What’s Going On With Lotus in the U.S.? Blame Tariffs, Mostly

As a small, plucky automaker with a rich history that’s spent decades struggling to survive, Lotus is an easy brand to root for, one that still builds wonderful, engaging machines like the Emira 420 Sport we just drove. And in the wake of its acquisition by China’s Geely in 2017, things had finally appeared to be looking up, with the Chinese company making a considerable investment in the storied British brand. But what saved Lotus seems to be what’s preventing it from flourishing in the United States. At least for now.

Since the acquisition, Lotus has added electric-powered models to its portfolio, namely the Eletre SUV and Emeya GT sedan. More recently, the Eletre (now called the For Me in China) was fitted with a powerful plug-in hybrid powertrain. There was some big noise about these Chinese-built electric Lotuses soon being sold in our market... and then, nothing. What happened? In a word, tariffs.

Massimiliano Trantini, President and CEO of Lotus Americas, confirmed to MotorTrend in a recent interview that there are currently no model-year 2026 Eletres for sale in the U.S. (the Emeya was never offered for sale here). The only Eletres the company sold were the top-tier 2025 Lotus Eletre Carbon editions.

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A Lotus Eletre Carbon.

“We planned to bring the Eletre into the U.S.,” Trantini said. “We made all the activity to prepare the car, we got all the homologation. We were ready. When we decided to bring the car, the tariffs started kicking in, so we had to select carefully the car we wanted to bring. There was a moment where, with 100 percent tariff, we could still manage. We decided to take the highest trim—the Eletre Carbon, a fully loaded car—sold then as model-year 25 in a limited edition.”

The company reasoned folding the tariff into the Eletre Carbon’s $232,900 base price wouldn’t scare off a customer with their heart set on one. It was correct: That batch of cars completely sold out.

“Then the import duty ... increased from 100 percent to 150 percent,” Trantini continued. “At this level of duty, the business case no longer works; not for Lotus, not for our dealers, and ultimately not for our customers. That is why the Eletre is not offered beyond model year 2025. We want to give the right value for money to our customers.”

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The Lotus Emeya was never offered in the U.S.

When asked exactly how much the increase in import duties ultimately impacted pricing of the Eletre in America, Trantini declined to comment. Instead, he said, “On the broader trade policy environment, we continue to monitor developments closely.”

Where They Are With CVR

Then there’s the matter of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry’s recent Connected Vehicle Rule (CVR), which effectively sank the Polestar brand in the U.S. (like Lotus, Polestar is owned by Geely and most of its vehicles are also built in China). The CVR is a U.S. national security policy that bars companies from selling cars that feature hardware, but especially software, that is tied to countries such as China or Russia.

It stands to reason that even if tariffs weren’t an issue, the built-in-China Lotus models, which use Geely-sourced Chinese software and hardware, would be subject to the CVR, thereby effectively barring them from being sold here.

Trantini declined to discuss how the Polestar CVR ruling would potentially affect any future Lotus plan for America. But he did confirm that a 2027 model-year lineup exists for our market, and that the company is “compliant.”

Those compliant 2027 models, by the way, include Emira and its various iterations: the supercharged V-6, the four-cylinder, and the four-cylinder Emira 420 Sport we recently drove. The Emira is built in England at the Lotus Hethel factory, making it subject to far less onerous tariffs, and it presumably doesn’t use any significant Chinese componentry, helping it dodge the CVR restriction.

The Emira rules, and we’re stoked to see it continue to be available here. But it’s also a shame about the Eletre and the Emeya, because those vehicles offer a new and different version of Lotus, one that maybe appeals to buyers who would have never considered one before.

Will sales of the two Chinese-made models ever happen here in the future? “For the Eletre and Emeya, it’s TBD,” Trantini said.