Lotus' IPO in the U.S. via SPAC is a foregone conclusion, and the latest news shows that it will start trading on the Nasdaq on February 23.
As a supercar brand that was once as famous as Ferrari and Porsche, Lotus's current performance is actually not outstanding, although it has been injected with new vitality and genes after being acquired by Geely Group, but it is still facing great pressure.
Lotus' prospectus shows that in the first nine months of 2023, Lotus had a net loss of 5300 million US dollars, an increase of 43 percent year-on-year6%。In 2021 and 2022, the company's net loss was 1., respectively$100 million and 7$200 million. It is true that the loss-making financial statements will not affect Lotus's financing in the United States, but the premise of investor recognition is whether Lotus itself can be hopeful in terms of performance.
Different from Geely's other Zeekr car, which is preparing to go public in the United States, Lotus is still facing great survival pressure under the leadership of its domestic CEO Mao Jingbo, which is directly reflected in sales.
Judging from the data disclosed by relevant channels, Lotus's global sales in 2021 will only be 1,566 units, while the sales volume in 2022 will fall to 576 units, and in the first half of 2023, Lotus has disclosed that it has gained about 170,000 orders, but the official has not further disclosed the actual sales volume in 2023.
However, judging from the amount of insurance in Lotus's domestic market, its domestic insurance volume in 2023 will be above 3,000 units, which is obviously a significant improvement compared with 2022. It is worth mentioning that it is actually difficult for us to find out the wholesale sales and retail sales of Lotus in the general sense from public channels, and the reason for this is worth playing.
In the first four weeks of 2024, the domestic sales of Lotus's flagship model Eletre were 46, 7, 9, and 4 respectively, and if you add 9 units from January 29 to February 4, the cumulative sales in more than a month will not be more than 100 units.
As for the highly anticipated Emeya Blossom sold only 25 units in the first week of its launch from January 15 to January 21, then sold as low as 1 unit from January 22 to January 28, and recently rose to 24 units from January 29 to February 4, and the overall performance was not outstanding, which may mean that although the Emeya Blossom is cheaper, it also failed to get off to a good start.
You know, in a document submitted to the U.S. ** Exchange Commission in October last year, Lotus plans to sell 7. annually by 202560,000 units, but according to the current situation, Lotus is still far from achieving this goal. The Lotus global plant in Wuhan has also been completed, with an annual design capacity of about 150,000 vehicles, which is also Lotus's global sales target for 2028.
According to Lotus's plan, the Chinese market will be the most important market for Lotus, but based on the current product performance of Lotus and the domestic market environment, it is very difficult for Mao Jingbo to help Feng Qingfeng achieve a breakthrough.
First of all, in terms of products and products, new energy vehicles have transitioned from "the same price of oil and electricity" to "electricity is lower than oil". Lotus's most promising Emeya flower is priced at 6680,000 up, although the performance is excellent, but there are actually many options that can be replaced. For example, the maximum horsepower of ZEEKR 001FR is as high as 1300ps, and the acceleration is 2 per 100 kilometers02 seconds, and equipped with AP Racing 10-piston brake calipers, Brembo carbon-ceramic brake discs, KW twisted shock absorbers, etc., with a top speed of 280km h, and equipped with ZVC extreme krypton torque vectoring control system at the same time by Raikkonen personally participated in the research and development, both in terms of performance and comprehensive configuration, it is ahead of EMEYA.
For another example, the smaller Zeekrypton 007 also has a minimum acceleration of 2 per 100 km/hThe 84-second time is only slightly lower than the top-of-the-line Lotus model, but far ahead of the Emeya's mid-range and low-spec models.
Even the lower-priced Geely Galaxy E8 has good strength, with the Galaxy E8 top-of-the-line model only 22880,000, the maximum power can reach 475kw, compared to 76The 80,000 EMEYA S+ version is 25kW higher, and its acceleration to 100 km/h is only 349 seconds, while the latter accelerates to 100 km/h in 415 seconds, in terms of acceleration performance, the Galaxy E8 has achieved transcendence.
Secondly, from the brand point of view, although in the era of fuel vehicles, Lotus was once as famous as Porsche, Ferrari and other supercars, but in the year before Geely's acquisition, Lotus only released 1,584 new cars in the world, with a loss of up to 27.6 million pounds, and Porsche, Ferrari, etc. have long been not at the same level, and in the new energy era, how many Lotus feelings and supporters can have?
In particular, electric vehicles belong to the product of "equal rights in science and technology", and the black technology of automobile intelligence and electrification is gradually entering the homes of ordinary people, and the same domestic cars can have higher performance, which makes Lotus's so-called performance gene lose its scarcity.
Mao Jingbo, CEO of Lotus China, once said that Lotus would not cut prices, saying that "Lotus products are positioned in the million-level market." We are the base of the pyramid spire, building luxury brands. Lotus is doing things that others don't believe they can do. ”
But in the face of fierce market competition, Lotus wants to get sales, then the future price reduction will be a high probability event, on January 19 this year, Lotus launched the 2024 eletre, priced at 7280,000 yuan, which is 100,000 yuan cheaper than the eletre S+. Will Emeya Blossom follow in the future? I think it's also quite possible.
Of course, although Lotus led by Mao Jingbo is still facing great challenges, with the successful listing of Lotus in the United States, at least in terms of internal financial pressure, profit cycle, etc., Lotus is expected to "breathe a sigh of relief", and at the same time, with the technology feedback of the parent company Geely Group, after amortizing the cost of research and development, Lotus will also have the strength of "price for volume" and "technology equality" in the future.
Write at the end:
However, in all fairness, "price for quantity" and "technology equality" are obviously also in conflict with Mao Jingbo's so-called "Lotus product positioning is at the million-level", and in the process of implementing Lotus's "Vision 80" strategy, how Mao Jingbo will solve this contradiction will also be worth paying attention to.
This article is originally produced by the editorial department of [Chejie] new**, and the sales data involved in this article ** in the comprehensive sales data of the industry released by the Passenger Association and third-party platforms, some *** on the Internet, marked ** data and related information are all cited, please refer to the official information for details. The author of this article, Lan Zhan, personal opinion, is for reference only, **need to indicate the source).
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