It's all the reasons you expect.
There are few cars we’re more excited about than the Lotus Emira. It’s the first new car from one of the sports-car greats since the Evora debuted in 2008, and it promises wonderful things. Thanks to investment from parent company Geely, Lotus addressed the shortcomings of the Evora, while maintaining the driving dynamics that made the company a legend. It’s also the last internal-combustion car from the brand, and in more bad news, we’ll have to wait a little longer before cars cross the Atlantic.
Harry Metcalfe of the excellent Harry’s Garage YouTube channel visited the factory to see his Emira on the production line, and to talk Lotus managing director Matt Windle. Metcalfe’s car is around six months late, and he and Windle have a frank conversation about why.
There’s no simple answer. It’s all the things you’d expect—COVID and the still-unresolved supply-chain woes it created, Brexit, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. Also problematic for Lotus was staffing up to start a second production shift to meet the considerable demand. Windle says that right now, the goal is to be fully up to speed starting next year, and everything Lotus is doing now is focused on achieving that. For this year, Windle has accepted the fact that the company will only build around 25 percent of its planned output.
“This year is what it is,” Windle says. “It’s been a bit of a disaster as far as numbers getting out the door are concerned. But, I’ve got to make sure we hit ’23 running, so we can start delivering on that order bank we’ve got, and getting good product out there.”
In a bizarre set of circumstances, deliveries of the Emira started on the European continent before Lotus’ home market of Great Britan. Windle says this is a direct result of Brexit. The company has to get the car homologated separately for the EU and the U.K., and it made more sense to do the EU homologation first. Right now, though, Lotus is building cars for the U.K., the European continent, and China.
The rest of the video provides fascinating insight into how the Emira is made. It’s very much a low-volume sports car, with chassis moving from station to station on individual, self-propelled stands. A lot is still hand assembled, too. Metcalfe shows a man assembling spring and damper units,
Deliveries to the U.S. are expected in Q2 of 2023. We, of course, can’t wait.
Chris Perkins Senior Editor Chris Perkins is the Web Editor for Road & Track magazine.
Keyword: Here's Why the Lotus Emira Is Delayed