And Then There Were Two
by The Elio Team
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Happy Friday Elio family and friends. Summer is marching on and things continue to move forward for Elio Motors. This weeks big step forward is (cue the Queen music) another one bites the dust.
The governmental affairs team, after two years working with the state, came up with a big win in North Carolina with the passing of H6 which will allow the people of North Carolina to drive their Elio without a helmet. Nice work Joel and Team! We also want to thank Representative Torbett for his help moving this bill through the process. This is very good for the entire Elio family as we have a significant following in NC and this makes the entire eastern seaboard of the US smooth sailing for all of us Elio owners.
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We are down to only two states now that still require a helmet for someone over 21 to drive the Elio: Missouri and West Virginia. There will be a race during the next legislative session to see who will win the title of “not last” and “last”... who will it be? An interesting bit of information on these two states: both had bills that had passed one big vote only to stall at the final vote when each body ran out of time (or shut down early) leaving our bill in “no man’s land” until the next session.
The removal of helmets has been a long journey, but short in the same sense as the team has made significant progress over about two years. State by state, meeting by meeting, committee by committee, presentation by presentation was/is the only way to make this happen as helmets are ultimately a states’ decision. We are confident that these two states (as well as the states that have age restrictions) will pass the bills when they see all the safety features of the Elio and how many of their constituents we can help. Shoot, we can help the states with their budgets too!
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And finally this week, we wanted to share a pretty cool opportunity we had a couple of weeks ago in Montgomery, Alabama. Our own Joel Sheltrown, Vice President - Governmental Affairs, was invited to a conference held by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). You may remember them from some past blogs and Tech Talks as the organization whose members are administrators from every state and whose goals are to address motor vehicle administrative challenges such as three-wheel requirements and recommend best practices back to their states. We received their endorsement last year which was very helpful in our quest to educate the states. This year they invited Joel to speak at the conference as an ‘industry expert” on three wheel vehicles. Oh what a difference a year makes! Going from an endorsement to speaking at their conference is yet another great example of the steady progress Elio Motors makes every day.
This week in the Elio Preview Tour:
July 17-19 - Cedar Rapids, IA - Lindale Mall - 4444 First Ave NE - Hours: Fri & Sat-10 am-9 pm Sun - 12 pm-6 pm P4 Show
July 24-26 – Kansas City, MO – see the website for details – P4 show
Thanks for your support.
