Lotus Ceases Sales Of Road Cars In America

by Derek Kreindler

September 22nd, 2014 9:54 AM

lotus ceases sales of road cars in america

As of 2015, Lotus will no longer sell road cars in the United States, as sales of the Evora sports car come to an end.

Car and Driver reports that a waiver granted to the Evora for its lack of smart airbags has come to an end, and Lotus won’t be making any modifications to help it comply with U.S regulations. That will leave Lotus with only a lineup of track-only variants of the Elise and Exige.

Lotus is also in the midst of mass layoffs at its UK headquarters, and both signs bode ill for the boutique sports car maker. Selling off the remainder of US-spec Evora inventory will take some time, but its unlikely that selling non-street legal cars will be enough to keep the American arm of Lotus afloat in the forseeable future.

#America #Lotus #Sales

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9 of 69 comments

Chan on Sep 22, 2014

This is unfortunate for a maker of no-nonsense sports cars, but getting regulated out of your biggest market is mostly Lotus' own poor management. I don't think a seat belt shunner even deserves airbags, but Lotus should have had the foresight to comply with upcoming US regulations to begin with.

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- 28-Cars-Later on Sep 22, 2014
  
  But at what cost? One of the results of an ever expanding regulatory environment is forcing our smaller players who can not afford to keep compliance.
  
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- FreedMike on Sep 22, 2014
  
  @28-Cars-Later C'mon, 28...yes, I'm sure the car isn't substantially less safer without the "smart" switch, but these are $90,000 cars we're talking about. This technology for "smart" airbags has existed for a LONG time now. It can't be that expensive in relation to a car that costs this much. Would an extra $1000 (and I'm being conservative here) on the sticker really turn off people from this type of car. I'd say no. The problem is that Lotus cars turned people off for all kinds of different reasons - weird looks, no room, no amenities, and an abysmal quality / reliability rep - and that's why they're no longer going to do business here. This "regulation" is an excuse. The flip side to your argument is that if a low-volume maker doesn't have enough capital to meet this relatively inexpensive reg, particularly when we're talking about a very expensive car, how does it have the resources to keep up with truly vital things like crashworthiness, or emissions? I'm sorry, the car manufacturing game is a heavy-capital deal, always has been, and always will be. The days when Henry Ford could cobble together a flivver and mass produce it are done. Are we the better for it? I'd say that in the final argument, we are.
  
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- Krhodes1 on Sep 22, 2014
  
  @FreedMike I think you are wildly underestimating the cost of this sort of change. It's not JUST the actual parts cost per car, it is the costs of proving to the regulators that you have met the standard, the engineering costs to get there, etc. On the scale of Lotus, that could well be $10K+ per car sold, and obviously higher than the profit margin on the car. Which is why they are no longer selling it here. I find it sad to see these niche cars disappear, but I am sure it pleases everyone on this site who would like nothing more than to see every person on the planet drive the same beige Camry at the lowest possible TCO.
  
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- Pch101 on Sep 22, 2014
  
  @krhodes1 The cost generally comes from the decision to build to a (generally) lower European standard in order to save money, in addition to the US standard only when it is mandated. If a car performs well in NHTSA and IIHS crash tests, then it will perform well in Euro NCAP. If a car meets FMVSS safety standards, then it will comply with Europe's variant of UNECE with fairly modest changes. If a car meets California emissions, then it will comply with the various Euro emissions standards. The main reason to build fairly different versions for both markets is largely driven by the fact that they choose to do it. The US car will take more materials, and therefore cost more to build. They don't want to have to spend that money in all markets if they can avoid it; they would prefer to build two versions if that means avoiding the costs associated with US requirements for their non-US customers.
  
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- CJinSD on Sep 23, 2014
  
  @krhodes1 CAFE and Euro emissions schemes are two reasons not to build cars to the highest standards where not required. California emissions compliance consumes fuel, as does superfluous safety gear. If you need the lowest fuel consumption at all costs, you often can't afford to build a car safer or cleaner than you have to.
  
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FreedMike on Sep 22, 2014

I hope they're not out of the submarine business too... www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBqf6bYZak

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CJinSD on Sep 22, 2014

Lotus built some interesting cars. Unfortunately, they decided that there was no compelling business case to continue doing so and stated that they intended to compete with VW's Porsche and Lamborghini brands. Even if they remained on the market, they weren't going to produce a new Lotus.

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Petezeiss on Sep 23, 2014

Reading of the demise of Lotus in America, I feel much the way I did when I heard Dimebag Darrell had died. "Oh..... Hey! Did you know they're making Fizzies again?!"

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