Anyone Else Think It Wont Happen?

[Truett Collins]

Elio has not shown the ability to mange money

How about giving evidence of this claim?

 

[Rickb]

Grampi did you forget to read the letter! See the letter below..

Dear Elio Family:

When I started Elio Motors, I always thought the most gratifying part of the experience would be seeing the vehicle go from concept to reality. After all, I’m an engineer. That’s what we do. We dream big and turn those dreams into a product people can use, enjoy, even love.

But, a funny thing has happened on our journey. The real gratifying part of building a vehicle from scratch has been meeting the thousands of fans across the country who understand and support our mission. The people who have made reservations, or even just the ones who come to events with enthusiasm have altered my world view.

Nothing is more important than supporters like you.

With that in mind, since our inception we have adopted transparency as one of our core values. Keeping our customers up to date in a timely manner on our progress is incredibly important to our mission.

That’s why it is a top priority of our company to let you know we have pushed back our 2015 production target. We now anticipate production date in the first half of 2016. We have many of the major building blocks in place to succeed, including our vehicle design, our world-class team of suppliers and the manufacturing facility in Shreveport. In addition, we will introduce our engine to suppliers, investors and media on Feb. 6. Even with all that progress, the key component that affects our timeline is funding, and these efforts continue to take shape as we have several strategies in place to expedite the fundraising efforts. We have retained Corporate Fuel Securities, a New York-based FINRA registered broker dealer to act as financial advisor and placement agent in our fundraising efforts. And, we can raise potentially millions of dollars through the sale of surplus equipment in the Shreveport facility. In fact, here is a web site where you can take a look at all the surplus equipment available (Surplus Elio Equipment).

Additionally, there are a few other strategies we are working on behind the scenes that we’ll be able to announce in the near future.

Rest assured, every single Elio Motors team member is working diligently every day to get us closer to production. All we ask is for your patience and support as we continue this journey. The Elio is revolutionizing the way people will commute and we look forward to the day you take delivery of your Elio. That day is coming.

As we move forward with our fundraising efforts, we will share what information we can, as soon as we can. Thanks again for your support and your belief in Elio Motors.

Best regards,

Who's Pal?

 

[pistonboy]

I believe the board of directors of EM is good. I am very impressed they have someone like James Holden. However, their experience seems to be in managing existing companies, not handling private placement (the formation of a company) which seems to be a very specialized field. The closest anyone comes is Stuart Lichter who “acquired, in various forms and partnerships, over 100 industrial and commercial properties.”

Prior to the eight month delay, they acquired all the needed money which is no small achievement but they appear to have done it without the help of a company like Corporate Fuel. The only thing I fault them for is doing it without the assistance of a company like Corporate Fuel which is probably skilled at soothing skittish investors when a hiccup like the eight month delay comes along. This is the only possible fault I can find but it certainly had disastrous results. As I have said before, hind site is 20/20.

Nevertheless, they did acquire the needed money before the delay for which they do deserve credit. After the delay when funding was gone and time was limited they did hire Corporate Fuel, for which they also deserve credit. They are also selling the excess equipment and continuing with their own private placement.

I believe the Elio Motors’ financial management is actually very good except in one area: not having a company like Corporate Fuel help them in the first place. (And this assessment may be somewhat “iffy”.) Otherwise I believe their financial management is excellent.

Since they do not need $240 million but instead only $75 million (courtesy of Goofyone’s trusty calculator (I bet its an HP with RPN)) and considering their past money management history, I believe they will have no problem in reacquiring the needed funding and going on to produce the Elio.

 

[Ol' Blue]

You mean it's not all about Rainbow Ponies inside those Elio staff meetings, board meetings, negotiations with IRG, ATVM review, etc?

Wait a minute here ... ya'll seem to have missed the fact that John is a Bronie ... never figured I'd see the day ...

 

[Catia]

I believe the board of directors of EM is good. I am very impressed they have someone like James Holden. However, their experience seems to be in managing existing companies, not handling private placement (the formation of a company) which seems to be a very specialized field. The closest anyone comes is Stuart Lichter who “acquired, in various forms and partnerships, over 100 industrial and commercial properties.”

