc. 

A small specialist sports car manufacturer with no 4x4 background has  to have a good USP ro sell their 4x4 against the established players. 

[auRouge]

Can anyone understand how low volume SUV will make money? 

"Gales believes the SUV has the potential to double or even treble Lotus’s planned annual sales volume of 4000 units — more than double today’s figure — once its next generation of sports cars is in production early in the next decade for sale in all major global markets."

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/lotus-suv-could-challenge-porsche-macan-2022

This is hardly mega money given the investment / burden of the project. Imagine how many Macan's have been sold! Volume makes money in the SUV market.. 

Isnt this a drop in the ocean when the likes of JLR, BMW, VAG and Porsche sell in the tens of thousands a year?!

I want to be more positive but think a cheap "MX5" competitor (two seat Lotus Elan ragtop) for about £25k would be the answer to profit and less risk... You know everyone would want one!! 

[auRouge]

If it looks like this the wife is getting one

You can see Evora DNA in this image, I quite like it

[franjipane]

That looks nice but is too low and doesn't look like it has enough boot space for a big dog. In fact I think it looks more like a hatchback with oversized wheels, or an Evora with botox

[Chillidoggy]

My son works for Ford, and he says the emphasis is going to be on hybrid/electric vehicles in the near future. Driverless is also going to with us sooner than we think, too.

[auRouge]

Light up a cigar... the end is near ?

[C8RKH]

Driverless. Yeah when banks cannot even get their ATM networks working and simple mobile phones freeze.

I'm a dinosaur but someone I just do not see the public taking to driverless cars.

I can see the advantages to legislators, but not to people.

5 years ago electric cars were going to take over tge world. Still less than 1% of all cars sold in the UK aren't they?

[auRouge]

18 hours ago, franjipane said:

That looks nice but is too low and doesn't look like it has enough boot space for a big dog. In fact I think it looks more like a hatchback with oversized wheels, or an Evora with botox

True but isnt this what sells to gazillions of people who live in the city, use the internet to shop, don't go off road and probably don't have a ? But I know what you mean?

They need to appeal to the right market.

[Dan E]

It all comes down to lawyers to be honest, they have got to decide if driverless cars kill the driver or the kid run out in front of them that will hold it up for years in my opinion. 

[franjipane]

@auRouge tell me about it! That's the family car my missus wants haha. She loves driving the m100 elan and was well pleased to hear lotus have an SUV on the way. 

The mock-up wouldn't work though as the distance from the top of the rear wheel to the top of the car is much less than the height of the wheel itself! On the evoque (I think that's the white one pictured?) There's simply more height, so is a bit more practical.  Tbh I don't mind the look of them, just so long as I can still keep my Esprits

[NedaSay]

Interesting artistic rendering from Angelo Polo Gallardo

For more : http://www.carscoops.com/2017/05/this-vision-of-upcoming-lotus-suv-is.html

[C8RKH]

Isn't that frog quite poisonous? Something to do woth its sweat glands iirc.

[theelanman]

Interesting.........I dont expect to pay insurance with a driverless car........

why should I.......Im not in control therefore not responsible for what it hits...

infact the people who are providing these things should be responsible surely...

I didnt design the software that drives the car...they did......

mmmm.......wonder what thats going to do to the insurance industry

[auRouge]

@theelanman

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2017/apr/07/autonomous-vehicles-will-only-work-when-they-stop-pretending-to-be-autonomous

Back to the SUV... 

There's so many out there to choose from!  I personally like SUV's for the family stuff, it's unnecessary but comfortable and cost no more than an estate so let's get over it!

If the Lotus SUV is to do well I'd suggest benchmarking the F-Pace as a minimum! it's selling errr rather well... in fact the fastest selling Jag in the manufactures history!!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/08/29/f-pace-sets-record-as-fastest-selling-jaguar-in-companys-history/amp/

[100th_Idiot]

On 2017-5-10 at 09:41, theelanman said:

Interesting.........I dont expect to pay insurance with a driverless car........

why should I.......Im not in control therefore not responsible for what it hits...

infact the people who are providing these things should be responsible surely...

