Elio Motors, The Next Big Thing?!!...

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Only a few days away from a year have passed since the original post. I wonder how many "reservations" they have collected? If this vehicle is ever sold commercially it will cost 3 times the original quoted price, at least.

regards
Mech

Wikipedia states :

Elio Motors plans to introduce the vehicle to the US car market in the fourth quarter of 2014.[2] The company is taking deposits from future customers, and as of December 2013, it has approximately 1800 deposits that have been issued a "production number"[citation needed] and approximately 5560 total deposits. Elio states that it will be manufactured in the US (Caddo Parish, Louisiana) with 90% of its parts from North America, and in January 2013 the company agreed to buy General Motors's non-operating Shreveport, Louisiana manufacturing plant.[3] By 2015, Elio Motors plans to employ 1,500 workers at that plant.[3]

1,500 workers is a lot of money - assuming $2K a month average salary (I'm guessing, maybe its more or less) that is $3m a month needed just for workers.

[Frank Lee]

Just like Aptera: lots of grandiose plans and there isn't even a nearly finished product in place, much less tested. Surprised they aren't in Cali taking the government for their umpteenth ride.

[Arragonis]

Some more looking - they have a blog here with photos of "prototypes being built".

Given that ex-GM plant made cars with monocoque bodies and complex engineering, will they be ready to make the cars in the photos ?

[doclees]

I don't know why a company would set a totally unrealistic intro price just to raise it by 50% after introduction. Seems that that would kill the market they had developed. I would assume these guys have enough business sense to crunch numbers close to a profitable price. I don't think a comparison to the Tesla S is even close yet if they were shooting for $50k and hit $63k thats not bad. Things like Tesla, Aptera, Terrafugia have a pretty small market they can even access. Price alone kills most of the U.S.. New technology kills more market. New tech is fun when you don't need to somewhat trust your life on it. When you do it will scare people away. The elio crosses many potential markets such as price (even if it comes in at $10k), green, motorcyclist, student, RV folks, hypermiler, tuners, drifters, tweekers that will stuff a 10 cylinder lamborghini in there, ecco tweeker that will put a 1 cylinder biodiesel in there.

I'd even buy it as a kit for $6800.

[user removed]

Set a low price, collect a significnat amount of deposits, promise the world, then go bankrupt, beg the govt for a subsidy, then go bankrupt for real. If you have not read that sad soap opera before, you don't read much.

Skepticism based on historical fact. Optimism can get expensive AND disappointing as well as costly for those who have yet to learn.

Time will tell, I made my prediction, make your own, maybe a small wager to help you remember .

regards
Mech

[user removed]

Home

Been reading about this "revolution" since my mid teens in 1965. He has collected millions from those who want to live the "dream".
Ever since the first human powered aircraft won the Kremer Prize, same one is now hanging in the Smithsonian.

Game, set, match, for anyone who thinks they should not be skeptical.

regards
Mech

[Frank Lee]

It may be nice that they do have prototypes, but so does Moller. And Aptera. It appears they are still one-offs; the question is are they seriously testing and developing with these mules or are they merely for the dog and pony show? I would be somewhat less skeptical if I saw tooled parts- especially for the drivetrain- rather than all the hand-made/borrowed stuff.

Even so- maybe it's just me- if I'd be doing it, I'd have the product pretty much nailed down BEFORE the hypefest and the big production plans.

I almost got on with such an outfit once- anyone heard of Excelsior-Henderson motorcycles? They had all the same warning flags- a crap prototype, and all the efforts of the founders seemed to be geared towards enriching themselves and building a palacial facility, of course at taxpayer expense. PREDICTABLY it FAILED.

[freebeard]

All I really care about is the in-wheel suspension. Think they can spin this off as the company [theoretically] goes down?


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Oopsie
vvv

[Frank Lee]

Erm... that's Edison.

[Arragonis]

I think the front suspension is now inboard, not sure if it uses one spring/damper unit per wheel or just one for both.