And I've been fortunate enough to experience 3 of them......The fact is that there have only been four delays and three of the four delays are directly attributable to the delay in acquiring the plant which was completely outside of EM's control.
Brief EM timeline:
January 2013 - Elio Motors began accepting reservations from the public with the intention of building vehicles in the Shreveport plant in June 2014. Elio Motors has purchased plant equipment and is working on a multi-party deal whereby Caddo Parish acquires the plant property and leases it to IRG who in turn subleases a portion to Elio Motors. Deal expected to close at the beginning of September 2013.
August 2013 - After deal is approved by the Caddo Parrish commissioner the lone commissioner who dissents files lawsuit and injunction against the plant deal thus everything grinds to a hault as this issue is dealt with. EM announces this will cause a delay in production as their funding arrangements are contingent on securing the plant. EM hopes to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2014 as long as plant closing is not delayed too long.
November 2013 - EM announces further production delay to first or second quarter of 2015 as the plant deal has yet to close due to the lawsuit.
May 2014 - EM finally takes control of the plant site after lawsuit is resolved and state intervention in the deal causes a further delay. Production is delayed to third quarter of 2015. Paul Elio discusses that funding is running low and EM is waiting for $7.5 million investment from IRG which was supposed to follow plant closing before they can do anything. PE states in interview that after the funding from IRG arrives, no date on this given however he mentions it take a little bit of time, EM must begin all over again on funding as the delay in securing the plant has completely disrupted the funding deals which had been in place.
January 2015 - EM announces delay of production to the first half of 2016 with the stated stated reason being funding. Further information given via interviews and statements before Caddo Parrish commission is that the funding EM expected to have at this point to complete the vehicle development program has not yet been secured. EM is working on several funding options simultaneously both for funding the vehicle development and for the further round of funding which will be needed to prepare the Shreveport plant for production.