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

[rmay635703]

The only way I saw them as being sucessfull was to have the following approach

1. Concept
2. Kit availble (donate your own motor and vin)
with money down for completed cars
3. Glider available with money down (for completed cars again)
4. Actual cars available.

Not following this approach has a high likely hood of failure, following my method they could already be up to the glider stage and at the very least the kit stage. Which would bring in some cash flow from early adopters and hobbiests.

Cheers
Ryan

[sheepdog 44]

Reading the Tucker entry on wikipedia has some eerie parallels. There is no point in speculating beyond not putting a deposit down. Only time will tell. I'd have a deposit if it wasn't for Aptera, and Hybrid battery repair making off with multiple $1,000's per customer deposit with no recourse.

Hey Guy, we have used Technosports Creative to build our prototypes. They're responsible for many of the vehicles that you see in movies such as Transformers!

[jkv357]

Originally Posted by Daox

Going with their own design may have a lot to do with hitting that magical $6800 price point.

Maybe in the long run, but the design, tooling, casting, testing, etc for an engine of their own is quite a bit extra for a start-up company to handle. Plus the added time before you can have a quantity ready to go.

Just doesn't make sense at this point to me.

[Daox]

I would agree.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by Daox

Going with their own design may have a lot to do with hitting that magical $6800 price point.

More like impossible. Put another 1 in front of it.

[NeilBlanchard]

Where is the information about only having use of the factory building for 1-1.5 years coming from? If that is true, I find it hard to believe they will try and set up production there.

[bhtooefr]

The Elio - High Hopes For This Unusual Underdog - HybridCars.com

A colleague, Jo Borras (who I sarcastically call “Elio’s biggest fan,” because actually he’s more than a little skeptical), informs me the provisional lease on Elio’s current manufacturing facility in Shreveport, La., expires in 2016. This means, if the start-up doesn’t have the money to move forward, the entire facility, along with the dreams of the Elioites, could literally be headed to the scrap heap.

So, if they can't get going by 2016, it sounds like it's game over.

What's rather suspicious is that they were claiming very specific numbers re: fuel economy and price from a very early time, when they didn't even have an engine selected, really. And, the engine specs vary every time you ask them. I've seen every permutation of 55 hp, 60 hp, 50 ft-lbs, 55 ft-lbs, and 60 ft-lbs.

And, I don't think economies of scale are with them to use their own engine, unless IAV has another customer for the engine design. (And given who IAV's main owner is... and that owner already has a suitable drivetrain (only needing a slight drop in compression to run on regular, or Atkinson cams, maybe a SOHC head to cut costs, maybe a slight drop in displacement to improve efficiency (or the aforementioned Atkinson cams), and delete some emissions controls to cut cost and improve efficiency), complete with the automated single-clutch manual transmission that I was told, today, that they'd be using as their automatic option...)

Edit: Just to clarify, they didn't name a supplier for the transmission. Just that it would have an automated single-clutch 5-speed as an option.

[Cobb]

Kind of reminds me of a solar panel company that made solar panels that worked as long as you didnt put them in direct sun light.

[sheepdog 44]

1,228lbs. You'd have a hard time finding a car anywhere that light.

How Can You Make an Elio so Affordable?

When Paul Elio visits tour events, one of two things inevitably happens. One, people passionately thank him for working so hard to bring American manufacturing back to the US. Two, they ask about the price -- “how can you sell a brand new vehicle that gets 84 MPG for $6,800 in America?”

The answer should be “Why not?”…but the answer requires a little more explanation.

The truth is, there is not one specific answer because Elio Motors’ engineers and suppliers save costs in multiple ways that create a huge savings in the overall project.

“In reality, with every decision we make, Elio Motors is laser focused on cost savings,” Elio said. “Our engineers and suppliers form one of the best teams in the industry. We constantly evaluate every aspect of the vehicle and the company to see where we can profitably mass-produce a low-cost vehicle. It includes engineering decisions, supplier relationships, options packaging, and the retail network and service arrangement. Focus on detail in each of these areas keeps total costs down.”

Here are a few examples of how we get it done. Note we mentioned “a few examples” as this is far from an all-encompassing list.

Lighter Weight = Lower Cost

Some things are pretty obvious. The vehicle weighs just 1,228 lbs., while most entry-level vehicles weigh approximately 2,400 lbs. “Half as much material costs less,“ Elio said. “Three wheels cost less than four, two seats cost less than five and one door is less than two or four.”