I didnt design the software that drives the car...they did......

mmmm.......wonder what thats going to do to the insurance industry

This is insurance companies you have this expectation for. They are going to charge you for insurance for accidental damage (tree limbs, shopping carts, hit by uninsured third parties in manual cars) and they are going to charge the car manufacturers for when the vehicle is driving itself. Now. Do you expect your premiums to reduce?

[theelanman]

they're never going away so they'll find something to charge someone for....lol

[auRouge]

Under Geely if they can boast lightweight and electric then I reckon they still stand a chance to really change things like Porsche did with the original Cayenne...

JC slated it but it's what the market wanted and made a lot of financial sense for Porsche... 

Lotus, pls do something new for Pete's sake!! ???

[Vulcan Grey]

The 2.0L 4cyl turbo segment is pretty big right now!  The girlfriend wanted an Audi Q3, so we test drove the Q3, the BMW X1, the Nissan QX30, the Mercedes GLA, the Lexus NX 200t, and the Acura RDX (3.5l V6).  The Acura was too big for her!  She wanted a tiny luxury SUV!  The Evoque also would have been in that class.  I also wanted to test the F-Pace, but she had already decided on the Audi.  IMO the Audi was the slowest shifting by far, and the worst brakes.  I actually liked the QX30, since the double clutch on that was programmed much better than the same system on the GLA...

I would have steered her towards a Lotus if there was one

[auRouge]

downsizing of engines...

Read a great article recently talking about the regulations testing requirements post VWDieselGate... it suggested the new emissions regs would force the manufacturers to demo in varied conditions... soon as those turbos spool up fuel economy goes to ?

hopefully this means bigger engines are making a coming back in lighter cars (Japanese mainstream are upsizing!) more intelligent management systems in them.

On a purely black and white experiment a friend of mine has a new Focus RS, his fuel burn is the same as mine.. similar driving style, he's got a 2l 4cyl Turbo, I've got a 4l V8 NA...

I personally don't see the sense in downsizing too much for fuel economy because it doesn't really work across the full bandwidth.

Merc GLA, if it's like the A-Class I know what you mean, it never settles and is constantly changing gear.. didn't like it either. 

As long as she's happy that's what matters?

 

[KAS-118]

In respect of engine downsizing - these are interesting articles:

 

1) https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/industry/opinion-why-engine-downsizing-doesnt-always-work

2) https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/engine-downsizing-come-end-says-volkswagen-boss

 

[NedaSay]

It was the dirty little secret of all the "downsizers" 2l turbo 4 inlines can be as powerful as 3l V6 at the cost of efficiency. Diesel has been the darlings of carmakers for years, supposed to be the holy grail but now we can see that  it is not that rosy... However downsized and hybridized propulsion systems should get more powerful and better efficiency especially if mated with 8, 9 or 10 speed gearboxes while still getting the internal combustion engine smaller.

Still BMW decided to go no smaller than 500cc per cylinder and adding the twin scroll turbo to provide greater low end boost. But it the end it always comes to power to weight in the perspective of a full system.  Volvo is ditching diesel in favour of and hybrid system

Companies are reassessing the strategies in realtime these days, McLaren V8 just went from 3.8l to 4.0l on the 720S for a reason I believe, Mercedes is supposed to add the 48v battery to their v6 models very soon: http://www.idtechex.com/research/articles/mercedes-48v-mild-hybrids-from-2017-00009836.asp  and Audi should follow suit in order to try to clean up their act with the TDI cheatmode debacle: https://paultan.org/2017/06/09/2018-audi-a8-can-coast-with-engine-off-at-160-kmh/

As for Lotus, with the potential SUV and the Geely purchase, Volvo could lend a precious hand by providing the supercharged and turbocharged 4 pot which does show very good fuel economy and emissions as the full system provides for greater effectiveness throughout the rev range, and also the hybrid T8 system which maybe an heavier system than the V6 supercharged and chargecooled but with access to Polestar could generate even more power without giving up on the fuel economy claim. 

Edited June 10, 2017 by NedaSay

[nerobi]

[C8RKH]

@nerobi just confirms if you want a fat, sloppy, SUV then go to Porsche. If you want a lean drivers machine, go to Lotus.