Yahoo Autos The Lotus Eletre Costs Twice as Much in America as It Does in the U.K.
Stroll up to your local Lotus dealer in the United Kingdom, and you could score a new Eletre SUV right now for as little as £89,500 before taxes — about $117,400 at current exchange rates. You’ll be laughed right out of U.S. dealers expecting to pay that price however, as the brand’s Stateside car configurator reveals and a press release confirms: the initial run of U.S. market Lotus Eletre will start at $229,900, which is almost certainly the result of tariffs.
Earlier this year, in an effort to promote American automakers during the shift to electric vehicles and deter upstart Chinese automakers, the Biden Administration stepped up tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, raising the figure 25 percent to 100 percent. The White House says the change, which came after China’s global EV exports grew by 73 percent between 2022 and 2023, should limit the impact of what it sees as unfair trade practices by the other nation.
Why should that matter here? Well, the Eletre is produced at the brand’s factory outside of the Lotus Technology Headquarters... in Wuhan, China.
Before the Biden Administration announced the tariff change in May, Lotus was originally taking orders for U.S. market Eletres at a starting price of $107,000 — less than half of what the electric SUV's actual base price has turned out to be. Granted, the U.S. price is for the Eletre Carbon, a special variant specifically for the North American market announced by Lotus on September 12. It's based on the Eletre R, which Lotus originally said would start at $145,000 here in the United States.
The giant tariff spike has surely upset Lotus executives, as it pushes the Eletre into an entirely different price bracket here in the States. The brand plans to produce electric models at its Wuhan facility for the foreseeable future, which means this trend will likely continue; neither party currently running for the White House seems likely to axe the duties on Chinese EVs.
Lotus isn't the only brand affected by the tariffs. Fellow Geely brand Volvo has already confirmed that it will be delaying the U.S. importation of the EX30 SUV until 2025, which happens to coincide with the opening of a production line at the brand’s plant in Belgium. The EX30 is currently only produced in China.
To many enthusiasts, the Eletre has always seemed like somewhat of a strange vehicle for Lotus. As different as it is from the rest of the brand’s heritage, however, it is a luxurious SUV from an exotic brand. That’s the sort of thing buyers tend to eat up in droves in the States. Whether people are willing to pay close to a quarter-million dollars for a Lotus SUV remains to be seen, however — especially when they know the other guys got it “half off."
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