Future of Lotus

[Bravo73]

"Before the next generation of sports cars arrives, an open-top version of the Evora will be launched later next year," That sounds like 2018 to me (not that I believe that date either, to be honest). 

[Bravo73]

Incidentally, did anybody else read the comments underneath that recent Autocar article? Particularly the first contribution from RealTruth:

"

Lotus/Jean Marc

 

19 January 2017 

How can anyone in the world believe a word that the venerable Jean Marc Gales of Lotus has to say? He has been telling the world for months that Lotus is now profitable for the first time in its history then the truth comes out that he lost the business £42million last year! And now he thinks he will develop a contender-worthy SUV to the Porsche- or any other manufacturer for that matter and have it and the Elise and Exige and a redesigned Evora prepared without safety concessions for the US market by the early 2020's. If anyone believes anything that this crook has to say about the future of Lotus in the UK or the rest of the world- they must be on hallucinogenics! When will Malaysian DRB Hi-Com wake up and realize this hack is only destroying the Lotus brand and heritage worldwide for his own device. 

Why don't any of these publications look into the real story of the company instead of believing what this Kim Jong-un of Lotus tells people and everyone seems to believe all the lies. Does he serve all these journalists Kool-Aid before their interviews so whatever Jean Marc Gales states is like the words of Kim Jong-un to his North Korean populace?

The Truth for a Change!"

Apparently that is all pretty close to the current reality.

 

 

[Suddabym]

The £42m thing has been established as FY 15/16, not 16/17.  For RealTruth to not know that questions his/her credibility. 

Everything else is just speculation, not truth; real or 'alternative'.

The SUV project is a JV and has been for a while. Everyone is pretty clear that it's got a 50/50 chance of coming to fruition. You'd be pretty dense not to see that. 

The 'redesigned' Elise and Exige is essentially a single job, so one platform, not two. And I speculate that this has a good chance of happening.  And the Evora; well it's natural for the CEO to plan out the life of all platforms, even if the plans require amendment later.  So, of course he's planning out the future products and of course he's going to promote that when he gets some free magazine column inches.  Who wouldn't?

RealTruth sounds like anything but to me.

 

[Suddabym]

Oh, and as for US compliance - well, he did it with the Evora with no money and with a platform that wasn't prepped for it.  The next Platform will have the requirement baked in, so I'm not sure where RealTruth is getting all is truth from. 

[hedgerley]

The 15/16 Accounts are there for all to see on the Companies House website. Well worth a read, particularly the opening strategic report. A big chunk of the loss, around £20m if I'm reading them correctly, comes from the exit from F1 (my guess, loss of future royalties and licence payments) and amortisation of the abortive Bahar developments. Prior to these and other exceptional i.e. one-off items, the loss is a less spectacular £16m, down from a like for like £19.2m in 14/15. A reasonable improvement in my view.

The dip in car production is well explained and makes sense and the clear statements on shareholder funds and financial support from Proton and DRB going forward are very encouraging. As is the approval and funding for JMGs stated model plans. To me the underlying car business looks to be in pretty good shape. And the fact that they moved into operational profit late last year is more encouragement.

To be clear, JMG would not be making the statements he has nor would the auditors have signed off the accounts, which contain similar statements, if said statements were not true. If anyone knows this 'Realtruth', get yourself round there and give him/her a bloody good slap....

Link to the accounts - 

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/02831840/filing-history

[ramjet]

Didn't MJK run Lotus at a profit for at least one year around the time the Evora was first released? I wonder why this is never acknowledged?

[hedgerley]

Yes, 2007/8, a profit of £2m, as per the Companies House filing. In fact most of the numbers - production figures, turnover etc - were pretty healthy that year. As you say, this never appears to be acknowledged, which is a shame. The losses the following two years (£14m and £12m respectively) were manageable but then Bahar arrived and posted losses of £26m then £118m!!! But he had nice hair....

[Bibs]

Lotus welcomes Mark Garnier MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Trade

[Stubox]

Did they colour match the Exige to JMGs tie? 

 

[NedaSay]

Quote

Exporting over 85% of all its sports cars, Lotus’ biggest market worldwide is now the USA, followed by the UK, France, Germany and Japan. Successful launches of the new Evora 400 and Sport 410, the 3-Eleven, and the latest versions of the Exige and Elise ranges, have resulted in a six-month order book for the famous, hand-crafted sports cars.

The Japanese market has been a 300+ cars market for a number of years.... Japan has been one of Lotus bastion for years. Being overtaken by the US makes sense, their goal was 500 car for year one and if they've been delivering 50 cars a month to dealers since September that would mean 250 up to now with projection to 250 more till next august.... But France and Germany overtaking Japan is more than surprising.

[TBD]

8 hours ago, NedaSay said:

The Japanese market has been a 300+ cars market for a number of years.... Japan has been one of Lotus bastion for years. Being overtaken by the US makes sense, their goal was 500 car for year one and if they've been delivering 50 cars a month to dealers since September that would mean 250 up to now with projection to 250 more till next august.... But France and Germany overtaking Japan is more than surprising.

Germany doesn't surprise me, Carsten Stephan has been a stronghold for sales over the last years and Komotec/Lotus am Ring has really had a massive impact on Lotus sales. 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Why do Lotus always manage to pick foul weather for their big stories?

[Bibs]

It's always like that up there...

[NedaSay]

2 hours ago, TBD said:

Germany doesn't surprise me, Carsten Stephan has been a stronghold for sales over the last years and Komotec/Lotus am Ring has really had a massive impact on Lotus sales. 

