Lotus Production By Model 1973-2014

The Europa S 2006-09. It is a fine looking car! 

Update news: To see a more accurate and up to date article, please click here. However, by all means read this one first as the text and pictures are unique to each article .

Since 1973, 65,000 Lotus sports cars have been made. The data below has come from different sources so as long as they are accurate - and I believe they are - then 65k it is. This excludes cars made for GM (mostly between 2009-11 / c. 6,900) and Tesla (mainly from 2001-04 / c. 2,500). Production has bounced around a fair bit with the Elise being the 'bread and butter' model in recent times. Including GM and Tesla cars, it would exceed half of total production in the nearly cars 75,000 made in the time frame below.

In recent times the the Evora has sold well, as too the Exige. However the recent Europa didn't go so well and it probably was too soft for Lotus buyers. It was a better car than production numbers would indicate. The fact that it wasn't sold in North America affected volume greatly. Earlier on in the 70's and 80's it was the Esprit was the backbone of sales. The Elan and Elite were also successful.

Yr	Exige	Elise	Evora	Euro	Esprit	Elan	Excel	Eclat	Elite	Corr	Total
73	-	-	-	-	-	916	-		6		922
74	-	-	-	-	-	137	-		687		824
75	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	459		479
76	-	-	-	-	134	-	-	341	451		926
77	-	-	-	-	580	-	-	280	210		1,070
78	-	-	-	-	553	-		354	293		1,200
79	-	-	-	-	474	-		281	276	-	1,031
80	-	-	-	-	137	-	-	121	125	-	383
81	-	-	-	-	301	-	-	31	14	-1	345
82	-	-	-	-	365	-	-	162	1	13	541
83	-	-	-	-	427	-	-	214	-	1	642
84	-	-	-	-	522	-	-	315	-	-	837
85	-	-	-	-	451	-	130	232	-	-	813
86	-	-	-	-	454	-	249	-	-	-	703
87	-	-	-	-	462	-	337	-	-	-	799
88	-	-	-	-	1,056	-	244	-	-	2	1,302
89	-	-	-	-	877	-	183	-	-	-	1,060
90	-	-	-	-	779	1,275	113	-	-	-25	2,142
91	-	-	-	-	125	2,060	81	-	-	-26	2,240
92	-	-	-	-	178	-	107	-	-	406	691
93	-	-	-	-	320	-	-	-	-	-	320
94	-	-	-	-	368	342	-	-	-	-	710
95	-	-	-	-	385	458	-	-	-	-	843
96	-	425	-	-	319	-	-	-	-	-	744
97	-	2,155	-	-	279	-	-	-	-	-	2,434
98	-	3,032	-	-	301	-	-	-	-	-	3,333
99	-	3,164	-	-	210	-	-	-	-	-	3,374
00	-	1,800	-	-	222	-	-	-	-	340	2,362
01	-	1,917	-	-	101	-	-	-	-	-	2,018
02	-	2,369	-	-	157	-	-	-	-	-	2,526
03	3	1,609	-	-	119	-	-	-	-	-	1,731
04	522	2,674	-	-	16	-	-	-	-	-	3,212
05	810	4,243	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5,053
06	1,291	1,574	-	197	-	-	-	-	-	-	3,062
07	1,094	1,357	-	179	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,630
08	619	1,439	-	48	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,106
09	410	802	378	28	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,618
10	514	921	1,172	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,613
11	153	593	713	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,459
12	47	516	480	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,043
13	477	417	475	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,369
14	624	617	251	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,492
Tot	6,564	31,624	3,469	458	10,672	5,188	1,444	2,351	2,522	710	65,002
Yr	Exige	Elise	Evora	Euro	Esprit	Elan	Excel	Eclat	Elite	Corr	Total

The company is being run more professionally now, with a clear yet realistic focus. The Evora 400 is on its way and will help nicely. The new CEO Jean-Marc Gales is doing a fantastic job getting Lotus sorted by all accounts. The goal is 3,000 cars p.a. and stopping the losses the company was running up. An SUV would be a money spinner but not feasible financially to do alone. Can they get a Jaguar F-Pace made for them with some cosmetic treatment to differentiate? Worth trying.

All I can say is the Esprit must have had a powerful heater

Parallel Importing In NZ

In New Zealand the market is open. You can source new product anywhere, providing it meets all  regulatory standards. This includes cars and it's called parallel importing. A company started importing new Jaguar cars not long back. I am unsure if they still do, but it wasn't illegal. They have to make sure they are serviced and that wasn't an issue in this case, as they already serviced second hand Jaguars anyway.

2Cheap Cars now moving into  'new' imports

New cars are dearer than they should be in New Zealand. The argument is we are a small nation and cannot get the buying power. Well, the importer for Australia is often the same as NZ so they buy as one anyway. Either way, the bottom line is Kiwis have to pay whatever is the price. What else can you do?

Now a company that has been importing used cars on a large scale wants to do the same for new cars. It has really upset the official importer's association and no doubt rattled a few gin 'n tonics at various car importers HQs. Sliding off the pigs back is never an easy journey.

The cars will be obtained from dealers in Japan, happy to offload excess stock. If unregistered, then it could be classified as a new car. If preregistered in Japan by the dealer, it would surely then have to be called a used import. Because of the uncertain supply of any given model, what is available will be variable. It would be of interest to me if a full warranty is guaranteed.

Summary: This attempt to take on the existing new car importing industry in NZ will be a challenge. Pulling it off will take some doing. The company involved seems to have good connections in Japan and also the finance behind them to execute it. The thing is, will the car industry in Japan close ranks and stifle supply? Time will tell.

For more on the subject, just click here. Some interesting comment below the article too.

The importer that will be behind it is found here.