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Tengku Hasmadi Says, "U.S., A Major Focus'

3K views 45 replies 12 participants last post by  Ridgemanron 
#1 ·
Commercial Dir. Of Lotus Cars Ltd, Tengku Hasmadi, recently stated, "The U.S. will be a major focus in the coming years. It is still a largely untapped market. Indeed I can tell you that at the LA Auto Show (this month), Lotus will announce that in mid 2004, we shall be introducing the 2005 Elise into the States as part of a new commercial strategy.
Note: One can assume that Mr. Hasmadi's mention of, "still a largely untapped market", cannot be referring to the already saturated sports-car areas
known as California & Florida but the rest of these here United States.
 
#3 ·
QUOTE]Originally posted by Ridgemanron
Commercial Dir. Of Lotus Cars Ltd, Tengku Hasmadi, recently stated, "The U.S. will be a major focus in the coming years. It is still a largely untapped market.

Duh, Ridge, ya think?

Of course it's a major untapped market, and a major focus, they wouldn't have spent millions to get a car certified for this market if it wasn't!

And, not to beat the "who's market is bigger than the other" thing. California was a huge market for Lotus when they actually had a presence in this country (Elan/Europa days) don't expect that to have changed significantly.

And as Derek mentions, the Esprit and it's small quantities hasn't given Lotus the capability to saturate the car market here.
Chris
 
#4 ·
I believe Porsche sells more cars in CA than any place outside of Germany. Could it be the sportscar friendly weather? Maybe the endless miles of smooth curvey roads? Or maybe that it is inhabited by nutty individuals? Mmmmm...

Seriously I think if Lotus stays true to the pure sportscar theme, they will find an untapped market here in the US. But it ain't gonna be easy...
 
#5 ·
Canyon Carver said:
California and Florida may be saturated with cars in general but I don't think Lotus has exactly saturated any one area in the N. American market. A product like the Elise is long overdue as everyone knows, the Esprit is very long in the tooth.
- with sales of sportscars that far exceeds anywhere else, California & Florida could never be considered an 'untapped market'. Untapped sportscar markets are those
where, when compared to the overall population, not that many sports cars are
sold, leaving room for those areas to be 'tapped' providing you have belief that
your product will win over those who have not bought true sports cars in the past.
 
#6 ·
Re: Re: Tengku Hasmadi Says, "U.S., A Major Focus'

zvezdah1 said:
QUOTE]Originally posted by Ridgemanron
Commercial Dir. Of Lotus Cars Ltd, Tengku Hasmadi, recently stated, "The U.S. will be a major focus in the coming years. It is still a largely untapped market.

Duh, Ridge, ya think?

Of course it's a major untapped market, and a major focus, they wouldn't have spent millions to get a car certified for this market if it wasn't!

And, not to beat the "who's market is bigger than the other" thing. California was a huge market for Lotus when they actually had a presence in this country (Elan/Europa days) don't expect that to have changed significantly.

And as Derek mentions, the Esprit and it's small quantities hasn't given Lotus the capability to saturate the car market here.
Chris
Duh! California & Florida are definately two untapped
sports car markets, right? Tell that to
Porsche, BMW, Mazda etc..
 
#7 ·
shinoo said:
I believe Porsche sells more cars in CA than any place outside of Germany. Could it be the sportscar friendly weather? Maybe the endless miles of smooth curvey roads? Or maybe that it is inhabited by nutty individuals? Mmmmm...

Seriously I think if Lotus stays true to the pure sportscar theme, they will find an untapped market here in the US. But it ain't gonna be easy...
lLotus knows full well that they are going to have to sell volume in markets other than the already heavily tapped ones (California & Fla.) if they are going to survive here.
 
#9 ·
Are you suggesting that the segment Lotus wants is already saturated in CA & FL? This is true if you consider the sportscar segment as a whole. This is not enough. Digging deeper into this segment will reveal a niche where you find buyers for 'pure/simple' sports cars. This is where Lotus must find its true customer.

I'll submit that Porsche/Mazda/etc are poorly servicing this segment with overweight sportscars. Buyers settle for these sportscars because a pure option is not available. Lotus has the ability to win the hearts and then the wallets of this untapped market. I don't believe people outside of CA/FL are any more likely to be tempted by Lotus products. In fact I predict that CA will buy more Lotus cars, in units and %, than any other state.

Now hopefully Symbolic BH gets their act together so I can contribute to my own prediction! ;)
 
#10 · (Edited)
jml1952 said:
New flash! Lotus is pulling out of the US market to focus on the vast untapped market that they just learned exists in Africa. Huge continent, lots of countries and not one Elise in sight.
Quoting Mr. Hasmadi, "Internationally we
are looking at several new untapped sports car markets, among them Eastern Europe and China. I have many flags on my map at the moment!" It's great knowing we have people with ESP in
California. However, it would be nice if they got their continents right. Will send you a map so you can tell the difference
between Europe & Asia and Africa.
 
