100 Preproduction Elio's To Be Built In December!!

[Grumpy Cat]

All I know is, I'm glad I have a low number. I think I'm ~6 weeks into production. So while all your "suckers" are waiting, I'll be enjoying my 84mpg.

 

[TCBronson]

Elio said the fleet customers are part of the number.

They did, where?

 

[Cache Man]

They did, where?

It is in one of their many releases and in one of the threads here also.

 

[Cache Man]

They did, where?

http://www.elioowners.com/threads/l-a-auto-show-gimme-input.6587/page-43#post-129423

http://www.elioowners.com/threads/the-real-p5.6429/page-56#post-121582

 

[TCBronson]

It is in one of their many releases and in one of the threads here also.

I know they have advertised that fleet sales are available for reservations but I have not seen where these specific 100 sales are for any of those reservation holders. It just says fleet customers.

Theoretically, any fleet customer with a current reservation is in line for a "production" model not a "preproduction" model. Just my 2 cents

 

[Cache Man]

I know they have advertised that fleet sales are available for reservations but I have not seen where these specific 100 sales are for any of those reservation holders. It just says fleet customers.

Theoretically, any fleet customer with a current reservation is in line for a "production" model not a "preproduction" model. Just my 2 cents

"We now intend to sell the first 100 pre-production vehicles built to one or more fleet customers, rather than use them for internal purposes as previously disclosed in our offering statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission...."

I am guessing that Elio will determine what multiple vehicle fleet will receive the autocycles. I don't know where I read it, but a fleet is 5 or more vehicles.

My family has a "fleet" but when you order them as a fleet they all have to be the same. At least it was when we "ordered" our Elios. We looked into it then but I haven't cared to look at it since.

 

[pistonboy]

Who is buying these 100 Elios?

This is great for EM. These will be built on the Shreveport assembly line but probably by a few employees doing many jobs as the vehicles pass by at a slow rate. I suspect this is when the assembly robots will be programmed and the entire assembly line will be checked and verified. Robots have to be programmed on how to weld, how to squirt adhesive onto the frame, how to grab body panels and hold them in place while the adhesive dries. EM may be getting the purchaser to help pay for setting up the plant. (I always said Paul Elio was smart.)

These vehicles will be semi handmade and will be expensive. No one will be purchasing them for practical nor economical reasons.

When people purchase vehicles, they are not interested in their vehicle being used for testing. Would they send their vehicles to Roush to be put on a track and abused? This is unlikely.

Who is buying these 100 Elios?

A company providing these vehicles for employees would be opening themselves up to lawsuit if and employee had an accident. Also, these are expensive semi handmade vehicles. Most companies want economical vehicles. A company making the purchase does not make sense.

Elio Motors would also be opening themselves up to lawsuit if someone was hurt because the vehicles is not really a production vehicle yet and thus not completely developed.(as would be argued by a lawyer).

Lawsuits would be a big problem for EM and any purchaser……IN THIS COUNTRY!

I am speculating these vehicles may be going overseas. It was posted once on this forum about an Arab country being interested in the elio. While I dismissed it at the time as wild gossip, I do not dismiss it now. Perhaps some wealthy oil Arab wants to purchase these as gifts to give to friends. The elio certainly would make a distinctive gift. There is no other vehicle like it and it looks impressive to give a vehicle that is not even in production yet and no one else has yet.

Perhaps these vehicles will be used in racing. That would probably protect from lawsuits too. If some or all vehicles are used for racing, they may be shipped incomplete. Often vehicles are stripped for racing. Think what great publicity this would be. A vehicle is being raced before it is even produced. This would probably get the attention of the car magazines which would get the attention of car enthusiasts and segments of the general public. Of course, the cars would have to be modified and prepped for racing. This would best be done by a company famous for preparing racing cars. It would best be done by a company famous for preparing racing cars that was already experienced with the elio and intimately familiar with the elio’s suspension and dynamics. Does anyone know a company like this? Seems like there is one but their name escapes me. Seems their name starts with the letter “R”. Can anyone remember their name?

On the other hand, maybe these vehicles are going to a foreign country where they will be raced.

Perhaps none of the above.

All this is speculation, but speculation is fun.

This concludes another episode in our daily saga: “As the Elio Turns”

Coss said:
They already have a couple of fleet sales and they are part of the 48K+ reservations.
EM considers a fleet as 5 or more units to one buyer.
They've also mentioned that they have interest in a large fleet sale overseas (Dubai for one, another in UK) but those are on hold until they work out how they would do international sales; so those are at the bottom of the pile (for now). They are still working on certain parts of this country to get the sales problems worked out.

http://www.elioowners.com/threads/l-a-auto-show-gimme-input.6587/page-43#post-129423

post 430

These may be the foreign countries I refered to in my post. Dubai has auto racing. Roush would be used to prep them.

This would explain everything.

 

[imageon]

This is telling me that the factory will be up and running sometime in the 4th quarter. BIG NEWS!
Enough workers to make 100 finished vehicles - that's probably one complete assembly line.
They should be poised to go pretty soon after that. Yep, BIG NEWS!
MK

 

[Rickb]

Big news for me will be the update and images of the E Builds/testing next week. The rest of the recently revised production plan hopefully will play out one successfully completed milestone at a time based on available funds.

 

[AriLea]

I don't want to rain on any body's party, but, I thought the ATVM loan was to tool up the factory. How do they build these 100 preproduction units with no tools.

The set of tools resulting from the 25-unit build.

The google alert that I got said that Elio was producing the 100 Elios for the funding they'll provide. Paul said they were calculating a profit per production vehicle of $1,000. IF they can make the first limited production run at the same cost, they'll make $100,000 from building 100 Elios... hardly a funding bonanza!

But it's possible they could build another 110 with that money, each round creating an additional 10%. That would qualify EM as a stable profit making business. Makes the gov loan more viable each round. But also enables selling of more stock at a better advantage. Like I say, these pre-production fleet units cost more, sell for more and balance out at still the same $1k profit each.