Paul Elio Is A Coward.

[Watashiwah]

Well said. Paul Elio sold us a DREAM, we bought into it knowing the risks outweighs the reward of a 7K 3wheeler . Move on people....or join him drinking pina colada in PR or rum in the Caribbean.

I’d have to disagree: it remains to be seen if the ‘delusion’ wasn’t orchestrated by Hari and Paul, clearly it was certainly capitalized on (both literally and figuratively). It is my opinion that this may have been nothing more than a ‘shell game’ hidden behind conveniently ‘poor business decisions’ and ‘poor engineering.’ There are just too many instances of ‘re-do,’ and redesign, the lackadaisical attitude by Paul during ‘prototype assembly, the self serving but wholly worthless push for 65,000 reservationists, Paul’s total disrespect and disregard for updating reservationists and investors (but overlook that, we are ‘very busy looking for more investors!), the SEC stonewalling, and especially the Elio Motors and ESG Engineering relationship and history (and incorporation timing) has a particularly bad smell to it.... the list goes on and on.

The most recent “Aw-shucks, my bad! (But it’s not my fault!!) Is ‘we can’t process refunds because we have a problem with our record keeping, your addresses haven’t been updated, or now I’m working out of my house and mail forwarding from our old office just isn’t working.’ ‘We’re really too busy to answer emails with much more than an ‘auto reply’ but can find the time to sanitize or remove all the negative Facebook posts.’

At every juncture they want the results ‘both ways.’ We ‘have other funding options but don’t have any funding options,’ we have a running prototype (for advertising) but have no engine,’ we designed an efficient engine, but it’s inefficient,’ we are using ‘off the shelf’ parts but have to design and redesign everything,’ we are competent enough for you to send money, but make incompetent decisions,’ you can trust us with decisions on your ‘earmarked’ investment money but will spend it on other projects.’read the blog, we have suspended the blog.’ The only things that really did happen are: Paul and Hari made a lot of money, most all the investors and all the reservationists lost money and everyone outside of EM/ESG did get taken for a ride.

 

[Made in USA]

With no good news, Paul doing anything in public right now would probably lead to hostilities. People want answers and I think he feels that anything he says would violate some kind of SEC rule. So he has become a social recluse. In a way I pity the man. He had a dream, shared it with us, and so far the dream has failed to become reality.

 

[Watashiwah]

With no good news, Paul doing anything in public right now would probably lead to hostilities. People want answers and I think he feels that anything he says would violate some kind of SEC rule. So he has become a social recluse. In a way I pity the man. He had a dream, shared it with us, and so far the dream has failed to become reality.

We can pretty safely bet that Hari and Paul have lawyers advising them: it’s far fetched to assume that they really believe they might breach SEC rules. It’s even arguably obvious they have little respect for that institution, as well. ‘We won’t file SEC Reports but they might spank us for updating our reservationists...’

Yet another self serving irony. Paul and Hari and Co. are certainly creative enough to come up with their own excuses.

 

[RSchneider]

On a side note, Hari's latest business venture is done. 1yr 9 months and that's it. Plus the website is still up but nothing works. You can't sign up or do anything. I find it interesting that every company he's been involved with since 2000 has gone down the toilet. I just wonder what's next on the list? He's a self proclaimed "serial entrepreneur". I found this article that pretty much nails it when it comes to what he's been doing.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/303909

 

[Made in USA]

Would y'all feel betrayed if Paul Elio isn't really trying to get funding for the Autocycle anymore? Say he's working on something else, would you step up and inform others of how he operates? I know I would.

 

[Rickb]

Would y'all feel betrayed if Paul Elio isn't really trying to get funding for the Autocycle anymore? Say he's working on something else, would you step up and inform others of how he operates? I know I would.

I followed Elio from it’s Marketing Birth and don’t feel betrayed in the slightest. I don’t think Paul has to work again, so you may as well leave Paul alone to enjoy the profits from their highly successful Hello Elio marketing campaign. He was always covered by a FLS, but some didn’t read them and others simply took the risk to support the startup. Some believe Elio can still deliver.

 

[RSchneider]

Would y'all feel betrayed if Paul Elio isn't really trying to get funding for the Autocycle anymore? Say he's working on something else, would you step up and inform others of how he operates? I know I would.