Clever Engineering: A Few Examples

Other cost savings are far less obvious, but no less important. Many cost savings come from clever engineering solutions that are often taken for granted. Take the hood latch, for example.
Hood Latch

A traditional hood opens forward, requiring two latches. If the first latch fails, the second latch keeps the hood from popping up and blocking the driver’s sight line. But, the second latch requires an interior release handle, a cable and a bracket to install. This simple system alone adds more than $20.00 to the overall vehicle cost and adversely affects gas mileage because of added weight.

On an Elio, the hood is engineered to open the other way. If the latch fails, the wind will blow the hood down rather than up, so a redundant latch is not required. The Elio latch costs just $3.00.

Windshield Wiper Bottle

A traditional vehicle has a thick plastic windshield wiper bottle, designed to last for at least 10 years and work well at -40 F to 140 F. In addition, when you buy windshield wiper fluid, you have to pour it in (usually spilling some on your shoes), and then a little bit remains that you don’t want to throw away and you don’t want to store. The actual cost of the well-designed windshield wiper bottle in today’s vehicle costs about $8.00. The Elio system is another simple but highly effective example; there is a depression in the engine compartment to put a 1-gallon jug of wiper fluid securely in place. The cap has the hose from the wiper fluid pump in the middle so all that is needed is to open the jug and screw on the cap. The cost of the bottle is free — it is included when you buy windshield wiper fluid.

The Innovative Engine Design

Because the engine is gas powered, Elio is often asked why they simply don’t purchase an off-the-shelf 3-cylinder engine to expedite production. Elio said that “most engines are designed with many different vehicle platforms in mind which results in an engine that is good for all, but best for none.” The Elio engine is designed to be highly fuel-efficient, yet meet strict performance expectations for both city and highway driving. Plus, it is designed by one of the world’s premier and most respected engine design and engineering firms, IAV (Click for our supplier page)

Supplier Summits – Bringing together the Best Engineers in the Industry

Elio’s own history as an engineer spurred him to create a better system for fostering supplier relationships.

“As a budding engineer, I was able to show an OEM that they could save 1/2 lb. and $1.00 if they moved a bolt hole in the floor pan one inch.” Says Paul Elio. “They said, NO.” Reason being, the traditional design process compartmentalizes each component with rigid boundaries. Cost, mass and performance is optimized at the component level rather than the system level. “Elio Motors realizes that our customers don’t care how much we pay for a seat or the frame; they care about safety and how much does the vehicle cost.”

Through our Supplier Summits, Elio Motors optimizes on the system level rather than the component level. Sometimes the right answer is to pay $1.00 more for the seat because $3.00 can be saved on the frame if done this way.

Business Model - Elio Motors Business Operations Simplify Retailing, Service and Reduce Overall Costs

Much like the vehicle design itself, Elio Motors has many innovative business operation strategies that help control overall costs. This includes how the company allows customers to pick options, as well as how vehicles are sold and serviced.

Option Strategy Reduces Over Contenting – Most vehicles for sale today package options in bundles. This helps control inventory but it ultimately means that consumers are forced to pay for options they don’t want or need. Elio Motors is going about this differently by offering two basic models: a standard transmission and an automatic transmission. Every vehicle comes with AC/heat, AM/FM stereo radio, power windows and a power door lock. Customers can add other individual options such as a power leather seat, blind spot detecting mirrors, back-up camera and more. This ensures customers pay only for the options they want.

Proven Service Network – Elio Motors will be supported by a proven service network — Pep Boys (press release). Our simplified system allows Elio Motors to pass along substantial savings to the customer by reducing the costs to operate a service network. In doing so, the focus will remain on building quality, low-cost vehicles and in turn relying on Pep Boys as the Official Service Center to deliver a high quality customer experience.
Company Owned Retail Outlets – Elio Motors’ company-owned retail stores (click here) will be strategically located in markets of high sales potential and will be situated in real estate situations that are high traffic and make efficient use of floor space. The stores will be architecturally simple and focused on efficiency, which allows Elio Motors to pass savings along to its customers.

[NeilBlanchard]

Thanks for that information on the factory - it is a bit less dire than it originally sounded, but yes we knew the clock is ticking.

I have a possible path for them to ramp up, more rapidly than maybe otherwise: the company that is prototyping the engine / transmission can do a small production run to get the 20,000+ cars out to depositors - and then a larger run can be done by a company set up to do this.