Prior to the eight month delay, they acquired all the needed money which is no small achievement but they appear to have done it without the help of a company like Corporate Fuel. The only thing I fault them for is doing it without the assistance of a company like Corporate Fuel which is probably skilled at soothing skittish investors when a hiccup like the eight month delay comes along. This is the only possible fault I can find but it certainly had disastrous results. As I have said before, hind site is 20/20.

Nevertheless, they did acquire the needed money before the delay for which they do deserve credit. After the delay when funding was gone and time was limited they did hire Corporate Fuel, for which they also deserve credit. They are also selling the excess equipment and continuing with their own private placement.

I believe the Elio Motors’ financial management is actually very good except in one area: not having a company like Corporate Fuel help them in the first place. (And this assessment may be somewhat “iffy”.) Otherwise I believe their financial management is excellent.

Since they do not need $240 million but instead only $75 million (courtesy of Goofyone’s trusty calculator (I bet its an HP with RPN)) and considering their past money management history, I believe they will have no problem in reacquiring the needed funding and going on to produce the Elio.

Thank you Pistonboy & G1 for helping us understand some good news, & need
$75 million is better then $240. And I also notice not much actively going on in the last few days on the site. Everybody must be outside now days, or getting ready for super bowl or maybe waiting for good news on Elio.

 

[Smitty901]

How about giving evidence of this claim?

Seriously over estimating the value of the junk equipment, then counting on the funds.
Believing that a government loan guarantee was not a deal breaker, and basing plans on that
Inability to met goals .
PE may be a great Idea man and does have an amazing product, the current team does not have the skills to bring t to market . They have done a good job of marketing the ELIO. Now they need someone that can build it.
New funding may bring someone in that does. I have snow to plow right now latter I will sight may cases where One leader came in
either with their own money or backed by others and turn a failing company around almost over night. I work for one .

 

[John Painter]

Wait a minute here ... ya'll seem to have missed the fact that John is a Bronie ... never figured I'd see the day ...

Friendship is magic.

 

[goofyone]

Seriously over estimating the value of the junk equipment, then counting on the funds.
Believing that a government loan guarantee was not a deal breaker, and basing plans on that
Inability to met goals .
PE may be a great Idea man and does have an amazing product, the current team does not have the skills to bring t to market . They have done a good job of marketing the ELIO. Now they need someone that can build it.
New funding may bring someone in that does. I have snow to plow right now latter I will sight may cases where One leader came in
either with their own money or backed by others and turn a failing company around almost over night. I work for one .

The fact is that EM did not set the expected value of the equipment instead it was Comau who did that. Comau partly specializes in such activity and their reputation is at least partly based on making accurate estimates and knowing what is junk and what is not junk. I would trust their analysis of the situation to be much closer to the actual value than speculation from random people on the internet who do not even know exactly what EM has to sell or what condition it is in. As Comau, and their equipment broker partners, have not yet had a chance to actually sell the equipment to prove whether their estimates are correct I would bet once they do they end up being within, or very close to, their estimated value range.

The only goal EM has not been able to meet yet is the production deadline which is the end of this phase of the project. That goal is the hardest to predict, and indeed is the one frequently missed by automakers both start-up and established, because it is dependent on many things that are beyond EM's control including things that can pop-up unexpectedly such as the lawsuit from the Caddo Parish commissioner which pretty much derailed the entire plan at the time. That one event directly lead to the long delay which directly caused ALL the previous production delays and also derailed the private funding which EM had lined up at time so it's influence unfortunately continues to be felt today as it partly lead to the last delay. This could have been a death blow to many start-up companies, and lawsuits and outside interference do indeed kill many start-ups, but instead the EM management team has actually show a lot of business skill in navigating through such a serious setback while keeping the company solvent and pushing things forward.

