AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/25 Report--

Ultra luxury brand Lotus issued a statement on the event of "taking a test drive as a new car for sale".

On May 25, according to First Finance and Economics, Lotus apologized for management lapses and personnel dereliction of duty in its Statement on Shenzhen Mr. Li's Vehicle Delivery Complaint (hereinafter referred to as the "Statement").

In the statement, Lotus said it immediately launched a special investigation after receiving a complaint from Mr. Li in Shenzhen about the delivery of the test drive as a new car at Shenzhen Lotus Center. "After verification, we have management omissions and personnel dereliction of duty in vehicle management and store delivery processes, and store sales personnel also have practical problems such as lax review of vehicle information and lack of operational specifications, thus bringing unpleasant delivery experience to Mr. Li." We sincerely apologize to Mr. Lee and his family. During the delivery of the vehicle, Lotus officials found that the vehicle had a dangerous record, immediately terminated the delivery of the vehicle and sealed the vehicle in the store. At the same time, Lotus officials have apologized to Mr. Li many times and provided Mr. Li with a sincere solution. Through the continuous efforts of both parties, a settlement has been reached. Mr. Li also expressed his willingness to continue to be the owner of Lotus. Here, Lotus officials sincerely thank Mr. Li and his family for their understanding and support. After the incident, Lotus officials were fully aware of their loopholes in vehicle management and conducted a comprehensive investigation of the delivered vehicles. The investigation results showed that there was no delivery of test drive vehicles as commercial vehicles. In addition, all test drive vehicles used for Lotus Day in March this year have been documented and centrally managed by the company. Here, the official solemnly promises that Lotus will not deliver any test drive car as a commodity car to users, and welcomes supervision from all walks of life and users. At the same time, in order to comprehensively rectify and strengthen vehicle management and store delivery process, Lotus has set up a special rectification team to lead and supervise the implementation of rectification. Lotus officials will also continue to strengthen the business standard training of all store sales personnel to resolutely prevent similar situations from happening again. After this incident, Lotus will take warning, strive to improve the quality of products and services, cherish the trust of each user, and live up to everyone's expectations."

On May 22, a Lotus ELETRE owner complained on the official website of the Consumer Association of Hubei Province that his new Lotus Eletre car purchased on May 8 was suspected of being a test drive car. "During the delivery process in May, I found on the spot more than 70 violent test videos of the vehicle on the track in the vehicle's driving recorder, including elk test, straight-line acceleration to 200 km/h," Mr. Li said. In addition, the vehicles delivered had been insured for one month and had traveled more than 140 kilometres. Mr. Li believes Lotus will test drive the car when the new car is sold suspected of fraud. Therefore, the Lotus official is required to refund one compensation for the contract signed by both parties, i.e. refund the actual payment amount of 964800 yuan for the vehicle and compensate three times the fine of 2894400 yuan, totaling 3859200 yuan.

In response to this incident, Lotus China told Interface News at that time that it attached great importance to the vehicle problems reflected by the owners and was actively negotiating with the owners themselves to properly resolve the matter. We will communicate with you about the progress of this matter at an appropriate time. In addition, Lotus promised not to deliver the test drive as a commercial vehicle.

According to the data, Lotus was founded in January 1952. In its early years, together with Ferrari and Porsche, it was called the three sports car brands. The first model was released in 1948, but the car failed to stir up waves in the market after it was launched. According to the data, the sales volume of Lotus in 2016 was only more than 1600 vehicles.

The following year, Lotus was acquired by Geely Holding Group, and Lotus has since been fully transformed into a pure electric sports car brand. The Lotus ELETRE, which is caught up in consumer disputes, is the second electric vehicle released by the brand and the first SUV in Lotus history, which has taken on the responsibility of expanding Lotus from niche market to pure electric luxury mainstream market.

In October 2022, Lotus ELETRE was officially released. The car was built based on EPA platform and positioned as a medium and large SUV. Two models of S+ and R+ were provided in the domestic market, among which, S+ model sold for 828,000 yuan and R+ model sold for 1.028 million yuan. In terms of power, the maximum power of S+ and R+ motors is 450 kW and 675 kW respectively, the maximum torque is 710 N·m and 985 N·m respectively, and the acceleration time from 0 to 100km/h is 4.5 seconds and 2.95 seconds respectively.

According to the plan, the S+ version and R+ version provided by Lotus ELETRE will be delivered in March and May this year respectively. In March this year, Lotus officially opened the delivery of the first S+ version, but so far, the R+ version has not yet been released. Lotus plans to launch a total of four new models by 2026, including SUV, all-electric coupe and crossover models, and will accelerate the expansion of its all-electric product matrix in the next five years. In terms of sales volume, this year is a key year for Lotus 'transformation after delivery. It is understood that Lotus has said it expects global cumulative sales of 22,000 vehicles in 2023, including 18,000 sales of Eletre models.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat