Financing Elio Motors Development And Production

[3 Card]

Ok, some of you are forgetting couple of things. Mr. Elio has insisted the numbers are 84mpg, 5 star crash rating and a STARTING price of $6800. In the last year with delays, the cost factor is going up so their 20% reserve is probably gone. When I spoke to Jerome in OKC, he did mention there was a conflict between cost of destination and picking up the elio at the factory. Mr. Elio wants to waive that $750 destination cost for people who pick up their elio at the factory, and sales does not want to do that. Please remember the board of directors are mostly car people. A Great team of car people..Mr. Elio is an engineer, not a financial expert. The car guys, including Jerome who is an ex car salesman with over 14 years in the business seems to understand the conflict. Elio motors has to have the margins to succeed and as everyone who has watched this company for more than 7-8 months, the bottom line is each elio has to make money, not just barely enough, but a lot more than the public seems to understand. The board of car people has to provide the margins to make this company succeed for years down the road. Any investor has to see the potential not only in the number of reservations, but in the margins of the base elio and the options margins so each elio returns a good, if not great ROI..(return on investment). I hate to say it is a "bait and switch" but advertising that $6800 price is going to hit the folks who say $6800 - my $1000 deposit and the $500 discount makes my elio $5300 as many say on eliomotors/facebook. When the options list comes out, a lot of folks will be stunned at the real bottom line. I budgeted $10,000 to $11,000 for my elio...I hope I am close!

Hey Elio could have been advertising $8995.00 without scaring anyone.. stick to what you claim, Raise the price after I get mine..

 

[Ty]

It shouldn't take much time to rent some retail space in the local strip malls... There's plenty of empty stores here in Albuquerque. We should start seeing those regional centers though, right? I know it doesn't make sense to have them too early but eventually, they'll have to occupy some buildings in order to have somewhere to ship their Elios for customer pick up. (those who aren't going to the plant) 20,000 vehicles to produce will take them 80 days at 250 per day (not my number). So, they'll have to open a bunch of centers in a short period of time. 3 Card, you may be on target in showing concern that they may not be able to open 60 locations that quickly. That'd be 5 per month at least. I know there will be rental agreements, scouting locations, furnishing buildings, etc to deal with but I have no clue how long that will take. It's not like they are building full-up dealerships but it's not as simple as pitching tents in the Mall parking lot either.

 

[goofyone]

I do not expect to see any public movement on stores until around the time production begins. Elio Motors will easily have six months of production sold out ahead of time and that six months will be the time they use to get a bunch of stores up and running. I am sure some planning and scouting will take place ahead of time but thats about it. They will not simultaneously open stores in all 60 markets as that would be a crazy undertaking instead they will stagger the opening process likely moving generally from larger markets to smaller markets over an extended period of time. According to the financial plan they released their plan was actually for 120 stores located in the top 60 markets with larger markets having multiple stores.

They have mentioned this extended build up, two years in this quote, period many times but I doubt many people have paid attention. This is an excerpt from the Pep Boys press release:

Elio’s first manufacturing site will be in Shreveport, La., with plans for the first production vehicle to roll off the assembly line in 2015 and significant production, sales and distribution during the next two years.

http://www.eliomotors.com/elio-motors-names-pep-boys-official-service-provider/

It will take a some time to reach the 250 vehicle a day production number. Even according to the Elio blog they expect the $1K all in people with the latest #3XXX numbers they were giving out at the last cycle to be delivered 5-7 weeks after production begins (http://eliomotors.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/readers-choice-friday/). Using that as a basis they already likely have at least four months of production reserved and likely a bit more than that.

 

[Ty]

I do not expect to see any public movement on stores until around the time production begins. Elio Motors will easily have six months of production sold out ahead of time and that six months will be the time they use to get a bunch of stores up and running. I am sure some planning and scouting will take place ahead of time but thats about it. They will not simultaneously open stores in all 60 markets as that would be a crazy undertaking instead they will stagger the opening process likely moving generally from larger markets to smaller markets over an extended period of time. According to the financial plan they released their plan was actually for 120 stores located in the top 60 markets with larger markets having multiple stores.
They have mentioned this extended build up period many times but I doubt many people have paid attention. This is an excerpt from the Pep Boys press release:

http://www.eliomotors.com/elio-motors-names-pep-boys-official-service-provider/

It will take a little bit of time to reach the 250 vehicle a day production number. Even according to the Elio blog they expect the $1K all in people with the latest #3XXX numbers they were giving out at the last cycle to be delivered 5-7 weeks after production begins (http://eliomotors.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/readers-choice-friday/). Using that as a basis they already likely have at least four months of production reserved and likely a bit more than that.

They have to have somewhere to deliver the cars though. They won't make everyone pick their cars up at the factory. I don't think they'll deliver them to our doors. I'm going to pick mine up (if I ever get my number... grrr) but some people don't have the ability to get time off or spend that kind of money on a long trip. If reservation #5 lives in Portland, there's a good chance he/she won't want to drive to Shreveport. What then? Time will tell.

 

[goofyone]

They have to have somewhere to deliver the cars though. They won't make everyone pick their cars up at the factory. I don't think they'll deliver them to our doors. I'm going to pick mine up (if I ever get my number... grrr) but some people don't have the ability to get time off or spend that kind of money on a long trip. If reservation #5 lives in Portland, there's a good chance he/she won't want to drive to Shreveport. What then? Time will tell.

I have been wondering the same thing for some time now since I realized the stores would likely not be open right after production began. Hopefully this is where the distribution centers come into play as these could open sooner to assist with vehicle delivery and setting up the stores.

The other issue I see with stores opening right away is that it does not even make much sense to have many stores open when Elio won't have cars available for delivery for several months. Elio would just be wasting money and annoying customers when they come in and are told they cant have a car for several months.

 

[3 Card]

I do not expect to see any public movement on stores until around the time production begins. Elio Motors will easily have six months of production sold out ahead of time and that six months will be the time they use to get a bunch of stores up and running. I am sure some planning and scouting will take place ahead of time but thats about it. They will not simultaneously open stores in all 60 markets as that would be a crazy undertaking instead they will stagger the opening process likely moving generally from larger markets to smaller markets over an extended period of time. According to the financial plan they released their plan was actually for 120 stores located in the top 60 markets with larger markets having multiple stores.

They have mentioned this extended build up, two years in this quote, period many times but I doubt many people have paid attention. This is an excerpt from the Pep Boys press release:

http://www.eliomotors.com/elio-motors-names-pep-boys-official-service-provider/

It will take a some time to reach the 250 vehicle a day production number. Even according to the Elio blog they expect the $1K all in people with the latest #3XXX numbers they were giving out at the last cycle to be delivered 5-7 weeks after production begins (http://eliomotors.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/readers-choice-friday/). Using that as a basis they already likely have at least four months of production reserved and likely a bit more than that.

My point about not charging freight for those who make the trip to pick up

 

[Brian1362]

Hey Elio could have been advertising $8995.00 without scaring anyone.. stick to what you claim, Raise the price after I get mine..

That is what Mazda did, with their little B2200.

 

[Ty]

I have been wondering the same thing for some time now since I realized the stores would likely not be open right after production began. Hopefully this is where the distribution centers come into play as these could open sooner to assist with vehicle delivery and setting up the stores.

The other issue I see with stores opening right away is that it does not even make much sense to have many stores open when Elio won't have cars available for delivery for several months. Elio would just be wasting money and annoying customers when they come in and are told they cant have a car for several months.

True. That plant can put out a car every 52 seconds but Elio said they'd start with 250/day. That's 1,250 a week - It'll take them 16 weeks at that speed to get through, say, 20,000. By then, though, they should have about 40,000 reservations (100 per day is the current rate...). They may not even NEED stores for a while.

 

[goofyone]

My point about not charging freight for those who make the trip to pick up

I hope they treat those of us who were willing to take a chance on this deal differently from those who jump in later but time will tell. It would not shock me at all if Elio does eventually charge the destination fee even if you pick up at the plant as I know from first hand experience that GM charges you the $1K destination charge on a new Corvette even if you pick it up in Bowling Green after watching it come together.

 

[Ty]

I hope they treat those of us who were willing to take a chance on this deal differently from those who jump in later but time will tell. It would not shock me at all if Elio does eventually charge the destination fee even if you pick up at the plant as I know from first hand experience that GM charges you the $1K destination charge on a new Corvette even if you pick it up in Bowling Green after watching it come together.

It's almost like they are saying "We have a shaft. It's free. We're going to give it to you."