I think he's working at Starbucks. He's always had a Venti Coffee with him and has mentioned numerous times that "we are grinding away". So that makes sense because there's never just one person working at a Starbucks and they are grinding away lots of coffee in their grinder. So maybe people need to be searching all of the Starbucks in the Phoenix Metro Area and see if Paul is grinding away with the rest of his Starbucks team. He did mention in the WSJ that he had his resume out at Starbucks:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-elios-quest-to-build-a-three-wheel-car-1433301222

 

[Watashiwah]

Would y'all feel betrayed if Paul Elio isn't really trying to get funding for the Autocycle anymore? Say he's working on something else, would you step up and inform others of how he operates? I know I would.

I recently retired and have quite a bit of free time: Hari and Paul have become, sort of, my new hobby! I’m making it my business to forever associate them with this. They are either competent and honest, or they’re not.

BTW, “Forward Looking Statements” are not a free pass for blanket protection, nor intended to be more than ‘boilerplate’ for a universal inoculation. It remains to be seen if numerous claims went unfulfilled, monies were properly spent, and who actually got paid, and what did they do?

 

[RSchneider]

I recently retired and have quite a bit of free time: Hari and Paul have become, sort of, my new hobby! I’m making it my business to forever associate them with this. They are either competent and honest, or they’re not.

BTW, “Forward Looking Statements” are not a free pass for blanket protection, nor intended to be more than ‘boilerplate’ for a universal inoculation. It remains to be seen if numerous claims went unfulfilled, monies were properly spent, and who actually got paid, and what did they do?

Look into the early SEC filings and you'll find some interesting claims:

In 2013, we purchased the former General Motors (GM) light truck assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana to house our manufacturing operations.

and

The facility was purchased by us from the Racer Trust, with all of the GM manufacturing equipment in place, for $3 million in cash and a $23 million promissory note.

Yet in the same SEC filing is this:

In December 2013, we entered into an agreement with Shreveport Business Park, LLC to lease 997,375 rentable square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space for a 25-year term

Seems that error went on for a few months until April when it turned into this:

In 2013, we acquired the former General Motors (GM) light truck assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana to house our manufacturing operations.

Might not seem like a big deal but it's confusing. When one line makes it look like they purchased the plant and equipment for $26M, that sounds like a deal. When you find out that it's a lease and the $26M was just the equipment. A big difference.

Then back in November 2015:

We are now seeking $25 million in funding from this Regulation A offering to fund the build of 25 prototypes and the completion of the safety and final engineering tests. Upon completion of this phase, which management expects to take six months, the vehicle production costs, as well as the performance and safety profiles, will be understood to a level that will allow for the kick-off of hard tooling. With the development risks addressed, we will then be in a position to raise larger amounts of capital - to be up to another estimated $240 million to fund production activities.

As an investor back in November 2015, you think, Elio bought the plant and only needs an additional $240M to get to production.

As that investor you get a surprise. By the end of April 2016 (1.5 months after the IPO) that cost to production went up to $311M (17.8%). Then by July, another shocker. The bills up to $316M but they reduced it to $273M because they expect another $25.5M in reservations and to make $18.2M in profits from the people that put in reservations. Remember at the time Elio only had $22M in reservations and that took 39 months. Then a year later all is well. On May 1, 2016, only $311M needed. Then Elio had another Easter egg for you the investor, a day later they cranked it up to $376M.

After that everything stabilized until three months later when it went to $531M. They expected $110M in reservations and $44M from profits for the 65K people that they had reservations. Since Elio went through this rapid increase for getting to production, it makes you wonder, were they oblivious to this or did they know this long before and just adjusted the numbers as time allowed?

 

[3wheelin]

I followed Elio from it’s Marketing Birth and don’t feel betrayed in the slightest. I don’t think Paul has to work again, so you may as well leave Paul alone to enjoy the profits from their highly successful Hello Elio marketing campaign. He was always covered by a FLS, but some didn’t read them and others simply took the risk to support the startup. Some believe Elio can still deliver.

Well said RickB. I've stopped wasting my time trying to nail the underlying cause of EM's fall from grace- gave my 1k all-in a 2nd chance when EMV accepted it towards the purchase of their SOLO! I gave the ELIO less than 50% of making it early on when I plunged my 1k but I'm over it, wasn't dreaming about it no more, my 1k's still working for me so I'm good. Been playing my favorite EAGLES song - "Get over it".