12:50 pm, July 19, 2023
Lotus has seen its pre-tax losses rise by nearly 70 per cent, with the blame being put on ‘production challenges’.
The manufacturer’s accounts for the year ended December 31, 2022, which have just been published, show it made a loss before tax of £145.1m versus a deficit of £86.6m the year before.
That was on a drop in sales revenue from £80.9m to £56.3m, having sold just 576 cars during 2022 as opposed to 1,566 in 2021.
Lotus said sales were ‘limited in the second half of the year with production challenges faced’.
It added: ‘2022 was a challenging year for vehicle sales with the run-out of [the] Evora program and the launch of the new production factory and new model, with production further challenged by supply chain difficulties faced by the automotive sector.’
But Lotus hailed 2022 as ‘a year of transformation with the launch of the Emira, Evija and Eletre models and the launch of the new production facility’.
It said: ‘With any new model launch there are always production challenges, which were enhanced with the supply chain issues faced by the automotive industry.’
Lotus said its business performance stabilised during the second half of the year ‘as the challenges of supply chain and new model production started to settle’.
A high point of the year, it said, was its presence at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where the Eletre, Evija and Emira were physically together for the first time at a customer event, pictured at top as a CGI image.
Meanwhile, corporate highlights included the opening of its state-of-the-art factory in Hethel.
