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

[Mel]

Or start a pizza delivery service................can't think of a clever name, sorry.

"3-Wheel Pizza Delivery." "There in 30 minutes or you get a free ride!"

 

[Thomas Malkin]

As I stated in the thread TC posted regarding the same article:

Blah, blah, blah...the bulk of the consumer launch will have to be moved into 2017 at a date to be determine d, as the company continues to seek additional funding...yada, yada, yada...

ATVM loan. It happens when they get the ATVM loan. For some reason, the DOE is just... waiting. And waiting. And waiting. WTF??

 

[Thomas Malkin]

I believe the fleet of pre-production vehicles was in the planning process all along..........so no surprise. Pilot fleet testing is the logical way to bring a concept vehicle prototype up to production model standards. Arcimoto is doing the same with 50 pilot SRKs summer 2016. Toyota did their i-Road pilot fleet testing summer 2015. It only makes sense to log miles on a fleet of pilot test vehicles to validate the final design and engineering specifications.

However, the test fleet should be put into the hands of the general driving public, industry professionals, and auto/cycle media enthusiasts as part of EM's production cost. As a reservationist, I would not want to purchase one of the 100 Pre-production Elios as the earliest of adopters because there will no doubt be changes in the production model.

Anything that gets the functionaries that are sitting on the ATVM funds to finally loan Elio the money they were empowered to give. Elio can't publically complain. There is a political block at the DOE that is becoming very suspicious to me. Why are they sandbagging the loan? They've the funds. Elio has the company, the factory, the orders. Who has stuck their fingers in the process?

 

[Thomas Malkin]

I didn't see December as the build date there.

They announced December in the article I read. I think they want to keep their word for the forth quarter production date, even if the DOE STILL hasn't let the ATVM loan happen. They're aiming to increase the pressure they can not actually bring to bear directly. The US has to see the cars, and understand what the holdup is. Not Elio, but the DOE.

 

[Thomas Malkin]

What makes you think the building of 25 engineering vehicles has stopped? That is happening. Roush's role is to fine tune the mass produced production vehicle. I doubt the money Elio Motors raises from fleet sales of 100 vehicles will help their bottom line.

I strongly suspect Elio Motors having the ability to say their vehicles are safe as evidenced by simulations and testing of 25 engineering vehicle, and they have produced vehicles on their factory lines, and sold them to the public (fleet sales), and there's a flood gate of 50,000+ reservations right behind, makes them look awful sweet to VC money and DoE.

Paul Elio made it pretty clear he spent a year trying for VC capital. It wasn't that they thought he would fail to sell - it was that he cannot make enough of a profit in a short term for them. They want vast multiples of cash return fast. They could invest in derivatives and make more money than investing in Elio. That won't change. The DoE ATVM loan is the only way forward, unless Elio's pet money wizards can play games with the stock market and generate some cash using toys I know nothing about.

 

[Thomas Malkin]

"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"

It was the "rather than use them for internal purposes..." part that made me think they were no longer going to make the 25 E-series. Unless in the SEC filing they mentioned using the 25 E-series AND the first 100 production units for internal testing, which I do not recall hearing mention of.

If they are still making the 25 E-series then the part about differing from what was disclosed in the SEC filing seems like it did not need to be mentioned.

I am hoping I read that wrong, but that is how it seemed to me.

Maybe the DoE people have caved in on their requirement for a complete engineering test run before they grant the loan? I don't know.

 

[Johnny Acree]

"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"

It was the "rather than use them for internal purposes..." part that made me think they were no longer going to make the 25 E-series. Unless in the SEC filing they mentioned using the 25 E-series AND the first 100 production units for internal testing, which I do not recall hearing mention of.

If they are still making the 25 E-series then the part about differing from what was disclosed in the SEC filing seems like it did not need to be mentioned.

I am hoping I read that wrong, but that is how it seemed to me.

From the SEC filing

•
$25M Regulation A offering underway

•
E1 Engineering drawing release – Month 2

•
E1 Builds begin – Month 3

•
E1 Testing – Month 4

•
S1 Production drawing release & tooling kickoff - Month 7

•
Order long lead equipment – Month 9

•
Shreveport plant integration – Month 9

•
Initial 10 retail locations selected – Month 10

•
Retail lease agreements signed – Month 11

•
Service partner agreements signed – Month 11

•
S1 Builds and production validation – Month 13

•
Initial 10 retail stores build out complete – Month 14

•
S2 Builds & EPA/CARB certification complete – Month 14

•
Start of Production – Month 15

I believe the S1 units are the ones that were to be used by the company, but are now to be sold.

 

[bunchathrees]

It makes me wonder if the remainder of the $50 million from this year's Reg A+ offering might come into play. If they do it before the year is up, they'll have some wiggle room. It still wouldn't be enough to completely launch, but incremental progress is still progress. And given the (albeit low volume) positive interest in the stock, another $12/share offering would likely be better received than the initial one.

 

[Rickb]

What gets me is the wording saying they need to sell the 100 for the revenue. Maybe it was just odd wording, but the profit from selling just 100 is so small compared to the stock sale. I like the idea of have 100 beta units in the wild, just smells funny selling them.

Unless they are being sold for WAY over $7k.

I wonder if Roush insisted on 100 E-series instead of 25, needing the higher number of units to get the tuning down?

And no crash testing before production?

I ass.u.me that the 100 pre-production Elio's will be built after the 25 E's needed for testing since EM has stated they have started building the E's.

 

[John Painter]

Paul Elio made it pretty clear he spent a year trying for VC capital. It wasn't that they thought he would fail to sell - it was that he cannot make enough of a profit in a short term for them. They want vast multiples of cash return fast. They could invest in derivatives and make more money than investing in Elio. That won't change. The DoE ATVM loan is the only way forward, unless Elio's pet money wizards can play games with the stock market and generate some cash using toys I know nothing about.

PE was, and still is vying for VC, if there's anything that can be said about PE it's that he's relentless in how he approaches any challenge.