What Milage Would You Accept To Get Your Elio?

[Ty]

It's only a matter of time before we start reading "targeting production kickoff and first customer deliveries in 2020". Certainly if substantive progress were being made toward final production readiness, Paul Elio would be screaming it from rooftops.

The lack of news and transparency is frustrating. The small investment by Overstock generated buzz, then the ElioCoin STO launch has been left open-ended. Did it close? Did they comply with an SEC cease-and-desist? Is the offering still ongoing? Was there any interest? Has Patrick Byrne pulled out or is he still supporting the project? The new powertrain announcement was released during the ElioCoin STO launch window with much fanfare and no subsequent follow-up.

I'll admit the one factoid that gives me hope at this point is this photographic evidence of an alleged supplier meeting that took place on 05/03/2018 in Troy, MI with a cameo by the E1c: https://www.eliomotors.com/elio-supplier-meeting/. It came totally unannounced and seemingly out of nowhere following months of apparent inactivity in the public eye. It's the only thing I cling to as I try not to be pessimistic about 2019 delivery prospects.

I know... even a simple picture of one of the newer prototypes at Roush would be wonderful.

 

[Ty]

Ever get bored and just do some random research. Happened to me. Elio entered an MOU with a Fortune 500 company to supply engines. Despite headlines, Roush is NOT supplying engines to Elio. They'll do the engineering to shoehorn an engine into the Elio but they won't be casting engines. Nope. Which leads us to the intrigue that is Elio's Engine Supplier:

What we know - It's a Fortune 500 company. That's easy enough to check when you are at work at 0400 with not much else to do..

Here is a list of every Fortune 500 company that produces engines:

Ford - top contender as they recently stopped manufacturing small cars for the US market.
GM - Probably the #2 contender
Navistar - whoa Nellie, not so fast. They only produce large diesels
Cummins - it's like deja vu except they produce some other engines but nothing small enough for the Elio
Tesla - Okay, they don't produce engines but they COULD produce a single motor Elio solution (yeah, that won't happen)
Lithia Motors - actually, they don't produce engines but I added them here to show due diligence
Norfolk Southern - Their engines are bigger than the Elio so that most likely won't be a solution
Boeing - Yeah, that's a big no
GE - Yeah, that's also a big no.

That's it.

At least, that's all I found on the Fortune 500 list. When boiled down, only Ford and GM stand out as viable engine suppliers for Elio and of those two, Ford is probably in the best position to sell excess engine production. Come to think of it, it may even be beneficial to Ford to actually loan Elio enough money and maybe engineering to get started. Ford would make money on the back end selling motors and collecting interest on the loan. Hmm... HMM...HMM!!!

Hit "Like" to vote for Ford or "Like" to vote for GM. Hit "Like" if you are tired of waiting. LOL. Kidding. Hitting like won't do anything.

 

[RSchneider]

Only thing is, Ford and GM don't make a suitable Elio motor made in NAFTA. As for FCA, they do (technically, in the USA). I suspect the 90% NAFTA content might go down with this engine choice.