- Cars sales up by 55% for 2014/15 compared to 2013/14
- 36 New Dealers appointed in last 11 months
- All models see an increase in sales with the Lotus Elise
range heading the table.
Today, Lotus is pleased to announce a 55% rise in its global
sports car sales at the conclusion of the 2014/15 financial year.
For the full year, the company has increased its sales volume to
an excellent 2015 units, contrasted with 1,296 units in the year
2013/14. This is the best result achieved by Lotus since FY
2008/09.
Key global markets showing the renaissance experienced by
Lotus are in China (+186%), France (+177%) and Germany (+130%),
while Japan (+103%) remains the company’s largest export market.
Sales in the UK have more than doubled to 346 units (+102%). The
USA market, which sells the Evora range as a road car and the
Elise and Exige ranges for track use only, has increased by 24%.
Leading the excellent performance is the Elise range, with a
80% increase in volume to 729 cars. The Exige S range continues
its positive growth (+52%) with 724 cars, while the Evora is up
by 35% with 562 cars. However, these figures are expected to
change radically with the launch of Evora 400 in August.
Helping the progress are two new models, the Elise 220 Cup and
the Exige S automatic option in both coupe and roadster forms.
Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc, stated: “This positive
result is something that we have not witnessed at Lotus for many
years. We are meeting both time and budget deadlines. Yet, we
appreciate that we still have hard work to do to maintain the
progress. Our continued expansion demonstrates the customer
confidence in Lotus and that our product development strategy is
meeting its objectives, while remaining true to our core pillars
of efficiency, light weight, high performance and driving purity
in the most desirable packaging.”
Naturally, dealer strength has grown, with 36 new dealers in the
global network in FY 2014/15 taking the total to 174 dealers
worldwide.
As well as the new Evora 400 and the aforementioned Elise 220
Cup and Exige S automatic, two additional new models - the Elise
S 20th Anniversary and the Exige S Club Racer - are exciting the
market. Strong residual values for all Lotus cars help customers
to appreciate the value of the products.
Jean-Marc continued: “The reason that we are making such vital
headway lies in our employees’ commitment to avoid delays in
project deliveries and I am immensely pleased with the cultural
changes that have been effected by our staff across the whole of
Lotus. Looking to the future, we are working on new Lotus cars
and have a number of exciting announcements and reveals over the
next 18 months.”
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