[Ridgemanron]

All the financial wizards I've been hearing from lately on T.V. say that the dollar is far from reaching its lowest point against the pound. By the time this car appears at the NY Show next April, I wouldn't be surprised to see a minimum of another $2,000 being added to the MSRP.

 

[dez]

If true, my (uneducated) guess is that Lotus would simply not export very many cars to the US while the dollar is further devalued. Rather, they would export elsewhere, provided there is a more favorable reimbursement and accepting market, until exchange rates improve. Would suck for us, of course, and reduce Lotus' acceptance in the US market.

 

[aletes]

All the financial wizards I've been hearing from lately on T.V. say that the dollar is far from reaching its lowest point against the pound. By the time this car appears at the NY Show next April, I wouldn't be surprised to see a minimum of another $2,000 being added to the MSRP.

Hmmm ... The exchange rate has been pretty constant since January of this year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=USD&to=GBP&amt=1&t=1y

 

[Stan]

Don't forget that besides the exchange rate there is inflation, along with the higher cost of the extra shift they are starting up. The extra shift were it in America would be paid a higher rate per hour due to the different hours of the day they'd be working.

 

[babak]

Every brand ups the MSRP when the model changes. However, the combination of that and the demise of $ will realistically push the Elise further into the 50K range and yet further out of reach. At that point there is almost a paradigm shift in the cars considered. It's fair to say that the hardcore users will still try to find a way to pay for it, but sadly many of us are not people with mounds of disposable income. Specially when you consider track fees, drivers ed, racing bits.
Talk about a rock and a hard place.

 

[jml1952]

If true, my (uneducated) guess is that Lotus would simply not export very many cars to the US while the dollar is further devalued. Rather, they would export elsewhere, provided there is a more favorable reimbursement and accepting market, until exchange rates improve. Would suck for us, of course, and reduce Lotus' acceptance in the US market.

Lotus has a limited duration exemption for the Elise which will expire in a couple of years. So they can't just wait around forever. They need to sell cars here to recoup the expenses associated with launching the Elise in the US.

 

[raggedy1]

If true, my (uneducated) guess is that Lotus would simply not export very many cars to the US while the dollar is further devalued. Rather, they would export elsewhere, provided there is a more favorable reimbursement and accepting market, until exchange rates improve. Would suck for us, of course, and reduce Lotus' acceptance in the US market.

dez, it was my understanding that Lotus needed to sell the Elise here in the US to remain a viable company. The sales in the UK have plummeted over the years and the US is the #1 specialty car market in the world.

I'm sure Lotus is between a rock and a hard place with the pricing of the Elise. On the one hand they have to sell a larger number to collect the same profit as they had expected when the dollar was stronger, but they don't have the capacity to produce more cars to sell.

They can't be a volume maker selling a a near loss to make a profit in volume. GM they ain't!

 

[Randy Chase]

dez, it was my understanding that Lotus needed to sell the Elise here in the US to remain a viable company. The sales in the UK have plummeted over the years and the US is the #1 specialty car market in the world.

I'm sure Lotus is between a rock and a hard place with the pricing of the Elise. On the one hand they have to sell a larger number to collect the same profit as they had expected when the dollar was stronger, but they don't have the capacity to produce more cars to sell.

They can't be a volume maker selling a a near loss to make a profit in volume. GM they ain't!

Excellent. Very well said. They have to succeed here. They have to sell cars here (and not just Elises). They have to make money selling the cars here. The Elise can't be a loss leader to sell their vanilla cars. Their are no other cars. You know the old joke... "sure we lose money on each sale... but we make up for it on volume."