You know the business better than I, but I'm still skeptical. Maybe if you have 20-30 intelligent, reliable people with some experience lined up for the training, you can train them in an afternoon, but we're discussing a line never before staffed for a car never before built. How many resumes did you toss in the bin before you found a 100 people worth interviewing, and how many of those 100 showed up, and how many of those who showed up did you hire? I'm a newbie here and had never heard of Elio until last week, but I understand the frustration of folks who reserved in 2014 and now hear that production is delayed again. I'm not surprised that it takes years to realize this vision, but excessively optimistic schedules definitely have a downside.
Overly optimistic schedules certainly have downsides. Customer confidence being one. The thing is, I know they could be delayed again. I think it'll come from the finance side of the house more than the production side though. I don't think they'll have a problem finding some managers and through them, assembly line workers. You just don't want to hire them too early. Think about 100 people NOT producing viable goods while being paid $10-$30/hour. We aren't talking about just 100 people though but more like 600. 600 X $10 is $6,000 an hour in actual pay plus however much else is required for benefits, taxes, etc.
I don't see anything that would stop them from being able to assemble Elios starting in the first part of 2017 though. I have some thoughts on possible bad actors though. I'll rank them by which I think is most likely to cause delay from most likely to least likely. This list is absolutely correct and is NOT wrong. (because it's what I think and even if what I think is wrong, it's still what I think
)
1. Financing (no money, no building
the Elios)
2. Engine production (Who? Where? When?)
3. Frame production (Probably the most difficult/tool intensive process)
4. Single vendor support (Say, if the window motor vendor suddenly can't get the motors there in time, it'll cause delay)
5. Logistics FROM Shreveport. They don't have a set way to get the Elios OUT of Shreveport. Sure, they have that one company set to deliver them but you are talking about needing a shipping company that is currently sitting on the capability of moving 52 vehicles per hour.
6. Too much coffee sends Paul to an early grave.
7. Dinosaurs roam the earth
8. The Election... scratch that... no politics here. Nothing to see here. Move along.
9. US institutes a policy that gasoline is now free to all.