Why Hasn't The Elio Been Built Yet?

[DBN477]

All this is true, but the stars apear to be alligning for Elio & Company & gas prices will continue
to rise. Given the current political climet (globally) it won't take much to foster another oil crisis.
It will be nice to have an Elio then............

Heard all that before, in the same political climate, oil crisis? USA set to become worlds largest oil producer...........Green River Formation 3 trillion barrels of oil, half that is recoverable. Plus all the nautural gas. Sasol building a gas to liquid plant. Oil is not going to a problem.

 

[ecdriver711]

Plenty of oil is right. Problem is, to many people running our lives want the price high.

 

[DBN477]

Too many people running our lives has always been our problem. People like Tom Ogle, Charles Pogue, Smokey Yunick would have had their designs come to market, if this were a "free market."

 

[Tomg3rd]

Why hasn't it been built? Which one? P3 was updated for the better in my opinion to the P4. P5 will have the new drivetrain and further refinements. I'm glad they didn't build the P3...The Elio will be better for the wait.

 

[elio_curious]

For SURE it's the Financing - it's Financial "Critical Mass" -
In order to sell the Elio for $6,800, they have to sell [insert Quantity guess here] cars,
because the low price is only possible with very Large Volume production.

In order to MAKE that many cars, they have to be able to set up and Finance a production line
(and have ALL the parts ready and waiting) capable of producing that many cars.

It's a financial "chicken and egg" problem.

And how would Paul Elio remain as "Chief Drumbeater" because the money will come from other investors?

 

[goofyone]

And how would Paul Elio remain as "Chief Drumbeater" because the money will come from other investors?

With venture capital investments it's very common for the founder and current management team to stay and lead the company even if investors actually own most of the company. Who else understands the business better than the people who started it. This is how Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is still CEO after several rounds of venture capital and an IPO. Of course if there is a problem or things start to go south the investors always have the option of bringing in a new management team.

 

[elio_curious]

Who wants to Estimate how many Elios have to be mass produced to get the price to $6,800?

We need a manufacturing financial wiz (or two) to chime in....

 

[redhedman50]

Completely different animal here. Henry Ford fought the patent of the automobile. Potential and current investors didn't want to be involved in a lengthy court battle. Prior to that if you built an automobile(if approved) you paid royalties to George Selden. Henry Ford didn't believe anyone owned the concept of an automobile. When Mr.Ford won in court to pursue his automobile, it opened the door for everyone...What backers pulled out of Elio deal? I don't think any. I don't see the comparison to Henry Ford. More like the original VW, the people's car.

Hey DBN477,

You said "I don't see the comparison to Henry Ford. More like the original VW, the people's car."
Henry Ford is also know to have made producing cars at affordable prices to the masses through creating the production line. In this aspect Mr. Elio has made his mark by utilizing already produced parts (except maybe a few) and bringing them together, eliminating the need for producing your own propriatary parts. I don't know why this hasn't been done with cars already. How many companies make a 4 cylinder engine for example? I imagine there are problably 20 or more.

So, someone made chocolate, another made peanut butter, then some bright person put them together and the rest is history!

 

[DBN477]

Hey DBN477,

You said "I don't see the comparison to Henry Ford. More like the original VW, the people's car."
Henry Ford is also know to have made producing cars at affordable prices to the masses through creating the production line. In this aspect Mr. Elio has made his mark by utilizing already produced parts (except maybe a few) and bringing them together, eliminating the need for producing your own propriatary parts. I don't know why this hasn't been done with cars already. How many companies make a 4 cylinder engine for example? I imagine there are problably 20 or more.

So, someone made chocolate, another made peanut butter, then some bright person put them together and the rest is history!

Ford did that with Jaguar and Aston Martin (utilizing already produced parts). Volvo S80 platform the basis for the Ford Taurus. Ford said they thought S80 platform alone was worth what they paid for Volvo. Jaguar S-Type, Lincoln LS, Ford Thunderbird all shared the DEW98 platform. Common engines (Jags got a tweak here and there to make it a Jag). So commonality already in use, parts already done. Dodge using a Cummins engine. GM using an Allison transmission. DeTomaso used Ford engines instead of developing their own. Corvette using Brembo brakes instead of developing their own. All the things you say Mr. Elio is doing utilizing already produced parts has already been done..........So using your logic Mr. Elio should be using one of the 3 cylinder engines already in production, be it Mini, Ford, Fiat, or Volkswagen. So what is IAV doing for Elio? Are they developing a new engine for Elio? If the IAV engine is in production, what is it in? The transmission what is it in? None of the body panels, or platform is universal. So there are very few pieces that are already produced. I would expect suspension, tires, brakes, stereo..........The most expensive items are not.

 

[BlioKart]

Ford did that with Jaguar and Aston Martin (utilizing already produced parts). Volvo S80 platform the basis for the Ford Taurus. Ford said they thought S80 platform alone was worth what they paid for Volvo. Jaguar S-Type, Lincoln LS, Ford Thunderbird all shared the DEW98 platform. Common engines (Jags got a tweak here and there to make it a Jag). So commonality already in use, parts already done. Dodge using a Cummins engine. GM using an Allison transmission. DeTomaso used Ford engines instead of developing their own. Corvette using Brembo brakes instead of developing their own. All the things you say Mr. Elio is doing utilizing already produced parts has already been done..........So using your logic Mr. Elio should be using one of the 3 cylinder engines already in production, be it Mini, Ford, Fiat, or Volkswagen. So what is IAV doing for Elio? Are they developing a new engine for Elio? If the IAV engine is in production, what is it in? The transmission what is it in? None of the body panels, or platform is universal. So there are very few pieces that are already produced. I would expect suspension, tires, brakes, stereo..........The most expensive items are not.

IAV engine is a slight modernization of the Suzuki / Geo Metro G10 motor far as I know. I get your point I don't really get why didn't they just integrate another OEM's engine. My only guess is its cost factor. Only thing that makes sense in the IAV engine is it is based on an existing design that is proven so it does cut development cost down.