Lotus Responds and Insists it Has Nothing to Do with Bulleta Motors [Updated]

The latest developments on the story that erupted between Bulleta Motors and Lotus Cars USA here on Carscoops, has the Marketing & PR Communications Executive of the British carmaker’s U.S. arm, Kevin Smith, emailing us a new statement in which he insists that the automaker has nothing to do with Bulleta Motors – period.

However, before we tell you about it, allow us to briefly recap the story. Last Friday, we wrote about the new Bulleta RF22 project, a future sports car based on the running gear of the Lotus Evora. On Tuesday, Lotus Cars USA press spokesperson Kevin Smith sent us an email describing the RF22 as “Vapor”, adding that the British company has no official connection to Bulleta Motors.

On the same day, Bulleta Motors co-founder Ferris Rezvani attacked us for reporting on Mr. Smith’s statement and requested we remove the posting as its “unfounded and un informed” as well as “embarrassing” for our site. He added that Lotus Cars USA is simply a reseller and that Mr. Smith was not aware of his relationship with Lotus UK.

After we posted all the above, including Mr. Rezvani’s response, he emailed us the following message:

“I saw your post. It’s unfortunate you’ve chosen the path of negativity.  Criticizing other’s work is the way the weak and insecure can exhort power over those who create. I don’t think you serve the interest of the car enthusiast population with such negativity. I encourage you to be a positive force and foster those who create rather than be a drain on creative energy.”

Let us note here that we did not criticize Bullet Motors work (but even if we did, isn’t that what freedom of the press is all about – can you imagine a world where no is entitled to any criticism?), but merely reported on a statement made by an official representative of an automaker, in this case, Kevin Smith of Lotus Cars USA. It’s like attacking a newspaper for reporting on what a legit spokesperson said about another company or party, and not focusing your response on the representative and what he or she said.

To make it clear, we’re not siding with anyone on this story. If Lotus tells us it has nothing to do with said project, we are obligated to report it, in the same way that if Bulleta Motors says it has talked to Lotus, we are obliged to tell you about it.

Back to today’s developments, Mr. Smith emailed us the following statement:

“Thank you for your quick response and updating of the Bulleta BS story yesterday and, frankly, the forthright and appropriate treatment of the response from Bulleta.

Let’s deal in facts here rather than their ongoing BS;

1) I am, indeed, an employee of Lotus Cars USA, Inc.,

2) Lotus Cars USA, Inc. isn’t a mere “reseller” it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lotus Cars Ltd.,

3) Lotus Cars Ltd. is a division of Group Lotus.

I have looked into this situation internally through colleagues in the UK and from all that I hear and see on internal email correspondence nobody from Bulleta has ever directly contacted anyone within Group Lotus or its divisions to inquire about acquiring Evora chassis for their vaporcar.

There was an inquiry made through a third party who also has no affiliation with any part of Group Lotus. They don’t have access to the Evora chassis through Group Lotus and don’t have the right to use our trademarked names and the likeness of our products on their commercial web site or make unsubstantiated claims in an effort to lend any credibility to their enterprise through our marque’s exceptional heritage and history of engineering prowess.

Thank you, Kevin Smith”

Naturally, we emailed Mr. Smith’s statement to Mr. Rezvani asking for his reply, which we will post here once we receive it.

One thing I would like to mention is that, after Carscoops’ commentator ‘Just Zack‘ noted that two specific comments sounded “exactly like the email responses“, we took the liberty to check the IP Address of said commentators, nicknamed “mike” and “frank” who wrote, “they are very much alive. not sure what Kevin Smith is talking about” and “Bulleta Motors works direclty with Lotus UK not Lotus US. Lotus US is nothing more than a reseller of Lotus UK. Bulleta Motors is very much alive, I just spoke with them” respectively.

And guess what; Zack’s hunch was legit; not only did the two comments have the same IP Address, but it was the same IP Address that Mr. Rezvani used to send his emails to us…

Mr. Rezvani and his team have every right to respond to statements made by any official; what they do not have the right to do is to respond through our comments system with made up names to attempt to manipulate our readership…

Update: Mr. Rezvani emailed us the following statement:

“Hi John, I am glad Kevin checked and aknowledged our contacts with Lotus UK. We are currently in negotiations with Lotus UK on configuration setup and until our agreement is reached and finalized we cannot make any comments and neither can Lotus UK. When our agreement is finalized we will make a joint press release. We are not dealing with Lotus US due to their significant markup. We also don’t need to source the evora chassis directly from Lotus as a requirement for the RF22 (though we will get better pricing). Evora’s are readily available on the market so by not being aware of any conversations with Lotus UK and us and therefor dismissing the RF22 as “Vapor” was premature and maliciously ignorant. we’ll keep you posted on developments as we announce them soon.”

By John Halas

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