EM is not putting all their funding eggs in one basket but instead are actually doing the smart thing by having several fundraising avenues working in parallel. EM has also sought specialist expertise to assist with each one of these. The equipment sale is being managed by Comau, the government loan application was reviewed by an outside firm who specializes in such activity, and seeking private investment is being handled by a Wall Street broker dealer.

PE and his EM team have repeatedly shown that they do not expect to know everything but instead they frequently bring in experts in their respective areas to handle the important details. Outside experts are in fact designing the engine, working together to design the vehicle in an optimum fashion, supplying the parts and parts integration experience, designing the plant, and working on the various avenues of funding that EM needs.

I guess all the real-life experts working on this project should simply be shoved aside and instead this project should be run by the legion of random people on the internet who claim they can do a better job. Wait, that does not sound right either, maybe the best idea is simply to let the experts working on this project actually do their jobs and hope this project can succeed under their guidance. This discussion just makes me glad that Paul Elio does in fact take his business guidance from his board of experienced investors and business people and not from the internet.

 

[eddie66]

The fact is that EM did not set the expected value of the equipment instead it was Comau who did that. Comau partly specializes in such activity and their reputation is at least partly based on making accurate estimates and knowing what is junk and what is not junk. I would trust their analysis of the situation to be much closer to the actual value than speculation from random people on the internet who do not even know exactly what EM has to sell or what condition it is in. As Comau, and their equipment broker partners, have not yet had a chance to actually sell the equipment to prove whether their estimates are correct I would bet once they do they end up being within, or very close to, their estimated value range.


The only goal EM has not been able to meet yet is the production deadline which is the end of this phase of the project. That goal is the hardest to predict, and indeed is the one frequently missed by automakers both start-up and established, because it is dependent on many things that are beyond EM's control including things that can pop-up unexpectedly such as the lawsuit from the Caddo Parish commissioner which pretty much derailed the entire plan at the time. That one event directly lead to the long delay which directly caused ALL the previous production delays and also derailed the private funding which EM had lined up at time so it's influence unfortunately continues to be felt today as it partly lead to the last delay. This could have been a death blow to many start-up companies, and lawsuits and outside interference do indeed kill many start-ups, but instead the EM management team has actually show a lot of business skill in navigating through such a serious setback while keeping the company solvent and pushing things forward.

EM is not putting all their funding eggs in one basket but instead are actually doing the smart thing by having several fundraising avenues working in parallel. EM has also sought specialist expertise to assist with each one of these. The equipment sale is being managed by Comau, the government loan application was reviewed by an outside firm who specializes in such activity, and seeking private investment is being handled by a Wall Street broker dealer.

PE and his EM team have repeatedly shown that they do not expect to know everything but instead they frequently bring in experts in their respective areas to handle the important details. Outside experts are in fact designing the engine, working together to design the vehicle in an optimum fashion, supplying the parts and parts integration experience, designing the plant, and working on the various avenues of funding that EM needs.

I guess all the real-life experts working on this project should simply be shoved aside and instead this project should be run by the legion of random people on the internet who claim they can do a better job. Wait, that does not sound right either, maybe the best idea is simply to let the experts working on this project actually do their jobs and hope this project can succeed under their guidance. This discussion just makes me glad that Paul Elio does in fact take his business guidance from his board of experienced investors and business people and not from the internet.

All very good points G1, but the production deadline is what worries most of us. If E!io fails to meet the six month extension, the fines for not providing the 1500 jobs he contractually promised the Parrish, will probably dash all hopes of ever making it to production. Not to mention, lose him control of the plant. We all hope the equipment sells, and he also gets the loan. Has anyone mentioned how much the total of those fines will be? I'm still hoping everything works out, but I can see where the lack of information, would lead to speculation. It would be nice to hear any information about engine, or the status of the vehicle we have all been waiting to see. Anything besides the P4 we have all seen. Good thing we have you to keep things positive on this forum. Keep up the good work.

 

[John Painter]

This discussion just makes me glad that Paul Elio does in fact take his business guidance from his board of experienced investors and business people and not from the internet.

Amen!