Quote:
Originally Posted by ME_Andy
I could see some philanthropic billionaire stepping in to fund the project. You know how Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, etc. have pledged to give more to charity? This is probably the most worthwhile cause I could imagine, from an environmental perspective and a social perspective.
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Except Elio is a for-profit company. This type of rescue funding would be justifiable only if it were done like the Wall Street/Detroit bailouts: the thing that benefits society (banks, manufacturing) continues while the jackasses who ran them into the grouund for their own profit (shareholders, bondholders) lose either everything or close to everything while the rescuers book a tidy profit once things return to normal.
If Warren Buffett wanted to, he could put together an Elio-class car and make money from it. But Elio won't make the kind of returns that Buffett likes to get so he'll never finance them, and if he were going to do it on his own he'd never start by buying such an ineffectively run company.
But yes, a minimalistic, highly efficient vehicle would be a Good Thing. Aside from the fact that we want them, lots of other people could really use them.