I have to wonder about that. There was pre-reveal deposit activity and then the Reveal deposit surge. And a week later at Goodwood another surge. So by about July 15th the writing was pretty much on the wall about market interest.
This was still before pricing news.
So yes, they had to manage success. Each deposit had to be Authenticated, so it was no surprise about the numbers. Months later allocations were announced, basically throwing a bone to regions.
Global place in line didn't matter.
What's grating is that North America was capped and strapped with Dealer allotment while UK continued full throttle.
An order is an order whether it originated with a dealer or Lotus.
This has been long debated to no benefit.
Pre-reveal were pure faith deposits by hard-core Lotus fans, and I don't think there were that many, certainly nothing that would give Lotus a clue as to what was coming. Yes, by July 15th pretty much all FE eligible deposits had been placed. That's THOUSANDS, basically at, during and a week after Goodwood. I don't have any doubt they never dreamed that would happen. Considering their history, who would? From July 6 to the 15th is only 9 days. That's how long it took for the landslide to happen. That's pretty amazing actually, considering how little information was available at the time.
As far as selling to the U.K., customers there have to buy directly from Lotus; they ARE the dealer, so of course they're taking orders at full throttle. All the money is coming in directly with no middle-man, so I don't have a problem with that. It's good business sense. Selling to North America is selling wholesale to dealers; it's not quite the same dynamic. It's still important, but there's a delay in getting paid, and they make less on each car.
Allocations were based on spreading out one year's production run, around the entire world. The demand has far exceeded supply, and it looks like that will continue for a few years at least. We have no idea what's going to happen once the reviews start hitting the web. The Chris Harris review alone is probably going to pull a million views, and what's that going to do to demand? Even if only 1% of the viewers decide they want one, that's another 10,000 orders.
Lotus has a smash hit on their hands, that's all there is to it. Great for them, frustrating for production, and even more frustrating for those who want one, because you're not going to be able to get one quickly. Just the way it is right now.
