When Will Production Begin?

[Thomas Skaggs]

Me also. :-) :-)


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[Jerry Greif]

I will go with May 12, (9am) 2015. It would be cool if I could pick mine up on my birthday July 10 2014 but I will be happy with July 10 2015.

 

[outsydthebox]

Just saw a Pep Boys commercial. Looks like we Elio owners will get screwed again. They have a special on now. If you buy three tires, you get the fourth one free!!! No place to put a spare.

LOLOLOL! That is funny on so many levels! Tho, I have priced tires there in the past, and got them cheaper thru SAM's Club, even with the same "buy 3 get one free" deal.

 

[Dustoff]

FREE TIRE !!!!
Well, after you purchase 3 at 1.33 times the normal cost.

 

[fpelsdca]

In the NBC puff piece Paul stated that production will start in September 2015, 15 months from now. Since I am new to Elio I am not yet up on the history.

What has been the previous promised dates for Start of Production, if any?

What is keeping them from Starting tomorrow?

In the facebook post I read earlier this evening the company said they have all the financing needed to get them into production. If this is true, why wait another 15 months? They will burn through all their money quickly in another 15 months.

 

[msmith5150]

There has never been any promises of any kind, first and foremost. There have been projected start dates that have been met with delays. Some of the delays have been caused by bureaucrats in Louisiana that for some reason don't want this to happen. Most recently, Elio is in the process of nailing down investors, and other details most of which are private and cannot be legally discussed to the public.

In other words, completely normal occurrences for a startup like this.

 

[ecdriver711]

So far, everything Elio Motors talks about and promises is unfolding into reality. It's just not happening fast enough for some. And for others of a negative nature, one must wonder way are they here at a forum dedicated to the success of the automotive team and their car.

 

[JNR]

In the NBC puff piece Paul stated that production will start in September 2015, 15 months from now. Since I am new to Elio I am not yet up on the history.

What has been the previous promised dates for Start of Production, if any?

What is keeping them from Starting tomorrow?

In the facebook post I read earlier this evening the company said they have all the financing needed to get them into production. If this is true, why wait another 15 months? They will burn through all their money quickly in another 15 months.

First of all they can't start tomorrow if they had $10 billion, they are not production ready.

IIRC, the two most recent previous projections (not promises) were:

begin production summer 2014 when it was summer 2013.
begin production 1st quarter 2015 when around release of the current prototype, Jan or Feb 2014.

Hence, some people, and not just the most negative among us here, are upset that it moves 6 months away every 6 months. As for me, I'm not surprised by delays and expect them, as long as progress continues I'm ok. From the recent talk from Elio, I would be upset with another 6 month delay unless it was from a roadblock from some outside entity or a failure to get government loan for production as opposed to a failure to meet their engineering deadlines which Elio recently stated they already have enough money for.

Another projection made was 18-26 prototypes for testing and some would be crashed, those were hinted at they would be ready by summer and I think this was floated around Jan 2014. It now appears those should be made in the fall.

There were some earlier projections in 2008-2010, but I don't count those because they were preliminary business plans floated by Paul Elio just so he could get the ball rolling. He projected pie in the sky scenarios which any dreamer should do in the infancy of any business plan. Some like to bring that data up once in awhile as if it was now relevant.

So in short, there is enough fuel to feed a doubters fire. There is also steady progress to give the rest of hope it will come to market.

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

As stated above, politics have had a hand at delaying Elio Motors' plans, but a bigger delay could be the big investors.
An investment group would say: "I'll drop $100 million IF you meet certain standards" like: a have plans to conduct extra safety testing (liability), have a more detailed business plan, multiple contingency plans for economy changes or unforeseen competition and legal resistance (dealer associations), and alternate plans for possible production expansion, new or additional vendors in case one fails to deliver (See Boeing 787), additional quality control, etc

Having a strong base or foundation is not a quick build nor is it an easy one. They are making great strides using outside vendors to design components. The massive Boeing corporation changed their entire vendor structure and shot themselves in the process costing them BILLIONS of dollars. Elio Motors lacks the resources to recover from this type of mistake.

Now is the time to be methodical and thorough.

Paul Elio is an engineer by trade and likely a good one. He is learning the finer points business, investments, infrastructure, media, and politics in a trial by fire. In an engineer's mind, the production line can be built in a few months. Factor in the previous mentioned finer points, months can turn into years.

A Critical Mass of brand name recognition, investment and social economic conditions can create a wave of movement with little warning.

I, for one, have popcorn....

 

[karl]

Lets look at how long it has taken Fiat to relaunch Alfa Romeo here in the US. They have a few bucks and it is still taking time.