[Sownman]

Not rumored or hoped for but officially announced by Lotus. I've forgotten.

Steve

 

[TripleBlack_NJ]

The exact date was probably January 22, 2002.

I made my deposit January 26, 2002 after reading this on the 23rd:

http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=3629

 

[andykeck]

The sad thing is that I remember reading that blurb and thinking that'd they had really blown it. Weakest motor, lots of heavy options, soft suspension, no thanks. It took a little over a year and the discovery of this board while at work on a Saturday to change my mind.

 

[Dan]

Accoding to this, January 2nd, 2003:
http://www.lotuscars.com/press_release.html

 

[zvezdah1]

Actually, the OFFICIAL announcement came at the LA Auto show in Jan. 2002. Although it was pretty much a done deal in late 01. As I recall I put my first deposit down late Dec 01 or early Jan 02. I remember calling a couple dealers (including Spruell Lotus in Atlanta) they weren't interested in starting a list, finally did hook up with star, tho I shifted over to LOA when they became a dealer as closer to home

Several things caused a year's delay in the car coming here. First and foremost, Proton wanted R. Artioli out of the picture, he was the owner of then Bugatti and bought Lotus, sold most of Lotus off but kept a share of it. He had to be out of the pic before this proceeded.

Because of the delay they more/less Re-announced in Jan 03 around the time of the LA auto show.

Chris

 

[babak]

Several things caused a year's delay in the car coming here. First and foremost, Proton wanted R. Artioli out of the picture, he was the owner of then Bugatti and bought Lotus, sold most of Lotus off but kept a share of it. He had to be out of the pic before this proceeded.

I vaguely remember that, what was the beef anyway? It almost read like a personal issue.

 

[zvezdah1]

Artioli had 100% ownership in Lotus, when Bugatti folded he sold off a large percentage of his ownership in Lotus but always kept a percentage.

Basically Artioli was a non participating member, in other words Proton was going to pony millions to get the elise federalized and artioli would benefit, I think Proton just felt it they were capitalizing things they should have the whole enchilada. Think it was essentially a business decision Can certainly see protons view in this.
Chris

 

[shay2nak]

I wish I had the 2 year heads-up like you guys. At that time all I was thinking about was the M3 and didn't even have a clue that Lotus was bringing the Elise here.

 

[TimMullen]

Funny... I happened to be going through some old ReMarques (Lotus Limited's newsletter) and came across a front page article entitled "Lotus green-Lights the Federal Elise". It's the September 2001 edition (vol 20, # 7). It talks about the engine being 150-200 HP, targeted list price of $38,500, and a 150 lb. weight increase. The article also talks about the delayed "official" announcement even though the Federal Elise project had been OKed, since Lotus didn't want to impact the sales of the then current Elise's in Europe. The US was expected to get it first and the rest of the world a few months later.

Does this count as the first Fed Elise announcement? I would think so...