A six-figure (surely?) 5800 lb sport crossover with a plug-in 4-cylinder? Did they see the consumer reaction to the C63?
The Emeya electric sedan looks great and seems like a solid car *if* you ignore that it's nothing reminiscent of a "Lotus", but even that car just got completely lost in the shuffle of Lucid Airs, various electric Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsches, and on and on.
This car is completely different from C63, it has approximately 400 km of electric range, while that of C63 is 13-15. And the msrp of this car in China is 73.6k - 80.8k (apparently not a realistic price if it's imported to the US), which is much lower than C63. Finally, it's an SUV.
The Emira is one of the last real enthusiast cars out there. A lightweight manual sports car. I guess enthusiast cars just aren't relevant anymore. Now it's all about the 1250hp dual-clutch cars that feel totally dead and would honestly be better as EVs, just for reliability and upkeep alone. We could talk about the sound, but if you don't have that engagement and feel, what's the point? You can fake sound with speakers, but you can't fake feel and engagement.
Is it lightweight? The Emira weighs almost 1500 kg. That's more than double the weight of the original K-series powered Elise. It's more than some of the super-powerful super-expensive supercars from the likes of McLaren. It weighs as much as the Ferrari 296 GTB, which is a hybrid. It weighs more than any variant of the Cayman, and Porsche have always positioned themselves as "luxury sport" in contrast to Lotus's historical "spartan lightweight sport". It might be a great drive (I wouldn't know), but it's hard to argue that light weight is still at the heart of Lotus philosophy. You could argue that Lotus are limited by their outdated bonded extruded aluminium chassis technology, but Mazda manage to make a sports car that weighs barely more than a tonne without exotic materials or super-expensive manufacturing processes. It seems like in the modern day, light weight isn't the low-cost shortcut to performance that it was in Chapman's day, and the Emira weighing more than a Subaru Crosstrek shows that Lotus aren't willing to compromise on either performance or manufacturing cost.
> In addition to announcing the For Me, Lotus has also unveiled an engineering standard called "Lotus Tuned Specification."
> Historians of the automobile may note that the badge on the front of a car has, historically, been its own official designation that a car meets its manufacturers given engineering standards.
Hilarious
It's even worse when you read [the press release](https://ir.group-lotus.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lotus-tech-unveils-lts-lotus-tuned-specification-first-global-x):
>*LTS is more than a supplier qualification label ā it is a holistic engineering system embedded throughout the entire vehicle development lifecycle. The standard emphasizes joint development, unified calibration methodologies and consistent performance verification across key systems to ensure every Lotus vehicle delivers exceptional driving and handling performance.*
>*Lotusā engineers co-developed critical systems such as braking modules, active stabilizer bars and suspension components with strategic suppliers. These parts undergo repeated testing and calibration against unified vehicle dynamic targets. All parts bearing the LTS badge must align with the vehicleās dynamic control objectives and pass Lotusā rigorous engineering validation before being applied to mass-produced models. LTS certification confirms components are verified under Lotusā stringent engineering system to deliver a genuine āFor the Driversā experience.*
One of the most egregious examples of *corporate bullshit-itis* I've seen in awhile.
What that does is make me suspicious of all Lotus products. It's like going to a restaurant and the description of one single menu item says "certified botulism free." My immediate reaction would be to wonder if everything except that one dish has a high risk of poisoning me.
Eh, it's more like going to a restaurant and seeing "free range organic chicken" on the roast chicken dish but nothing about free-range or organic on the chicken sandwich. So yeah, if you order the chicken sandwich you won't be getting free range or organic. But you're straining the metaphor by comparing commodity parts to *botulism*.
Yeah it's gross hyperbole. I'd extend your metaphor by saying this would all occur at a farm to table restaurant where one would reasonably expect all chicken to be free range and organic.
Its kinda nice that at least someone at geely is somewhat embarrassed of tarnishing just the Lotus name, enough to go "hey this ones a REAL lotus ong"
will they actually put that badge on anything of worth, would like to bet no, I am cautiously optimistic on the future of the Emira, thats about it
Ah, even worse in some ways
I get they're trying to make like, the equivalent of m-sport rollbars or whatever but it doesn't work when the entire brand is supposed to be a sports brand a la porsche etc.
Thing is, I don't think that's the intent with Lotus anymore. It's effectively two brands now āĀ Lotus Technology and Lotus Cars. Lotus Technology is supposed to be making mass-market.
>I get they're trying to make like, the equivalent of m-sport rollbars or whatever but it doesn't work when the entire brand is supposed to be a sports brand a la porsche etc.
How quickly we forget how much shit Porsche got for the Cayenne being "not actually a Porsche" thirty years ago.
I'm not forgetting, I think porsche played it right, in the sense they were very careful in that almost never did they suggest anything is a fake Porsche, the Cayenne GTS is a GTS just as any 911 GTS would be etc.
Whereas most other brands have afforded themselves a pretty careful hierarchy, at most porsche has weissach/manthey/RS which arent quite the same as M/M-sport/M-lite
I think the second Lotus tried to establish two different brands they failed you cant have your cake & eat it too
IMO Polestar should have stayed as Polestar & Lotus should be where Polestar is now
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