Have Any Questions For Paul Elio? Send Them To The The Times

[Coss]

Hate to say it Coss, but you can always "follow the money", when it comes down to it.
I'm all in at the same level you are, and honestly think it's the best level to be! If you look at the reservation chart on this site, the $500.00 all in, is a sliver in the pie chart between the $1000.00 and $250.00 and massive $100.00 all in.
For half the risk, we won't be far behind the people that risked $1000.00 (which would hurt, not devistate my family) for a measly number? I don't need a number to feel satisfied. We will still be a first year production owner.
I kinda like the fact, that by the time they get to our Elios, all the unskilled workers will be skilled, and most of the no good workers (lets face it. We all have a few at work) will have been weeded out by then. In my opinion (feel free to make it your own. LOL), We are in the catbird seat! True, we have no number, but are VERY close to those that do, at half the risk, money wise.

I hope so; as I said I don't want to see 15,000 people jump in line in front of me without having to do the waiting game as we all have just because they have the cash on hand; but didn't want to invest until it was a sure thing (like production starting) .... follow me?
This is my primary concern. Why did we have to wait so long and they didn't? PE always talks about being fair to everyone; this is an area that would fit into that belief of his.

 

[Coss]

Oh, and feed that black cat! the poor thing looks hungry!

The black kitty in the picture weighs 13+ pounds, he's just very long and long legged.

 

[AriLea]

OK answers are in at that link..
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2015/07/23/times-interviewing-paul-elio/30561561/

Note: Paul does establish a limit on reservations to the first year. And not very heart warming for the production timeline.

Clipped below:::: ( hopefully the full article will be available soon. )

Second update: You asked and we've got your answers.
The Times interviewed Elio Motors CEO and Founder Paul Elio via telephone today.
Elio discussed touched on many topics such as his childhood dream of designing a car, the crowd source funding his company is using to raise funding and whether technology will be integrated into the three-wheel Elio's design.

Fun fact: Paul Elio says it costs approximately $700,000 to build one prototype build.

Questions were chosen on a first serve, first come basis.
Here are some of the questions and answers plus a few we asked:

Q: Are you concerned about losing the lease on the GM plant given that new tenants such as Gulf Coast Spinning are moving into the plant?



No. This was the plan all along -- one of the reasons why IRG owns the real estate down instead of Elio. Elio owns all the equipment inside the building but the building and the land is owned by IRG. IRG's claim to fame is buying abandoned industrial real estate and then filling it with companies. They have a site in California -- an Air Force base. The day they bought it I think five people went to work there everyday and and now 15,000 people work there every day. That's their claim to fame. This 4 million square feet, we need a million and a half. For us to own it and leave us sit there to rot or for me to try to figure out that skill set while we're starting a car company neither of those options made sense. IRE will rent out the space around us. We got the first dibs so we got the space we needed. This spinning company coming and leasing the space is going to part of the plan all along. We didn't know it was going to be a spinning company but the whole plan is for that space to utilized.

Q: Have there been conversations where commissioners, IRG or the industrial development board said they were losing faith in Elio Motors?

Q: What is the earliest date an Elio will roll off the assembly line?
Not in six months. It should be less than two years. We're going to roll off the final timeline in the next weeks. We always said it would be predicated on the funding picture getting clear. It's gotten clearer. We're going to have that final summit in August and start finalizing the final timeline.

Q: I’m looking at Elio as my first daily driver but haven’t ever had a credit card. Will I be able to get one with little to no credit history? We will partner with a finance company and try to make it as easy as possible to try to purchase an Elio.

Q: How will reservations be handled when its time for production to start?

There's a prescribed order of delivery of vehicles based on the reservation. We have two programs -- refundable and nonrefundable. And we have four levels: $100, $250, $500 and $1000. The $1000 nonrefundable reservations get their vehicle first, then the 500 then the 250 then the 100. Then $1000 refundable reservation folks get their theirs. Then the 500, 250, 100. Then we start on with the people who haven't made reservations.

Q: Will there be a cutoff point for reservations once production starts?

We'll only take 250,000 reservations. We won't take more than a year's worth of reservations.

 

[Coss]

Oh gee, only 210,000 people can jump in line in front of me and the other 30,000 people that have had reservations for years; doesn't that just warm your heart? NOT!!!

Guess I'll have to figure out a way to raise the other $500 so I can join the $1K All In group and not get screwed after waiting this long. Seems the 1K group are the only ones that will get in on the first run. All of the other groups will be pushed back to the end of the line.

I'm not a happy camper

 

[AriLea]

Don't know if this helps, but you are still promised with-in the first year. And that was always known.
Apparently, the reservations will encompass the entire year, and Paul fully expects a landslide of new reservations at some trigger point.

He started getting very positive about that a few months back. I suppose that's in response to some market research after reaching something like a 40k threshold, or whatever it was at the time.

 

[Neal]

OK answers are in at that link..
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2015/07/23/times-interviewing-paul-elio/30561561/

Note: Paul does establish a limit on reservations to the first year. And not very heart warming for the production timeline.

Clipped below::::

This part particularly made me chuckle:

Second update: You asked and we've got your answers.

All FOUR of them. Can't tell me she only asked 4 questions. And she acts proud of her work.

 

[AriLea]

This part particularly made me chuckle:

Second update: You asked and we've got your answers.

All FOUR of them. Can't tell me she only asked 4 questions. And she acts proud of her work.

Good point! and some of the answers don't even show in that page. Hopefully there will be a -real- page posted, rather than a re-edited version of the old one.

 

[JNR]

Oh gee, only 210,000 people can jump in line in front of me and the other 30,000 people that have had reservations for years; doesn't that just warm your heart? NOT!!!

Guess I'll have to figure out a way to raise the other $500 so I can join the $1K All In group and not get screwed after waiting this long. Seems the 1K group are the only ones that will get in on the first run. All of the other groups will be pushed back to the end of the line.

I'm not a happy camper

I wouldn't worry, at 22/day new reservations and about 33% going all in $1k, there aren't many jumping ahead of you. At that rate (7 per day), only about 2650 more people will jump ahead of you in the next year.

Paul's stated limit of 250k reservations is his optimistic dream #. He'll be happy with 60k reservations, whether he says so or not. 250k reservations won't happen. I don't think you would get 250k reservations for anything, even if you gave it away for free (hyperbole alert), the market is so fragmented.

 

[Coss]

I wouldn't worry, at 22/day new reservations and about 33% going all in $1k, there aren't many jumping ahead of you. At that rate (7 per day), only about 2650 more people will jump ahead of you in the next year.
Paul's stated limit of 250k reservations is his optimistic dream #. He'll be happy with 60k reservations, whether he says so or not. 250k reservations won't happen. I don't think you would get 250k reservations for anything, even if you gave it away for free (hyperbole alert), the market is so fragmented.

What I see happening is the "I want it now!" bunch jumping in; and you know that will happen. So many people are not happy with waiting at all; they want that "instant gratification". Here's where it feels so unfair.
They are scheduled to be in Portland on Aug. 7 & 8; I will have to talk to them about it then. I think part of it comes from the way the reporter asked the question; she didn't quite detail out what I had asked (gee how surprising is that)?

 

[AJ Maxey]

"Final Timeline within a few weeks". It's going to start to get interesting soon.