Well if Germany, France and the UK are now ahead of Japan in sales and Japanese sales are still strong (300 cars per annum give or take) And the US are the new number one market and Lotus is selling cars to dealers in solid numbers... I'm all for it. 

[NedaSay]

Well it looks like things are going according to plan in Malaysia... They were three and now would be only two according to quite reputable Paultan blog....

And it appears that Geely (Volvo owner)  could snap Proton and Lotus (lotus is part of the package deal as it is the engineering arm of the group). 

http://paultan.org/2017/02/02/chinas-geely-leads-psa-in-bid-to-partner-proton-both-want-majority-stake-in-tg-malim-plant-report/

 

It seems that Renault is now out of contention... Not really surprising with Mitsubishi's Thailand plant, they have plenty pf capacity in the area already, and with Mitsubishi's problems Renault-Nissan have their hands full.  So it is down to two smaller wannabe global players, PSA has been reported to gearing up to bring the DS brand to the US, while Geely has been rearming Volvo in a stellar way (The brand new S, V and XC90 are soon to be followed by S,V and XC60 and V and XC40) and with Link & Co is also gearing up  to attack Europe with a lot of tech and a Chinese flavor backed up by Swedish engineering in a ploy to trick millenials back into cars with aggressive pricing. So the Volvo Drive-E engine 4 cylinder could make its way in the Elise... I will not count Peugeot out yet though.

Edited February 2, 2017 by NedaSay

[hedgerley]

Concerned that the article mentions a new CTO "from Lotus". With Lotus appearing to be in good shape having turned around over the last few years now is not the time to be losing senior staff, especially with the re-engineering of the underlying vehicle platform now underway.

Wonder who it is? Do you have the scoop Bibs?

[Bibs]

No idea mate.

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/frontpage/29-4-tile/657064-drb-hicom-to-pick-a-foreign-strategic-partner-to-revive-proton-s-fortunes.html

Quote

KUALA LUMPUR: DRB-HICOM Berhad (DRB-HICOM) believes that PROTON can be a more successful carmaker once a foreign strategic partner (FSP) is on-board.

In a statement released today, DRB-HICOM said the entry of a FSP will enable PROTON to revitalize itself through access to new platforms, powertrains and technologies which will further improve the national car’s range of products and its quality.

Acknowledging the past and current challenges, it said this revitalization of PROTON’s market share underlines DRB-HICOM’s intent to keep the brand as a player in the automotive market in which it remains committed to national car’s fate which has been in the market since three decades ago.

With the right FSP, DRB-HICOM stressed that PROTON will enhance its brand equity can again be a successful carmaker as it was in the 1980s and 1990s but will first evaluate three key criteria: strategic, operational and cultural fit before finding the right FSP.

Elaborating, DRB-HICOM said PROTON too has plenty to offer to the eventual FSP, which is contrary to common belief.

First, they will have at their disposal PROTON’s own range of affordable cars, such as Persona, Saga, Preve and Iriz.

Secondly, one of the immediate advantages available to any carmaker partnering with PROTON is the ability to immediately increase their production capacity through PROTON’s Tanjung Malim Plant.

In addition, the nation’s leading carmaker has its own in-house research and development team, as well as the lightweight platform technology of Lotus Cars UK – the combined engineering capabilities of PROTON and the legendary Lotus Cars offers a FSP enhancements to their current capabilities.

The owner of PROTON stressed further that its corporation would also assess the intention of the potential partners in utilizing the current “home-grown” vendor network, while stressing that the search for the right FSP is a critical exercise to ensure the sustainability of the national carmaker.

It is understood that DRB-HICOM is now waiting for the submission of bids from the parties, after which an earnest evaluation of the bids will commence.

 

 

 

[ramjet]

Is this not something Lotus is capable of or can't they be a company to do this as they are owned by Proton?

[TBD]

Now that is a press nonstatement! Nothing in there that wil give you any insight into proceedings.

[Kimbers]

Nothing of substance at all. Something they are very good at it appears. 

[Snoopy1969]

article with quotations of JMG in german Auto Motor Sport:

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/news/lotus-neuheiten-2020-elise-suv-evora-exige-details-daten-fakten-663621.html

 

[hedgerley]

Got to love Google Translate. Three hundred years ago Lotus had 1250 staff, hand switches are more popular than auto and Lotus had to get Board approval before building a bouncer. Wonder where that fits in the range....

[Snoopy1969]

@hedgerley .......the internet gives you answers on questions you haven't asked ......

[hedgerley]

 So true @Snoopy1969  

A bit more detail and rationale for a Geely takeover here. Now that PSA appears to have switched its attention to Vauxhall/Opel Geely do appear to be the front runner. Although Lotus appears as a footnote, at least its a positive statement.....

http://www.just-auto.com/analysis/will-geely-take-control-of-proton_id174855.aspx

Looking at what they have done for Volvo, there is some encouragement that Lotus might be in safe hands if this goes through.

[NedaSay]

And now even Autocar gets in on the rumours. Geely to buy Lotus while Peugeot would get PSA and DRB Hicom would retain a share in the Proton  pie :

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/lotus-could-be-bought-geely-psa-group-taking-over-proton

It appears that PSA would have made a better offer than Geely when it comes to Proton. Geely would in fact not really be interested in the Proton factories, not really surprising considering that their own factories are not that far and could probably flood the ASEAN market with Geely and Emgrand cars. Geely would be keener on getting Lotus engineering expertise and brand.  

In all fairness Autocar's piece is based on this article from the Star :

http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/02/18/proton-for-psa-lotus-for-geely/