Collection Thursday 22nd June

[ChrisJ]

Just got to my hotel in Norwich, excited for tomorrow morning. Have collated all of the questions so far into the first post. I'll try and work these into conversation where possible and report back!
If the factory is full of i4s that shouldn't be too hard, will pretend I have a north american friend who's after one

Hope it all goes to plan and you have a great day.

 

[Robbierob]

Just got to my hotel in Norwich, excited for tomorrow morning. Have collated all of the questions so far into the first post. I'll try and work these into conversation where possible and report back!
If the factory is full of i4s that shouldn't be too hard, will pretend I have a north american friend who's after one

Thank you, hope you get the answers…

 

[Joel]

Just got back from the factory, and, while I didn't get concrete answers or get to ask all the questions, I did get a few bits of information which will hopefully help to answer a few of these.

I will caveat though, please don't take this as gospel, this is my interpretation of what I was told by Scott and Sam. Having spent the morning with them I think they are genuinely trying to help where they can, but, they also can't be 100% accurate either.

* What happened to Lotus Advanced Performance and the upgrades they were teasing?
* What happened to the Bespoke Emira Program they announced before?

I spoke to Sam about some of the items I'd heard of with respect to these areas, and it seems, if I've understood correctly, that they're still working on this, just things aren't ready to be announced/released yet. Seems like the aftermarket/approved mods are in the pipeline still

* What problems are they aware of and how are they fixing the known issues?

Seems like Scott is aware of most of the issues, we already know he reads the forums so he's probably seen all the threads already. He did tell me about the feedback loop, customers reporting into customer care and then that creating a chain reaction of events internally to start mitigating the issues rectifying the ones already out there. To me, it seems like there is a genuine level of interest in looking after existing customers, it's just, some things take time (eg the wiper issue)

* When will i4 demos be provided to the automotive press and when will deliveries commence outside of China?
* When will i4 test drives for punters be available

Sam told me to they hope to have the dealer demos in the UK dealers by end of August, and, that customer deliveries wouldn't be far behind, possibly even as early as September.

* Will all i4 models have the ADAS module?

No. At the moment, the Adas module (the lump on the front) is being installed on all Chinese cars. But it is most likely a cost option for the i4 FE.

* When will Base Edition configurator launch?
* Any information on when the type 135?

I didn't get to ask these questions, apologies

* When will North America FE 2.0 allocations be released to Dealers?
* When will prices be released for I4 North America?
* Any update on certification for North America?

Didn't get much info on NA, but, I believe the gist of things (based on some comments, this is definitely my interpretation) is that because they haven't started v6 in NA yet, not to expect the i4s until they have started to get through the existing V6 allocation for NA

 

[Robbierob]

Thank you. Did you know if cars which are produced right now have known issues?
And now, we want see pictures of your car😎

 

[Joel]

Did you know if cars which are produced right now have known issues?

I wasn't told that my car had any known issues, so I'm assuming that it's ok? Though mine was built in March so I don't know if it has the wiper issue or not, haven't had enough rain to find out yet.

Sam did mention though about trickle charging. He said there are some warnings that come up if the battery voltage is a bit low and that they are working on a software fix for this, I assume to be updated by the dealer at some point.

Think I might invest in a ctek, since I only drive at weekends really and not every weekend, I can go two or three weeks without the car having a good run.

I'll do a collection post and share some photos there, how about that?

 

[EspritGuy]

Just got back from the factory, and, while I didn't get concrete answers or get to ask all the questions, I did get a few bits of information which will hopefully help to answer a few of these.

I will caveat though, please don't take this as gospel, this is my interpretation of what I was told by Scott and Sam. Having spent the morning with them I think they are genuinely trying to help where they can, but, they also can't be 100% accurate either.



I spoke to Sam about some of the items I'd heard of with respect to these areas, and it seems, if I've understood correctly, that they're still working on this, just things aren't ready to be announced/released yet. Seems like the aftermarket/approved mods are in the pipeline still


Seems like Scott is aware of most of the issues, we already know he reads the forums so he's probably seen all the threads already. He did tell me about the feedback loop, customers reporting into customer care and then that creating a chain reaction of events internally to start mitigating the issues rectifying the ones already out there. To me, it seems like there is a genuine level of interest in looking after existing customers, it's just, some things take time (eg the wiper issue)


Sam told me to they hope to have the dealer demos in the UK dealers by end of August, and, that customer deliveries wouldn't be far behind, possibly even as early as September.


No. At the moment, the Adas module (the lump on the front) is being installed on all Chinese cars. But it is most likely a cost option for the i4 FE.


I didn't get to ask these questions, apologies


Didn't get much info on NA, but, I believe the gist of things (based on some comments, this is definitely my interpretation) is that because they haven't started v6 in NA yet, not to expect the i4s until they have started to get through the existing V6 allocation for NA

Good of you to so helpful for the Forum. Hope you also met your personal goals there.

 

[Joel]

Good of you to so helpful for the Forum. Hope you also met your personal goals there.

Well I had a great tour (thanks Sam) and picked up my new car, I'd say I achieved my goals 😜

 

[Porter]

Sam did mention though about trickle charging. He said there are some warnings that come up if the battery voltage is a bit low and that they are working on a software fix for this, I assume to be updated by the dealer at some point.

Think I might invest in a ctek, since I only drive at weekends really and not every weekend, I can go two or three weeks without the car having a good run.

I'm starting to wonder whether an inline capacitor on the battery might help stabilize things. At minimum it would lessen what seems to be a voltage sag problem when the battery isn't at 100% charge.

 

[Cachaco131]

I'm starting to wonder whether an inline capacitor on the battery might help stabilize things. At minimum it would lessen what seems to be a voltage sag problem when the battery isn't at 100% charge.

I think you are completely wrong. It should be a flux capacitor which leave all the electrical issues in the past. 😝

 

[mforde]

Thanks for the update Joel, it's really appreciated.