Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
YHe didn't have to go "all in" on a huge manufacturing facility and so many special tooled components i.e. a proprietary engine before getting things going; Slingshot uses GM sourced engines and, well, just about all other commercially available trikes do. Like Vanderhall https://vanderhallusa.com/ They are a real, going concern with real, available, affordable product. How did they do it? They weren't big shots with bottomless pockets. P.S. And endless fund-raising and endless excuses for not delivering.
Or Tesla. They had Lotus build their first model to their specifications. Low overhead while learning the ropes and building momentum. |
I guesstimate it's easier to make a spark-ignited EPA-compliant engine than earning NHTSA and DOT certification for a car bodyshell, and eventually the development cost of an engine supplied from a third party could be paid off quicker due to the economics of scale from its usage in other vehicles and eventually other applications such as gensets, outboard motors, whatever. Had Elio partnered with some random Chinese make of copies of Suzuki, Toyota or Mitsubishi engines since day one, and there are plenty of them to choose from, it would have led to a quicker start, and I bet there would be many Chinese manufacturers willing to set their foothold in the U.S. even if that was only as an engine supplier.