Lotus EV bankrolled by world's richest man!

[Jonhklee]

 

[Cachaco131]

Lesson learned, no more emotional investments. Ask me how Williams F1 team worked out for me...lol

 

[VL3X]

Another related article:

Luxury EV maker Lotus to go public on the Nasdaq via SPAC under ticker 'LOT'

The iconic Lotus brand is going public on the US Nasdaq exchange under the ticker LOT as the pioneering luxury...

electrek.co

 

[robrmon]

Another related article:

Luxury EV maker Lotus to go public on the Nasdaq via SPAC under ticker 'LOT'

The iconic Lotus brand is going public on the US Nasdaq exchange under the ticker LOT as the pioneering luxury...

electrek.co

I was just about to send the same. $5.4b valuation!

 

[dgrace]

Is this Lotus NFT v.2?

 

[supersix]

Interesting. I can't think of any automotive SPACs that worked out well for investors over the last few years.

 

[dgrace]

For comparison, GM's market cap is $55B but they sold 5.9M cars last year. Lotus EV has... not.

 

[kitkat]

Interesting. I can't think of any automotive SPACs that worked out well for investors over the last few years.

Is it 2020-2021 again?

 

[Nick in Sydney]

It's a backdoor listing via a SPAC, so they can effectively set the valuation at anything they want as long as the owner of the SPAC (L Catterton) agrees to be diluted to that level. It doesn't mean the market will agree with that valuation longer term.

I see this as a mixed outcome for Lotus: the US$288M cash in the SPAC will be a welcome relief for management but I worry about the short-term pressures of public company ownership as well as the impact of having L Catterton on their shareholder register (L Catterton is a private equity investor focused on aspirational consumer brands . . . they are not car guys).

 

[kitkat]

. . . they are not car guys).

To be fair, most EV buyers aren’t either.

 

[Cachaco131]

For comparison, GM's market cap is $55B but they sold 5.9M cars last year. Lotus EV has... not.

But Lotus has a high margin and unique business model: accept deposits and do not deliver cars.

 

[Cachaco131]

It's a backdoor listing via a SPAC, so they can effectively set the valuation at anything they want as long as the owner of the SPAC (L Catterton) agrees to be diluted to that level. It doesn't mean the market will agree with that valuation longer term.

I see this as a mixed outcome for Lotus: the US$288M cash in the SPAC will be a welcome relief for management but I worry about the short-term pressures of public company ownership as well as the impact of having L Catterton on their shareholder register (L Catterton is a private equity investor focused on aspirational consumer brands . . . they are not car guys).

I think the whole SPAC market is due for some correction. Such a loophole/back door approach.

 

[dgrace]

But Lotus has a high margin and unique business model: accept deposits and do not deliver cars.

It's like an NFT but, you know, without all the compute infrastructure! Emira deposits are Web4!

 

[EspritGuy]

Interesting. I can't think of any automotive SPACs that worked out well for investors over the last few years.

Let's see. Right now Lotus doesn't appear to be too accountable to its customer and fan base per Emira..... and now they wish to set themselves up to be accountable to shareholders.
How's that going to work out?

 

[Nick in Sydney]

It's confusing. It looks like they spinning out just Lotus Technology, the EV business based in China. If that's so, where does that leave the rest of Lotus Group, especially Lotus Cars in the UK which lacks EV expertise or resources?

And who will own/control/design the electric sports car replacing the Emira?

 

[Jonhklee]

It's confusing. It looks like they spinning out just Lotus Technology, the EV business based in China. If that's so, where does that leave the rest of Lotus Group, especially Lotus Cars in the UK which lacks EV expertise or resources?

And who will own/control/design the electric sports car replacing the Emira?

Have they binned it all already? Emira is their goodbye swan song….

Makes one wonder about long term support for the platform….. it will be nothing like what Porsches or BMW M-division for sure….

 

[alvitdk]

just picked this up...looks like only the electric division though https://jalopnik.com/worlds-richest-man-is-helping-lotus-go-public-1850055357

 

[FEGuy]

It's confusing. It looks like they spinning out just Lotus Technology, the EV business based in China. If that's so, where does that leave the rest of Lotus Group, especially Lotus Cars in the UK which lacks EV expertise or resources?

And who will own/control/design the electric sports car replacing the Emira?

I had the same question. I actually came on here (cancelled my Emira a few months ago) to see if anyone knew. I’m not up to date on the Lotus structure but this actually seems rather bad for Lotus Cars UK. It essentially implies that Geely is putting it out to pasture if they’re so formally separating the ownership of the EV business from the company making the Emira.

 

[Porter]

I think the whole SPAC market is due for some correction. Such a loophole/back door approach.

It's a pretty gross way to avoid SEC oversight. It's years overdue for an extremely vigorous correction.

 

[Hethel Merman]

It's confusing. It looks like they spinning out just Lotus Technology, the EV business based in China. If that's so, where does that leave the rest of Lotus Group, especially Lotus Cars in the UK which lacks EV expertise or resources?

And who will own/control/design the electric sports car replacing the Emira?

Lacks EV expertise or resources?
Did Lotus not build (and do a lot of the engineering on) all 2500 Tesla Roadsters way back in 2008, and in 2019 started producing their popular Evija model? I believe there was some tie-up with Detroit Electric too but I can't remember the details.