Lotus Evora crossover, roadster to spearhead expanded Evora

[shooomer]

The Lotus Meccano would be appropriate

[campbell]

Lol Mike.

Anyway I think comparisons to 911 market space and profitability are an apples and oranges thing in this instance. Hedging and diversification have their place, and if a new added dimension is being properly researched by Lotus (not sure if Bahar did this?) then let's give them a chance.

[Mikie711]

Not disputing that but not sure Lotus are a brand that the general public would associate with something like a cross over vehicle. Put it this way, if you were in the market for a car like this would anyone here dropping 50K+ on a Lotus Evora xover (lets not kid ourselves, it aint going to be cheap) or are you going to go and buy and Yeti/Q5/X3/Evoque etc. Be honest...........

Edit: Just had a look at the thread on TLF and the consensus is that the xover is based on an updated Evora chassis .... phew. So should have it's own styling. Maybe similar to the way porsche picked up styling ques from 911 throughout the range. Guess we will have to wait till Geneva to see. Still think that with their limited resources it's a huge risk. Main stream market will not stand being development drivers for a product the way that early adopters of Evora were. They will certainly have to up their game when it comes to build quality and I do worry about them being able to churn out a quality product given that the line at Hethal is still all down to man power as opposed to automated lines employed by major manufacturers.
You also need a much broader dealer network to support a main stream car such as a SUV/Xover. Someone who doesn't stay in Edinburgh is unlikely to want to travel for servicing etc and I can see that being their biggest hurdle in achieving volume sales.

Don't get me wrong, I sincerely hope they pull it off, I really do. In fact I hope they build a car that everybody wants but I just think the expectation of someone shopping in that market is much higher than your average Lotus owner. Lets be honest, we forgive them a lot, stuff you would be straight back to the dealer with if it had a name starting with just about anything other than L.

[j2 lot]

As a Lotus fanboy - I'm in, but only if it can do what is says on the tin.
An SuV that can't get up a snowy incline, when a hot hatch can, isn't going to cut it in my view.

I think a back to basics no frills 4wd along the lines of a Defender or Bowler might work and be achievable if they can sort the 4wd but to get sales figures you still need a well specced version

[Sanjøy]

I retract my couple of elec motors in the front hubs and am now shifting my dough to the ultimate hybrid cross over. 4 motors, 2 or 3 pot proton engine solely for battery recharge. Extensive add lightness and class leading eMpg and range as a result.
Do they not need it to get brand emissions down a la that Aston hatch or is that old law?

[SAJ]

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Searc ... nd-beyond/

[ryallm]

When you read the losses in that article you do wonder how on earth Lotus has remained in business. £71.1M loss in the last financial year on car sales of 1301 cars. That is a loss of 54 grand per car Looking better for this year and Gales is predicting break even as early as 2016 so fingers crossed he can turn it around.

[DJ]

That is a loss of 54 grand per car

So does that mean I can get a free V6 Exige from MMC?

[Kelvin]

I know someone that had the plans for this Crossover in the back of their car...or so I was told.

I suspect it's really aimed at the Asian market which is one of the biggest markets for such motors and luxobarges.

Ref Porsche. The article I read earlier this year said Porsche make $23,000 on EVERY car it sells. Now I suspect that might just be profit divided by the number of cars as I'm sure the amount it makes per different car varies. However, it is generally accepted that the Cayenne saved Porsche to some extent as it sells more of them than anything else. I suspect the Macan will do rather well too. If Porsche was still just selling 911s it would be in the poo by now.

Given that Lotus have more or less given up on the engineering side and really are mostly a car maker now they do need a broader range of cars which includes some kind of SUV/Crossover.

[ryallm]

I know someone that had the plans for this Crossover in the back of their car...or so I was told.

I suspect it's really aimed at the Asian market which is one of the biggest markets for such motors and luxobarges.

Ref Porsche. The article I read earlier this year said Porsche make $23,000 on EVERY car it sells. Now I suspect that might just be profit divided by the number of cars as I'm sure the amount it makes per different car varies. However, it is generally accepted that the Cayenne saved Porsche to some extent as it sells more of them than anything else. I suspect the Macan will do rather well too. If Porsche was still just selling 911s it would be in the poo by now.

