I can very much see where Lotus where over whelmed by the response to the Emira and didn't plan / see the success coming. Sprinkle in some covid lockdowns and supply chain issue and voila.
I just don't get their idea behind the launch - In N/A markets (not sure about Australia/Asia) F/E's were cut off by a production figure amount. Yet in most other places, like UK/EU it was cut off by a certain date/time. Yet they allocate 2,400 to the US market for 2023 production. 1,700 of these will have to be base spec cars. Yet they almost certainly have a full production schedule of F/E cars to build. Potentially you can have a V6 F/E being built for a UK customer, 6 months after a US customer is receiving his V6 base spec. Either that or I have no idea how Lotus can project 2400 allocations to the US market and still build the 5K+ V6 F/E earmarked for the UK market. All this without adding in ROW F/E's. I am just preparing myself for a potential disappointment.... I did not make the F/E cut off despite depositing September 2021. I do get the feeling it will be sometime in 2024 I actually see an Emira unfortunately.
Only other theory I have is that Lotus will do a U-turn on doing base orders in 2023 at least until Q4 and make the remaining 1700 US allocations into V6 / i4 FE specs.