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Written by Ollie Kew
While snooping around Lotus"s Norfolk headquarters to drive the new, rather terrific Exige Sport 350, Top Gear had a good chat with the company"s boss, Jean-Marc Gales. Here"s what we discovered about new Lotus cars, making it big in America, and why pulling out of F1 isn"t causing any sleepless nights around HethelOn Lotus"s current fortunesWe"ll build 2000 cars in 2015, averaging around 40 per week. Our target is to build 3000 in 2016.We"re launching the Evora in the US in April next year, and already have 400 orders before the car has even been officially launched. We also have 202 dealers worldwide, and by the end of 2016, that"ll be 250 dealers.Currently Japan is our biggest market, but we"ve seen a 55 per cent increase in UK registrations this year. That"s meant in November and December 2015 we"ve had a positive cash-flow, which is nice.Forty per cent of our sales from outside of Europe are for automatic gearbox cars. Yes, it"s a Toyota gearbox, but we have our own software mapping.When we first used it, I think we overdid the refinement, so the next cars will be more sporty, more hardcore, when they shift.On not being in Formula One next seasonNot being in F1 is not a blow for this company. Certainly not. F1 is only worthwhile if you have a car that can actually win races, and we didn"t.
Date: 14 Dec 2015
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 676
While snooping around Lotus"s Norfolk headquarters to drive the new, rather terrific Exige Sport 350, Top Gear had a good chat with the company"s boss, Jean-Marc Gales. Here"s what we discovered about new Lotus cars, making it big in America, and why pulling out of F1 isn"t causing any sleepless nights around HethelOn Lotus"s current fortunesWe"ll build 2000 cars in 2015, averaging around 40 per week. Our target is to build 3000 in 2016.We"re launching the Evora in the US in April next year, and already have 400 orders before the car has even been officially launched. We also have 202 dealers worldwide, and by the end of 2016, that"ll be 250 dealers.Currently Japan is our biggest market, but we"ve seen a 55 per cent increase in UK registrations this year. That"s meant in November and December 2015 we"ve had a positive cash-flow, which is nice.Forty per cent of our sales from outside of Europe are for automatic gearbox cars. Yes, it"s a Toyota gearbox, but we have our own software mapping.When we first used it, I think we overdid the refinement, so the next cars will be more sporty, more hardcore, when they shift.On not being in Formula One next seasonNot being in F1 is not a blow for this company. Certainly not. F1 is only worthwhile if you have a car that can actually win races, and we didn"t.
Date: 14 Dec 2015
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 676
