Financing Elio Motors Development And Production

[evboy]

I hope to have mine, but if you get your Elio first, I expect a ride on the Las Vegas Strip for free, when you visit..... The biggest risk I see, after they get the 200 million, is if the car turns out to be a lemon like the Yugo. I am sure paul is aware of this , and will do his best to make sure this car is reliable, because we cant afford to have these engines go out at 20k miles.

 

[zelio]

I hope to have mine, but if you get your Elio first, I expect a ride on the Las Vegas Strip for free when you visit.

Do you have a number? I'm #6011 in line. I suspect you really do not hear what I think of LV. I get a headache every time I go there. I suspect there is simply too much electrical energy in the air for my body. :-) Z

 

[evboy]

I am 33,8xx. 100 all in baby! By the time I get mine, Harry Reid will be retired or in prison. I prefer the latter.

 

[Mike W]

I was reading a thread from the guy that said 200 million is a drop in the bucket, because they will lose a ton of money, and need closer to a billion. Seems like plenty to me. If they sell 40k first year at a 1k profit, thats 40,000,000 gross profit that can be used for the next year. By that time, the investors will be banging on the door, and Elio could go public with some sales and profits to show wall street. This guy doesnt know what he is talking about.

I think he/she might be thinking about creating something in the magnitude of GM, Honda, Toyota or the likes from scratch. Coming up with that kind of $$$ for a project like that seems reasonable, maybe even a bit short but the idea is that they probably don't have all the information needed to come to the conclusion we have. Granted, it's still not an honest to goodness, iron clad, without a doubt it's gonna happen deal but then again so little in life is. It's close enough to have convinced not only me (pretty easy to do) but made my wife an enthusiastic supporter (not so easy to do). We put our money where our mouths are and are waiting for our James Bond Black Elio.

 

[Craig]

I hope to have mine, but if you get your Elio first, I expect a ride on the Las Vegas Strip for free, when you visit..... The biggest risk I see, after they get the 200 million, is if the car turns out to be a lemon like the Yugo. I am sure paul is aware of this , and will do his best to make sure this car is reliable, because we cant afford to have these engines go out at 20k miles.

Like I posted before, as for Yugo, inexpensive is way better than cheap.

 

[zelio]

I am 33,8xx. 100 all in baby!. I will be waiting a while.

That you will. You must have just gone in after 9/7 since the last numbers we got were as of 9/7 and 33,791 were reserved. :-) Z

 

[cdurrett]

I was reading a thread from the guy that said 200 million is a drop in the bucket, because they will lose a ton of money, and need closer to a billion. Seems like plenty to me. If they sell 40k first year at a 1k profit, thats 40,000,000 gross profit that can be used for the next year. By that time, the investors will be banging on the door, and Elio could go public with some sales and profits to show wall street. This guy doesnt know what he is talking about.

1. You have to 'buy' the factory *before* you can make the first unit.
2. You have to 'buy' parts for all 40,000 *before* you can sell any of the 40,000 (sorta).
3. You have to start paying the folks putting then together *before* the first unit can be built and sold.

Maybe you'd mike 40M profit or maybe not. But you have to cover the expenses of making that profit *before* you can make it.

Or something like that. Up front costs for this undertaking are pretty large. 1B sounds reasonable to get a quick ramp up in production numbers. With less than 1B you couldn't ramp up as fast. If you can't ramp up fast enough then you probably wouldn't be able to meet 6800 price.

My .02 .

 

[evboy]

Ok again you are to stupid to decifer.. Back in the early 40's (and at the time) a caring leader went to Porche, asked them to deveolpe a car at a price that all germans could afford to drive..they did, it was the vw bug , ..SOON AFTER HE WENT NUTS AFTER REALIZING HIS POWER THEN DECIDED TO RULE THE WORLD...AGAIN ASSHOLE, I SAID JUST AS ANYONE WHO KNOWS HISTORY WILL TELL YOU HITLER BEGAN AS A DO-GOODER..I DID NOT PRAISE HITLER, HE TURNED INTO A TERRIBLE PERSON, I ONLY MENTIONED HOW THE VOLKSWAGON BECAME A CAR.. Where do I get this stuff you asked,, History.. Now would you like to hear why BMW is not allowed to make airplanes or the story behind Bavarian Motor Works?

I hate to break the news to you , but Hitler was crazy from jump street. He didn't go crazy after the power went to his head. Same with Jim Jones. People say he was crazy after the power went to his head. He was always crazy. He just had to wait until he had enough followers to execute the plan.

 

[goofyone]

1. You have to 'buy' the factory *before* you can make the first unit.
2. You have to 'buy' parts for all 40,000 *before* you can sell any of the 40,000 (sorta).
3. You have to start paying the folks putting then together *before* the first unit can be built and sold.

Maybe you'd mike 40M profit or maybe not. But you have to cover the expenses of making that profit *before* you can make it.

Or something like that. Up front costs for this undertaking are pretty large. 1B sounds reasonable to get a quick ramp up in production numbers. With less than 1B you couldn't ramp up as fast. If you can't ramp up fast enough then you probably wouldn't be able to meet 6800 price.

My .02 .

It is my understanding that out of the $185 million they have requested only about $125 is for getting the factory and tooling ready and the rest is to cover the actual start up costs involved such as securing the parts, payroll, utilities, etc...

$1 billion may have been necessary if EM had to build their own plant and buy all new equipment however what we have to remember is that they are taking over an already existing plant which has almost everything they need already however it does all need to be reconfigured, retooled, re-programmed, and tested before production begins.

More details on what a great deal and huge money saver the Shreveport plant is:

Also, unfortunately for GM, this was one of their most advanced manufacturing plants. Advantage to Elio? They'll start off with one of the most advanced assembly lines if not THE most advanced assembly lines in the US.

Excellent point Ty!

For those who may not know Ty is an Industrial Engineer who actually worked in the GM Shreveport plant so he would know the state the of the assembly lines and how it compares to other plants. To further add to this we also know that while the plant dates back to 1981 the current assembly building only dates to 2002 and was built as part of a $1.2 billion dollar plant upgrade. The plant was updated again at a cost of over $250 million in 2005 and again in 2008 at a cost of $73 million. So up until the economy hit the skids GM had invested over $1.5 billion in this plant since 2002.

As Ty said this plant is a great deal for Elio Motors. It is no accident that EM focused on it as it already contains most of the equipment they need for production. This plant already has a modern chassis 'dip' anti-corrosion treatment facility, a robotic frame assembly area, one of the most modern automotive paint shops in the industry, an engine machining and assembly area, the equipment needed to stamp the composite body panels as GM used similar composite materials for bumper covers and various other interior and exterior trims pieces.

Some people have asked if the plant was stripped by GM on the way out and the answer is no. As part of GM's bankruptcy this plant was kept intact by "RACER Trust", which is better known as "Old GM', and was leased to "New GM' for continued use. As a result when GM decided to end production in 2012 they were not allowed to strip the plant as that lowers the value of the plant so it is not allowed under the terms of GM's bankruptcy.

 

[Oldfarmer]

So according to the meeting notes from February 2010, Elio was looking to raise $260 million, possibly from the ATVM Government Loan Program (but they backed away from that) to get the production started.

It wouldn't take much for a few of the USA's "1 percenters" to throw that money in a pot and get the production actually happening...

It makes me wonder - why the hesitation?

The internet changes everything. There are several 'start-up' sites and some people have done extremely well raising capital from the average Joe and Jane. It just takes many more. Instead of 1%ers they aim a lot lower. Maybe if they just asked "we" might be interested in being SILENT partners.