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This is one of my favourite threads on the forum, mainly because it is full of opinion and witty comment. In the early days it was a split between optimism and scepticism, but lately the only debate is over "is he a crook or a fool".
And I think that's a shame!
There's still much good that can come from this discussion, so I'd like to ask you all to consider a serious point and give some opinion on that.
The "barriers to entry" in vehicle manufacturing are fairly high, I think we would all accept, so imagine yourself in Elio's shoes at the start of this (mis)adventure.
We can see clearly with the benefit of hindsight that this project was doomed from the outset, but what alternative strategies were open to him? And would any of them have been more likely to succeed?
Personally, I'm most interested in the volume production conundrum, or "manufacturing hell" that Elon Musk describes. The central problem is how can you compete on cost without the sales volume and attendant scale efficiency?
So, if you start small (because you can't get plant & equipment investment for an unproven product), how can you grow quickly enough to capitalise on the market, before the established players come and fight you?
Look at Tesla, now every major car maker is taking them on! Will they get a return on their investment?
My own take on this, is that the only way to enter this mature market is to compete in a "niche" that is not price sensitive and build volume organically. The problem is that, low-cost efficient vehicles tend to be highly price sensitive!
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