NEWS: my salesperson from Bellevue just reached out to tell me that US FE1.0 cars have been built and are supposedly en route. He believes they’re all shipping to the east coast. Says EPA has been signed off but not CARB, and they will possibly start delivering to non-CARB states first.
Can...
King's Mountain Rd? Up to Skyline, then Page Mill back down? (I used to do this all the time as a young man on motorcycles, but doubtful you'd get that much time/freedom on an Emira test drive)
Are you seeing any Chinese EVs? When I lived there I never once saw a Korean car in 7 years. It would surprise me if Chinese brands could overcome the local preference for domestic products.
Possibly the whole reason for the delay of US cars is that Lotus has to replace all their N/m torque wrenches with ones that work in lb/ft. Maybe they're backordered or something.
I think you nailed it. Which makes me wonder: the Evora was never considered particularly lovely when it was on sale, which accounted for its lackluster numbers. Was it just ahead of its time?
"Dear North American Emira customers. We're sorry to announce that we won't be able to deliver your cars until we have sold 17000 Eletres in the US and Canada. We've made a good start after the Quail event, just need 16879 more. Once those EVs are in customer hands we can re-apply for CAFE...
You're right. I'm sure they'll shut down the factory and comms teams and take a well-deserved holiday after delivering (checks notes) zero NA cars for another year.
I'd love to be wrong, but I suspect the only thing Lotus will deliver in December will be the announcement of the next delay. They will of course blame US regulators, global economic turbulence, etc. Hell they'll probably try to pin it on Hamas at this point.
The more cars I see with actual stripes from real-life photos, the less I like the look. The straight line down the middle disrupts the flowing lines of the design rather than enhancing them. My other concern is that with brand new paint (especially red) the paint may slightly fade where not...
One would imagine that Lotus would be feeling heat from their US dealers by this point, having sat around for almost 2 years now waiting for inventory that never arrives. As much as I'm frustrated waiting on my car, it's certainly not make or break for my career or long term plans. For a...
Way cool! I gotta say after spending so much time making that tool, I'm now leaning against putting any stripes on mine. If it ever shows up that is. But really happy to see some stripes in the flesh! Doing the tapering in software is probably a lot easier than doing it in physical vinyl.
Latest software update: fuel door operation now requires a monthly subscription.
Edit: Lotus just in case you're reading this, I was kidding, don't get any ideas!
It's a nice silver, but given they already had nimbus and shadow, and added white, black, and zinc gray, they really should have offered something colorful instead.
Keep in mind some of us have nonrefundable deposits, which at the time they were placed were for a car expected in 6 months. We're now 18 months later so I don't think all of the impatience is unjustified.