Financing Elio Motors Development And Production

[whattheelf]

And your expertise is?o_O
Writing fiction?
Everyone who made any deposit, refundable or not, is fully aware of the risk involved.
Thank you for your concern.
The world could use your clairvoyance on more pressing matters.

Unfortunately, most people are not fully aware of the risk involved, they say they are, but cognitive dissonance is interfering.

Do your own real research, talk to many other experts in the field, there are plenty of articles on this company and why it has no legs.

In the far remote chance they become acquired by a larger player, then I would consider buying one, but don't expect to see them at $7K, no one can produce such a vehicle for that price without losing money, unless its a rat trap you wouldn't want to drive, or could stand to drive.

Regardless, I'm an Elio design fan, just not an EM fan, they don't have the funding nor depth to execute beyond prototyping, thats it. Now you can go back to posting your nice little picture responses to those that disturb your little fantasy.

 

[Dustoff]

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[Rickb]

Downer! I think it's impossible to be an Elio design fan without liking Elio just a little.

 

[jetpack54]

I agree the electric is not the only choice, and by the time Elio gets to releasing its first batch of hand built units, which they will claim as "production", there will also be hydrogen fuel cell options to pick from, and other considerable advancements from conventional internal combustion fueled small cars. With just 17K reservations after so much time, be assured the big car companies are not paying that much attention because such an effort, even integrated into their world class automated factories, would still yield massive hundred million dollar losses. Big car companies have their own plans, EM 's only hope is that somehow one of them acquires them privately, perhaps for some small redeeming amount of intellectual property, but it'll never go to volume production, unfortunately.

Here's a no brainer for you....if your hydrogen fuel cell or current electric car come close to the price of Elio then that's what I call a choice! And isn't it the whole idea? An affordable, easy to maintain gas sipping car for the masses for $6,800+ applicable taxes or an electric car that costs at least $20,000 + or even worse, the new tech hydrogen fuel that you don't even have an idea how much it'll be priced??? By the way, it's not hand built as EM will use some robotics to speed up the process.

 

[jetpack54]

Just keep in mind 17K or even 50K reservations, isn't going to put a dent in the amount of funding this company needs to get this thing off the ground. Anyone can produce a few hundred prototypes with the money they have got so far, the 800 pound gorilla in the room is the cost to go to real production. Proof of concept is easy, production is a different ballgame. Keep in mind the ex-GM facility is not remotely capable of an easy transition to manufacture Elio components, the costs to tool up are exponential and require an extremely reliable supply chain, neither of which is going to happen without massive funding up front, which they don't have. These guys may still be alive, hoping, and driving around events around the country, but you see practically ZERO real news and details on their plans, because it doesn't really exist, its a shell game designed to maybe position themselves to be privately acquired, as it cannot scale in multiple areas. There are just real business physics out there that not everyone understands nor wants to take the time to understand, most want to hope and believe, and I get it, I do. I want you want, but unfortunately its not going to happen, this is going to be a slow bleed of wishing and hoping. I have seen this kind of miracle tonic song and dance routine multiple times, and its following the same formula as all the rest of them. You'll have alot of great alternative vehicle choices from the bigger and competent players soon enough, EM won't be one of them.

Funny thing is you're assuming that EM is counting on the reservation monies alone! Right now nobody knows where they stand on the funding except EM. Now if you can provide a PROOF that no investor exists or their exact working funds right now, then you're wasting your time because everything you say is just another opinion. And of course, we always welcome everybody's opinion, negative or otherwise.

 

[jetpack54]

Unfortunately, most people are not fully aware of the risk involved, they say they are, but cognitive dissonance is interfering.

Do your own real research, talk to many other experts in the field, there are plenty of articles on this company and why it has no legs.

In the far remote chance they become acquired by a larger player, then I would consider buying one, but don't expect to see them at $7K, no one can produce such a vehicle for that price without losing money, unless its a rat trap you wouldn't want to drive, or could stand to drive.

Regardless, I'm an Elio design fan, just not an EM fan, they don't have the funding nor depth to execute beyond prototyping, thats it. Now you can go back to posting your nice little picture responses to those that disturb your little fantasy.

your assumptions are not convincing anybody unfortunately. I suggest you at least wait until next year and if there's no Elio produced by then, you're more than welcome to come back and tell us to our face "I told you so". I'm saying this to be fair to you.

 

[zelio]

I don't know about the rest of you but I am finding the more popular Elio becomes, the longer my ignore list gets. Send in the clowns. Do you think they have contests to see who gets the most "successful" hits? I wonder who they will send in next! LOL Z

 

[Dustoff]

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[RMClubfitter]

I don't know about the rest of you but I am finding the more popular Elio becomes, the longer my ignore list gets. Send in the clowns. Do you think they have contests to see who gets the most "successful" hits? I wonder who they will send in next! LOL Z

Don't get me wrong, I like hearing everybody's opinions. After all that is all any of us have is an opinion. But when someone continually harps on a point as if the sky will fall if that point is not implemented and trys to cram it down my throat then ignore is my friend. I came to this board to support the vision that Mr Elio has. I think it is a great vision and one that this country needs. I choose to not allow a contrarian to get under my skin. The old divide and conquer technique will not work on me. It's hard enough for a start up company to make it in the 1st place. You can't be all things to all people. You have to find your little corner of the market and be successful at it. Then you can branch out. I'm looking forward to driving my little commuter car off the Shreveport lot sometime in the near future.

 

[whattheelf]

Here's a no brainer for you....if your hydrogen fuel cell or current electric car come close to the price of Elio then that's what I call a choice! And isn't it the whole idea? An affordable, easy to maintain gas sipping car for the masses for $6,800+ applicable taxes or an electric car that costs at least $20,000 + or even worse, the new tech hydrogen fuel that you don't even have an idea how much it'll be priced??? By the way, it's not hand built as EM will use some robotics to speed up the process.

No doubt the Elio sales pitch is compelling, as well as idyllic, and thats the problem. Reality is it takes nearly 1B of investment to bring a 5 star crash rated DOT compliant, and reliable vehicle into an increasingly crowded and competitive low end market, period. A "goal" of 200M doesn't get them anywhere near the tooling and automation they would need to hit their advertised price point, every credible business and operations knows that, its got nothing to do with whether I want, like, or don't like the Elio. If the business model is significantly flawed as it is,it will never hit critical mass, for the masses, because a company cannot on handbuilding prototypes forever. So its an issue of cash flow, and probability of profitablility.

You would think, at this point, past half a decade now, that Elio would be flooding the press releases regarding its leapfrog achievements in operations, dazzling us with photos of their advanced automation, assembly, and materal handling systems, etc etc etc, actual meat, the stuff that really matters. But all you and I see is fancy promo vehicle pictures, promises, and the drive by dog and pony shows at trade shows juggling a few prototypes, there is nothing behind this curtain. There is no depth to this bench unfortunately, and so this is why instead of wasting your time, money, and energy investing 1 dollar into this crock of an operation, you'd be far better off assessing the established alternative vehicle landscape as it is, and will be, by the time EM gets anywhere close to a "production" date.

I keep waiting for someone here to critique and challenge me on the business model, real data, beyond the hype marketing, and into all of their business and operations model, yet no one, just straw man argumentative hurt feelings responses, so far. I'd love it to happen, but we're not a country with all its costs of business and regulations that can enable such a company to emerge, at least not profitably. This is the primary issue, its not that they can't come up with a nice looking design, or a vision of how things could be for a niche consumer, the problem is they can't make any money at it, nor would a big car company, whom could afford the tax writeoff, something EM does not have the luxury of. Again, open to debate on EM, not the vehicle, but the business.