Monthly sales less than 100 units, Lotus's new car prices drop to 500k yuan

Invest in stocks with the Golden Kylin Analyst Report—authoritative, professional, timely, comprehensive, helping you uncover potential thematic opportunities!

Source: International Financial News

Recently, Lotus Sports Car’s first super hybrid supercar SUV—Lotus FOR ME—was officially launched. The new vehicle’s price was reduced to 500k yuan, sparking controversy. In fact, behind the pricing dispute is Lotus Sports Car’s overall sales and financial performance facing dual difficulties.

Consecutive price cuts are causing Lotus Sports Car, originally positioned as ultra-luxury, to slide out of the luxury car market. With the launch of the brand’s first plug-in hybrid model priced at 500k yuan, not only does product overlap and internal competition emerge within the lineup, but the luxury tone maintained for years is once again diluted, and the brand’s positioning faces serious doubt.

Photo by Sun Wanqiu

Price reduced to 500k yuan

Recently, Lotus Sports Car’s first super hybrid supercar SUV—Lotus FOR ME—was officially launched, offering standard and SE special editions, with official guide prices of 508k yuan and 558k yuan respectively.

As the brand’s first mass-produced model equipped with Lotus’s super hybrid architecture, FOR ME is built on a 900V high-voltage platform, equipped with a 2.0T engine and front-rear dual motors, with a combined system power of 952 horsepower, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.3 seconds, and fitted with a 70kWh battery, with a total range exceeding 1,400 kilometers. However, after the new car’s launch, market attention was not focused on technical parameters but rather on its pricing strategy.

The starting price of Lotus FOR ME at 508k yuan is only 40k yuan higher than the brand’s main pure electric model ELETRE “Summer Flower” at 548k yuan. Both models are super SUV sports cars, with similar positioning and overlapping price ranges, which will directly lead to internal customer source diversion and create an awkward situation of “mutual competition.”

This is not the first time Lotus has faced controversy over pricing.

Photo by Wu Di

In February last year, Lotus released two models, ELETRE “Summer Flower” and EMEYA “Blooming Flower,” with starting prices lowered by 180k yuan and 140k yuan respectively from the previous models, directly entering the 500k yuan price range. Some netizens calculated and posted that “the amount of the price cut could buy another BYD Seal, and there’s still extra money for charging.” At that time, topics like #莲花跑车降价背刺老车主# trended on hot searches.

Moreover, Lotus also adopted a “cutting features” strategy alongside the price reduction, streamlining configurations such as laser radar and rear massage seats. Some old owners believe that pricing at 500k yuan lowers the “ultra-luxury” positioning, leading to reduced vehicle residual value and identity anxiety.

In fact, the price decline has also affected Lotus’s vehicle residual value. Different used car dealers quote various prices for Lotus models, but the degree of decline relative to the manufacturer’s guide prices is almost the same.

Autohome, Youjia, and used car dealers’ actual transaction data show that the early guide price of the ELETRE at 828k yuan has now fallen to 420k–468k yuan in the used car market, a drop of 45%–50%. The EMEYA, originally starting at 668k yuan, now trades around 408k–579.8k yuan, a decline of 30%–40%. Even when compared to the 2025 official new guide prices of 548k and 528k yuan, used prices are still generally 10%–30% lower, with “losing nearly half after one year” becoming a consensus among old owners. Residual value is significantly lower than that of luxury and new force models at similar prices.

In 2024, Lotus Group CEO Feng Qingfeng publicly stated that the brand would stick to its million-level luxury positioning and would not participate in price wars. However, within half a year, Lotus drastically lowered prices citing “broadening the price range and responding to market competition.” Mao Jingbo, former President of Lotus China, explained the price cuts in a “Letter to Car Owners,” citing market changes but not mentioning protections or compensation for old owners, further fueling doubts about the brand’s sincerity.

Currently, in the 500k to 600k yuan price range, Lotus FOR ME faces extremely fierce market competition.

Upward, the brand directly competes with traditional luxury hybrid SUVs like Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid and Lamborghini Urus PHEV. These brands, with decades of ultra-luxury heritage, hold a solid position in the minds of high-end consumers. Downward, Lotus faces encirclement by new entrants like Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, Zeekr 9X, and Wenjie M9, which offer more attractive comprehensive advantages in intelligent features and cost performance.

Monthly sales less than 100 units

Behind the pricing controversy is Lotus Sports Car’s overall sales and financial performance facing dual difficulties.

The persistent sluggishness in sales directly reflects Lotus Sports Car’s current operational difficulties.

According to Lotus Sports Car Technology’s unaudited financial reports for Q3 2025 and the first nine months, the global cumulative deliveries in the first nine months of 2025 totaled 4,612 units, down 39.3% year-on-year, averaging only about 500 units per month.

This downturn is not only recent; in 2024, Lotus Sports Car’s global sales reached 12.1k units, a record high but still far from the target. In April 2024, the brand initially set an annual sales target of 26k units but halved it to 12k units just four months later, a 64% reduction.

In 2025, the gap between actual and target sales continues. In the first half, Lotus’s global sales were only 2,813 units, a 43% decline year-on-year. In August, the company sharply lowered its target from breakeven at 30k units to 12k, a 60% reduction, but progress remains sluggish.

As of September last year, Lotus had only delivered 4,612 units, with a performance completion rate of just 30%.

The situation is worsening. In the largest Chinese market, Lotus’s sales are further declining.

Data from Lanjielu shows that Lotus’s cumulative sales in China in 2025 reached 2,635 units, and in the first two months of 2026, the monthly average sales will fall below 100 units, with 89 units sold in January and 87 in February.

Photo by Man Xin

The continuous decline in sales has kept Lotus Sports Car’s financial data under pressure.

Lotus Sports Car Technology’s unaudited financials for Q3 2025 and the first nine months show that, in the first nine months of 2025, the company’s total revenue was $356 million, down 45.48% year-on-year; Q3 revenue alone was $137 million, down 46%. The quarterly net loss was $65.42 million, and the net loss for the first three quarters reached $378 million.

To cut costs, Lotus launched two rounds of large-scale layoffs in 2025. In February 2025, the company cut 270 jobs at its headquarters and factory in Hethel, UK; by the end of August, another 550 jobs were cut, accounting for about 40% of the UK workforce.

According to the “International Financial News,” Feng Qingfeng has been seeking foreign funding to ease difficulties but has yet to succeed. Rumors about Lotus China’s General Manager Qin Peiji being investigated have been rampant recently. Although some media reports deny this, it is an undisputed fact that Qin Peiji has missed two major product launches.

Price cuts have not reversed the downturn; sales continue to fall, strategic positioning is confused, core management remains “absent,” and Lotus’s future remains uncertain.