#11 ·
Ridgemanron said:
- with sales of sportscars that far exceeds anywhere else, California & Florida could never be considered an 'untapped market'. Untapped sportscar markets are those
where, when compared to the overall population, not that many sports cars are
sold, leaving room for those areas to be 'tapped' providing you have belief that
your product will win over those who have not bought true sports cars in the past.
But keep in mind that a large population doesn't necessarily equate to a sportscar buying market, nor does it mean that the market has been tapped because other marques have established a presence there.
California sets alot of trends that the rest of the country follows, if the Elise does well there it will more than likely do well everywell else.
 
#12 ·
Canyon Carver said:
But keep in mind that a large population doesn't necessarily equate to a sportscar buying market, nor does it mean that the market has been tapped because other marques have established a presence there.
California sets alot of trends that the rest of the country follows, if the Elise does well there it will more than likely do well everywell else.
you've got long waits for the Mini Cooper in Calif. but not so here in the Northeast. Seems to me that BMW isn't diverting cars to California at the expense of the Northeast. I wonder why?
 
#13 ·
Canyon Carver said:
But keep in mind that a large population doesn't necessarily equate to a sportscar buying market, nor does it mean that the market has been tapped because other marques have established a presence there.
California sets alot of trends that the rest of the country follows, if the Elise does well there it will more than likely do well everywell else.
Market research in markets other than the tapped ones (Ca. & Fla.) is what got Proton to approve coming here. Otherwise it would have been an easy sell to bring cars here years earlier. They
need to be able to sell the Elise on a national level to be successful.
 
#15 ·
shinoo said:
Are you suggesting that the segment Lotus wants is already saturated in CA & FL? This is true if you consider the sportscar segment as a whole. This is not enough. Digging deeper into this segment will reveal a niche where you find buyers for 'pure/simple' sports cars. This is where Lotus must find its true customer.

I'll submit that Porsche/Mazda/etc are poorly servicing this segment with overweight sportscars. Buyers settle for these sportscars because a pure option is not available. Lotus has the ability to win the hearts and then the wallets of this untapped market. I don't believe people outside of CA/FL are any more likely to be tempted by Lotus products. In fact I predict that CA will buy more Lotus cars, in units and %, than any other state.

Now hopefully Symbolic BH gets their act together so I can contribute to my own prediction! ;)
Porsche & Mazda (Miata) are overweight sportscars.....since when? As far as overall sales, California has more sports car competition than anywhere else. Lotus still saw fit to give you guys 7 dealerships so that should be enough.
 
#18 ·
Canyon Carver said:
That oversight has been noted to Arnie Johnson, it will be rectified very soon.
read somewhere that Symbolic of Beverly Hills closed down, leaving Symbolic of La Jolla as their lone site. I assume then that Ca. has 7
dealers, not eight. Adding yours would
keep the total at '38' which Becker said was the total dealerships receiving allocations from the first year's production.
 
#23 ·
I live in California and the Terminator ain't going to fix anything. But the rest of the 50 states are also loaded with debt, layoffs, and outsourced jobs to China and India. So what's the difference. California is broke and the "broke" part will be infecting all the other states too. Don't worry, RidgeM___, your turn of suffering will come. And new markets, maybe Lotus should start selling all the new Lotus to buyers in India and China, because that is where the jobs are.
 
#24 ·
Ridgemanron said:
Porsche & Mazda (Miata) are overweight sportscars.....since when? As far as overall sales, California has more sports car competition than anywhere else. Lotus still saw fit to give you guys 7 dealerships so that should be enough.
Reread my post. I am stating that Porsche and Mazda produce cars that are overweight when you compare them to the subsegment of 'pure/simple' sportscars. Both the 911 and RX8 weighs 3000+lbs. Not exactly lightweight when compared to an Elise. Even a Boxster is 50% heavier than the Elise.

Some of us have sold our 911s/M3s/etc to buy an Elise. We want a pure, unadultered, lightweight sportscar. We can afford a more expensive car but choose the pure option. This is the untapped market that I am suggesting exists within the sportscar segment. Lotus will need to focus in on this niche if they are to properly differentiate themselves and achieve success in the US & elsewhere.

Lotus does not have the resources to be everything to every sportscar customer. Luckily for us they seem to be on the right path...:)
 
#25 ·
Canyon Carver said:
Yeah I heard through the grapevine that BH was closing, too bad. I wonder why they would do that?
Symbolic closed the Beverly Hills showroom because they lost their lease. They have been looking for another location which would accomodate an on-site service department (which they didn't have in BH), but haven't picked a spot yet.

Apparently Symbolic wants to know how many Elises they will get per year before they commit to a new site. But Lotus wants to know where the new site will be before they commit to an allocation. I've been told that negotiations are ongoing.

I've also been told that there definitely will be a dealership in the Los Angeles area. If Symbolic drops the ball, it will be given to someone else. And myself, along with the rest of the BH waiting list, would be transferred to the new dealer.

Obviously, none of this is cast in stone. Hopefully it will all work out.
 
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