Does The Elio *have* To Sell In High Volume To Succeed?

[voyager]

He is not from this country so maybe we can cut him some slack. Many of us often misspeak/mistype. It does little harm. As long as we are vigilant and keep correcting those missteps, misinformation will not propagate.

Are you referring to me or to the Texan who made the actual comment?

 

[Rickb]

I have always wondered how Paul was able to quote a starting price of $6800 without knowing about all the variables.

He pulled that number out of his ear back in 2007 for the Hello Elio test the waters marketing campaign. When I saw the dream back in 2008 I thought how is that possible and I still think it's impossible with inflation, engineering, and design changes over the years. Although, 8 inflation factored years later he is still marketing the impossible $6800 base which is puzzling to me.

 

[Sethodine]

I have always wondered how Paul was able to quote a starting price of $6800 without knowing about all the variables.

I think it is a combination of two factors:
1) He has been an engineer in the automotive industry for a long time, actually running an engineering firm. So I think he already had a pretty good idea about what sort of price was attainable.
2) By setting such a price so early on--and sticking with it--he not only created a goal but set that goal in concrete. The price has driven the design, rather than the other way around, so it has forced them to get creative and come up with some novel ways of doing things in order to save money (supplier summits etc). Necessity is the mother of invention.

 

[skygazer6033]

Actually the original projected price was $5900.

 

[WilliamH]

He pulled that number out of his ear back in 2007 for the Hello Elio test the waters marketing campaign. When I saw the dream back in 2008 I thought how is that possible and I still think it's impossible with inflation, engineering, and design changes over the years. Although, 8 inflation factored years later he is still marketing the impossible $6800 base which is puzzling to me.

It's interesting. I checked on prices to get my driveway reworked. Prices ran between $2000 and $5000. I didn't like those prices so I got creative. Rented a tractor with a loader and a box blade for a week for about $550 including tax and got that plus more done. It's interesting what you can do when you get creative. Incidentally, the driveway is an 1900 ft. caliche drive that hadn't been worked in about 15 years.
Now I won't rip the under carriage out of my Elio when I get it.

 

[3wheelin]

It's interesting. I checked on prices to get my driveway reworked. Prices ran between $2000 and $5000. I didn't like those prices so I got creative. Rented a tractor with a loader and a box blade for a week for about $550 including tax and got that plus more done. It's interesting what you can do when you get creative. Incidentally, the driveway is an 1900 ft. caliche drive that hadn't been worked in about 15 years.
Now I won't rip the under carriage out of my Elio when I get it.
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You can be creative all you want when you're doing all the work but hardly the case with making/developing a car where a lot of things are envolved like manpower, salaries, materials, etc.! You must have heard of the saying "time is money". Inflation catches up on delays! Not trying to say I don't like the $6800 base price to stay that way but I've already accepted the fact that when all things are said and done, I'll be paying more and I prepared for that!
And the wait goes on.....

 

[AriLea]

The contingency plan is..................if there it no funding..........it's a BUST !!!!

OK, so I'm going to differ with the consensus view here. When things change sometimes implications and opportunities change too.

EM is going to sell a 100 initial pilot run of Elios out to fleet buyers. We don't know the real price of those. This is not called the main production for PR reasons, keeping us reservationists peaceful. But this IS a product sale from the point of view of the ATVM.

The opportunity is that EM could continue 'pilot' production and sell to other fleet buyers, and even do that at a higher price that still generates a profit. So this is a viable on-going business model that prevents a business failure, so long as the low volume production costs are lower than the fleet sales price.

And don't forget that engine sales are now a viable profit center very soon (world wide), not 100% dependent on the ATVM either.

There appears to be quite a few potential fleet buyers that are willing to exceed a $6800 purchase price, to include that YOYO vehicle time sharing business that Hari just became CEO of. (Very timely, Is this going to one of the buyers of the 100 pilot run?)

And EM still has the option to sell more of their reserved stock.

The balancing act here is not giving reservationists a legal angst and keeping the perception that the investment is worth the result, plus the ongoing promise that full high volume production is still obtainable in the future.

All that is doable.

 

[WilliamH]

Let's talk about creativity...........

1. Elio has created a new engine that has sales potential as a stand alone product separate from the car which the old Geo engine didn't have even if they re did the castings.
2. The 100 "cars" for internal use were a pure loss on the books. As fleet vehicles they may not have the same return that the full production vehicles have, but they won't be a dead loss either.
3. Will the 100 fleet vehicles get attention out in public? You Betcha! I remember the first Chrysler Turbine car I saw on the road! And that was about 50 years ago.
   
4. Is there a fleet potential with YOYO? Stand by for possibilities.

 

[Ty]

It's interesting. I checked on prices to get my driveway reworked. Prices ran between $2000 and $5000. I didn't like those prices so I got creative. Rented a tractor with a loader and a box blade for a week for about $550 including tax and got that plus more done. It's interesting what you can do when you get creative. Incidentally, the driveway is an 1900 ft. caliche drive that hadn't been worked in about 15 years.
Now I won't rip the under carriage out of my Elio when I get it.
View attachment 10383

Looks good!

 

[Jambe]

a. A motorcycle license is no longer required to drive an Elio in Missouri. Nor is a helmet required.