Given that Lotus have more or less given up on the engineering side and really are mostly a car maker now they do need a broader range of cars which includes some kind of SUV/Crossover.

Yes the Cayenne has been Porsche's best selling model for years. No accounting for taste, but it probably is something Lotus needs to consider to survive.

The Porsche example also illustrates another one of the problems for Lotus - the profits to be made on mid market cars like the Evora are much lower that the high end. I recall reading that the development and manufacturing costs of 911 Turbo are only about 10k Euros more per car than a Boxster. This is probably the only area where Bahar's plans did make some kind of sense, i.e. the brand needs to move upmarket in order to make much more margin per car. It is very hard to make any money on low volume mid market (30 to £60k) cars.

Incidentally it has occurred to me recently that the very real possibility of Lotus not being around in 5 years time could help with my man-maths when it comes to justifying buying a V6 Exige If Lotus goes belly up, second hand values will remain sky high. Just look at the prices of late TVRs like the Sagaris.

[j2 lot]

Vulture!!

[cjm]

I know someone that had the plans for this Crossover in the back of their car...or so I was told.

I suspect it's really aimed at the Asian market which is one of the biggest markets for such motors and luxobarges.

Ref Porsche. The article I read earlier this year said Porsche make $23,000 on EVERY car it sells. Now I suspect that might just be profit divided by the number of cars as I'm sure the amount it makes per different car varies. However, it is generally accepted that the Cayenne saved Porsche to some extent as it sells more of them than anything else. I suspect the Macan will do rather well too. If Porsche was still just selling 911s it would be in the poo by now.

Given that Lotus have more or less given up on the engineering side and really are mostly a car maker now they do need a broader range of cars which includes some kind of SUV/Crossover.

Yes the Cayenne has been Porsche's best selling model for years. No accounting for taste, but it probably is something Lotus needs to consider to survive.

The Porsche example also illustrates another one of the problems for Lotus - the profits to be made on mid market cars like the Evora are much lower that the high end. I recall reading that the development and manufacturing costs of 911 Turbo are only about 10k Euros more per car than a Boxster. This is probably the only area where Bahar's plans did make some kind of sense, i.e. the brand needs to move upmarket in order to make much more margin per car. It is very hard to make any money on low volume mid market (30 to £60k) cars.

Incidentally it has occurred to me recently that the very real possibility of Lotus not being around in 5 years time could help with my man-maths when it comes to justifying buying a V6 Exige If Lotus goes belly up, second hand values will remain sky high. Just look at the prices of late TVRs like the Sagaris.

The 911 profits must be help a huge amount by the basics of the front half being the same as a boxster/cayman.

[BiggestNizzy]

I know someone that had the plans for this Crossover in the back of their car...or so I was told.

I suspect it's really aimed at the Asian market which is one of the biggest markets for such motors and luxobarges.

Ref Porsche. The article I read earlier this year said Porsche make $23,000 on EVERY car it sells. Now I suspect that might just be profit divided by the number of cars as I'm sure the amount it makes per different car varies. However, it is generally accepted that the Cayenne saved Porsche to some extent as it sells more of them than anything else. I suspect the Macan will do rather well too. If Porsche was still just selling 911s it would be in the poo by now.

Given that Lotus have more or less given up on the engineering side and really are mostly a car maker now they do need a broader range of cars which includes some kind of SUV/Crossover.

Yes the Cayenne has been Porsche's best selling model for years. No accounting for taste, but it probably is something Lotus needs to consider to survive.

The Porsche example also illustrates another one of the problems for Lotus - the profits to be made on mid market cars like the Evora are much lower that the high end. I recall reading that the development and manufacturing costs of 911 Turbo are only about 10k Euros more per car than a Boxster. This is probably the only area where Bahar's plans did make some kind of sense, i.e. the brand needs to move upmarket in order to make much more margin per car. It is very hard to make any money on low volume mid market (30 to £60k) cars.

Incidentally it has occurred to me recently that the very real possibility of Lotus not being around in 5 years time could help with my man-maths when it comes to justifying buying a V6 Exige If Lotus goes belly up, second hand values will remain sky high. Just look at the prices of late TVRs like the Sagaris.

The 911 profits must be help a huge amount by the basics of the front half being the same as a boxster/cayman.

It's just something the German manufacturers do keep tweaking the same old design and improving on it.