After ending production of the Elise, Exige and Evora in 2021, the only model Lotus will produce in 2022 will be the Emira. As for the Eletre, the Norfolk electric SUV didn’t hit the assembly line until earlier this year while the sedan rival Porsche Taycan won’t be in customer hands until the end of 2024. To make matters worse, there was also a supply chain bottleneck in the second half of 2022 which put a further strain on deliveries.
As a result, Lotus was only able to deliver 576 cars last year, a drastic drop compared to 2021 which delivered 1,566 vehicles. Equally worrying is the £145.1 million loss incurred in 2022, which follows another £86.6 million loss the previous year. To cut costs, Lotus streamlined its organizational structure by eliminating as many as 200 jobs.
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The automaker’s UK operations will be affected by this decision since Lotus gave notice Car And Upper Equipment proposals to eliminate up to 200 jobs related to Hethel and Warwickshire bases. Engineering and administrative roles were especially targeted as the layoffs would not affect the people who built the cars. In fact, the company expects to assemble a record number of vehicles in 2023 by increasing production of the Emira – its last ICE car – and the Chinese-made Eletre SUV.
The long-promised Evija is yet to be delivered, and surprisingly, not all of the 130 cars planned for production have been sold. Deliveries of the first electric hypercar to customers are scheduled for August. We will remind you that the official debut took place four years ago, in July 2019.
Lotus is also working on an electric sports car which is supposed to be co-developed with Alpine. However, the two companies suddenly decided to go their separate ways a few months ago. If all goes according to plan, it will arrive at some point in 2026 as an all-Lotus endeavor. It had to face worthy adversaries from day one considering Porsche had promised to launch an electric replacement for the 718 lineup by 2025.
