Lotus at Paris: some thoughts

Look back to my 20 September posting and you’ll see a picture of the new Lotus Elite. It was what the company said it was going to unveil at the Paris Motor Show, and it duly did. What it didn’t say until last week’s Press Day was that there was also a new Esprit (above). And an Elise. And an Elan. Oh, and a four-seater called the Eterne. All five cars were on its exhibition stand, plus a city car. Yes, a Lotus city car! It’s a whole new product range that Norfolk bosses admit will cost £770million to launch within five years. Factor in some costly delays and you’re look at £1billion. So Lotus stole the show and got lots of great headlines because of it. Wonderful… or it is? I would argue it’s a bit of a PR own goal. If you unveil one new car you might get a page in a car magazine. But if you unveil five at the same time, you don’t get five pages. You might get two; editors will pick one model to focus on and do smaller stories on the others. Here’s what I think Lotus should have done. It should have unveiled the Elite to secure the page of coverage, and said it would debut another four cars at four shows over the next 12 months. For a cottage industry car maker like Lotus, that would have been news enough to whet editors’ appetites. There’s anticipation before each show – some teaser images can be dripped out in the run-up – and Lotus gets another page of coverage when the car is actually unveiled. By shouting about five models in one go, three things have happened. Firstly, there’s less coverage. Secondly, industry people are naturally a little sceptical about Lotus’s ability to deliver on its promise. Thirdly, bosses have put their heads so far above the parapet that all eyes will be on them to see if they can pull it off. My concern – and I know I’m not alone – is that the only way is down.