Enter the 17-character VIN of your Lotus to see the factory basics. Free, with no registration.
Look on the dashboard, the driver's door frame or in the registration document.
Type all 17 characters. The letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN.
See the factory basics for free, and order a full report for the history behind the VIN.
Enter a 17-character VIN and the Lotus decoder reads the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture straight from the code. Our data covers 16 Lotus models, from the 2-Eleven, 3-Eleven and Elan to the Eletre, Emeya, Emira and Theory 1, with model years running from 1970 to the present, since some models are still built.
A VIN holds no accident entries, mileage readings, theft records or owner details, so the decoder cannot show them. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, while the decoder itself stays free and needs no registration.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For Lotus, the code we map to the brand is SCC, and it belongs to the United Kingdom. So a VIN that begins with SCC points to Lotus as the manufacturer and to a car built in the UK. Our list of codes is not complete, so SCC is simply the one we recognise for the brand.
Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, and the exact meaning of each position is set by the manufacturer. Character 9 is a check digit. It is required in North America, while many European VINs fill that position differently, so do not read too much into it on its own.
The tenth character gives the model year. An M stands for 2021, an R for 2024 and an A for 2010. The letters repeat every thirty years, so a B can mean 1981 or 2011, and the rest of the car has to tell you which. Character 11 identifies the plant and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number. The letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN, which is a quick way to spot a typing error.
Every VIN has six parts. This is what each of them means.
| Part | Characters | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| WMI | 1 to 3 | World manufacturer identifier: who built the vehicle and where |
| VDS | 4 to 8 | Vehicle descriptor: model, body type and engine, as set by the manufacturer |
| Check digit | 9 | Control value that helps confirm the VIN is valid |
| Model year | 10 | Code for the model year |
| Plant | 11 | Code for the assembly plant |
| Serial | 12 to 17 | Production sequence number of this vehicle |
On the driver's side, visible through the windshield.
On a sticker on the door frame or the edge of the door.
Printed in the vehicle registration or title.
Stamped on the firewall or the frame on many models.
A VIN is built from six parts, and each one says something about the vehicle. Our guides explain how to read it and what it can and cannot tell you.
Enter the 17-character VIN and see the factory basics in seconds.
Start with the registration document, where the VIN is printed in full. On the car itself it is usually found on a plate or stamping, often near the base of the windscreen or on a door frame. Compare the two character by character.
SCC is the WMI code we map to Lotus, and it belongs to the United Kingdom. The first character shows the country group and the three characters together identify the manufacturer. Other codes may exist that are not on our list, so a different start does not mean anything is wrong.
Look at the tenth character. Letters and digits stand for years, for example L for 2020, M for 2021 and P for 2023. This applies to cars built since 1981, because VINs before that were not standardised.
It reads only the VIN itself, so you get manufacturer, model year and country of manufacture. Accidents, mileage, theft and previous owners are not stored in the number and cannot be decoded from it.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the paperwork, and that the decoded model year and country fit what the seller says. Then ask for service records and look at the car in person, since the decoder only reads the number.