News coming from US-based magazine Car And Driver reports that Lotus will take leave of absence from this year’s Paris Auto Show. You will remember the massive six-car reveal that the Hethel-based car company so famously carried out at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.
The report also suggests that the absence is not a precursor for stormy seas for Lotus. The carmaker did had a strong showing at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, which they practically dragged out all Lotus cars from the museum and their current garage to put on the showground. All of which to prove that Lotus is alive and kicking.
Under Bahar, Lotus was about to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Which meant that it had to forsake its roots of a lightweight sports car and jump a few rungs up the ladder, which had the same eyebrow-raising effect when Maserati said it will produce an SUV.
So, in my opinion, this really isn’t a bad thing at all. The no-show will give Lotus a chance to take a breather, regroup and reconsider their plans. And hopefully, come out with better offering at the next international auto-show wherever it may be.
from my opinion and perspective. its good they do not enter. so they can find way to liquidize their asset and close shop. no need to think hard to recover debt/loan. declare bankrupt. end of story. case close. people will forget…
awesome; good job :)
From unreliable sources, they’re afraid Danny Bahar will create a scene there!
All sportscar companies are loss makers and owned by a bigger company with board of directors and thousands of share holders. Gone are the days of entrepreneur owned passionate motor companies back in the early 1900. But sportscar company is nowadays used to showcase cutting edge tech and engineering and the tech trickle down to everyday cars. So Lotus is probably being sold right now to VW or Audi or Fiat or GM. Proton should buy a small country or an airline as a cash cow.
Lotus is dead, long live Lotus.
Lotus might have a hope …read this, people.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/us-vw-proton-bid-idINBRE86I0TY20120719
What do you expect from DRB???
I support the decision.
What’s the point of going to Paris show if you don’t even have enough budget to make / R&D new car? Wait till you have the car, then only do advertising!
right, right, right, proton should withdraw from lotus money eater. until today, no 100% techno benefit from them. proton car still lag behind. look at toyota, no lotus handling also sold well even better than proton.
mmmmmm….
Got lah….the sticker with tuned by Lotus
Even pasar malam can buy!!
I disagree with the author. It is indeed sign of stormy seas ahead. Furthermore what is the point of going to Paris if you have no new ideas and concepts to show? The no-show is logical move. Lotus needs to complete its housekeeping first. Goodwood FOS is different. It’s home turf and naturally they want to save face at the home front. Goodwood is more about heritage then new ideas.
best decision they have made. in this current economic climate, its good to keep your powder dry.
btw, no new cars to show…the exige v6 and elise supercharged are re-hashed dogs, kinda long in the tooth (but still brilliant).
what they need are ‘affordable’ cars that punch above their weights. getting into ferrari territory was never a great move.
we wonder what is the plan now
Lotus already pulled out their ‘future cars’ section in the website. esprit might be in trouble. thanks to drb-hicom. dany bahar is a visionary man. went to their regent street outlet. i think it’s good for him to move Lotus up the ladder instead of producing low volume models with expectation to make money. learn from TVR la.
Dany Bahar is a conman. Plain and simple. And he was doing his same stunt in Lotus as he had done in Ferrari and RedBull. Both companies told him to leave. He has a ‘sterling’ reputation in Europe. And the previous board members of Proton gullibly fell for his charm and later too proud when they discovered their grievous error in judgement.
Supercar is not going to be money making.
What is the most money making model from Porsche? Not 911, not cayman, but cayenne.
You need to make car for family driver, or sportcar that mass public can afford to buy.
No need to compete for the fastest or most luxurious, but stylish and affordable.
I wonder why Lotus NEVER create a sport car for Proton? For example, they could remap/remodelled/remake/re-tune (whatever you guys called it) Exora Turbo, or Persona Sport, or any sport version of the current production?
They almost did. Remember the M250 concept when Tengku Mahaleel was around? That I believe is what the Lotus Europa S is based on.
The reality is Proton does not need a sports car. Priority is to get its bread and butter cars right and make money first.
The Exora turbo and what not are not sports cars. Creating these ‘sporty’ version of production cars is more for R3 than Lotus. But make no mistake that a lot of contribution from Lotus Engineering in Proton and makers of various other car brands including Nissan in the GT-R. It’s not publicized outside the industry because Lotus Engineering are being paid for the engineering work. Thats why they are not loss making like Lotus Cars. Thats why its not easy for Proton to just dump Group Lotus.
They’re reorganizing…