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

[user removed]

Can anyone tell me when Elio first promised production (the date promised)?

regards
mech

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Can anyone tell me when Elio first promised production (the date promised)?

regards
mech

I don't know if a sooner date was announced in other media ... but

Using Way Back snap shot of their web site: Link
On 1-27-13 they were promising:

Originally Posted by elio

"Our production plan shows the delivery of the first Elio in July 2014."

Well ... haven't even started production yet .. almost ~1 year past delivery due.

And from the look of it .. current promises (2016) push it back to about ~2 years behind schedule... which ... if they ever deliver to consumers .. a ~2 year delay isn't horrible.

- - - - -

Also interesting to remember what they used to promise about the car ... back on Oct - 6 - 2009 ... Link

$7,400 price for 70 mpg

Price promises got lower ... MPG promises got higher .. I guess that's one way to try and keep people sending you $.

- - - - -

And also useful to remember the Elio car concept origins ... ESG engineering co-founded by Mr Paul Elio ... in ~2008 ESG Engineering developed the concept ... the old picture from the ESG Engineering Flyer still looks allot like the modern version Link ... Mr Paul Elio (who was on the that development team) .. than left ESG engineering ... according to him on his own LinkedIn profile Link .. "the company struggled to survive" ... he takes the Elio concept car work with him ... he founded a new company ... I guess hoping to do better than the last company he founded ... maybe 3rd time will be the charm with the next company he founds .. maybe that one (name yet to be determined) will promise a $5,000 car that gets 90MPG.

[Frank Lee]

They're trying to break Aptera's record for screwing around and screwing investors.

[doclees]

Lit motors c1 is looking like it may make production before the "off the shelf" unicorn. I was hoping for simple. Good chance this will all be too late for me. Should be sailboat bound in 1.5 years. A 84mpg dinghy would be nice though.

[Arragonis]

Apparently fleets are signed up.

https://www.eliomotors.com/fleet/

[diesel_john]

Come on guys mean to tell me nobody on this site lives in Shreveport, LA. How about some pics/video of the guard waving on scores of scrap trucks going in and out of the gate. Or not. What do i have to do spend a $100 bucks on diesel to drive down there and stake out the place.

[NeilBlanchard]

This is a video with an IAV engineer who worked on the Elio engine, and there is a lot of information here:

https://youtu.be/fYOjUKS8r5M

[ME_Andy]

That's cool. They just need $ now. I figure they are bringing in about $50-60k/week. That's probably just enough to cover operating expenses. From memory, they had about $58M previously and they offered $30M to high-net-worth investors. So maybe (optimistically) they have about $90M on hand. A more pessimistic estimate would be $70M, or about 1/3 of what they need to start production. I know Paul Elio said he would go public if he had to.

I figure there's a 50-50 chance to ever see my Elio Would love to see a finalized engine out and about in a prototype.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

This is a video with an IAV engineer who worked on the Elio engine, and there is a lot of information here:

https://youtu.be/fYOjUKS8r5M

Bored watching some software run slowly on a slow client server so I decided to watch this. It is interesting.

Points I picked up (I tapped whilst watching).

- Design not complete, underside needs done, exhaust etc.
- Oil plug on side of pan - hmmm, had issues with that on an old Mini
- Redline is "65, 67 right now" - I assume 6.5-6.7K which is modest these days.
- The guy works for IDEA(s?) not Elio.
- Designed for highway fuel economy - City ?
- Aluminium, spray technology ? Lighter weight and others have used it.
- Smart benchmark is the Metro - really, a 1990s engine ? Compared to Ford etc. 1 Litre (no turbo and 4 valves though....)
- Sweet spot is 1500-3000 "depending on cycle" - what is that ?
- Talks about high compression ratio but the back yard Jackson Browne music gets in the way.
- Knock sensor to cope with higher compression ratio, pretty much standard stuff. High compression ratio might have an effect there.
- Regular fuel - 10.1 Ethanol % ? See point above.
- SOHC design chosen because it is cheapest solution - no buying an engine is cheaper... Building your own this is true.
- Describes a VVT style system based on 2 inlet valves and cam lobes. Seems like a pin can engage the second lobe & valve combination to allow the engine to breather deeper. From an external company - they (IDEA? or Elio is unclear) has part of the patent.
- Chain Cam - well done that man, belts suck!
- Talks about reducing friction but mentions offset components causing friction but now they are solved other than they are.
- Oil and water pump reduced rotor. Interesting they tested designs.
- It has AC ? Utility belt driven.
- EGR Cooler to recycle exhaust and reduce losses.

[MetroMPG]

The Suzuki/Metro 1.0 is actually a mid-80's engine.