News From Shreveport

[Elio Amazed]

Elio's not stupid, they have us following them..... Fortune Favors the Bold.

Bold is one thing. Bold, Unqualified, Unrealistic and Totally Reckless is quite another.
Fortune may Favor the Bold, but history smacks down the Bold, Unqualified, Unrealistic and Reckless.

Without the hassle and those payments, Elio probably would have a production ready Elio in mid 2016. They could have spent 6 months shopping around, another 6 months building and outfitting a factory.

I'd agree with that only if they'd have been able to find investors that would have given them the absolutely huge amount that it would have taken to build from scratch. I'm not sure six months is a realistic figure for building and tooling no matter how much money would have been available. However, finding investors that would have given anything at all towards the total cost of starting production certainly might have been easier if they'd had a completely tested and finished production-ready prototype.

 

[RSchneider]

You could do 6 months if you decided to have a realistic expectation of only building a few thousand the first year as opposed to 65K and then go full out with 250K.Wouldn;t it be great if Elio right now had cranked out 5K Elios and will have another 20K in 12 months from now as opposed to 0 right now and 0 in 12 months and ? in 24 months?

Also, that plant has been sitting for a long time with no activity. I don't know who here has ever done any outfitting of plant equipment on an older plant, but manufacturing plants are not like fine wine where the longer you let them sit, the better they get. That plant shut the doors over 5 years ago and like any plant that they know is going to shut down, every fix is with duct tape and zip ties over the last 6 months. Add into that, disgruntled employees, they like to screw things up before they leave. Then you have issues like plumbing, lights, air system and the roof. Those four items right there don't get better with time let alone the rust in that humid environment.

 

[Travelbuzz1]

There's cars at the plant location . January 4, 2017
http://m.ksla.com/ksla/pm_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=od:gm029x05

 

[RUCRAYZE]

You left out corruption, vendetta, absence of ethics, individual weak work ethic, political grandstanding, and little concern for the relatively smaller remaining that are motivated but unemployed.

Silly, that's in every state city and national happenings

 

[RSchneider]

Silly, that's in every state city and national happenings

That is exactly the reason why you don't get involved where you ask the local government to buy a piece of property because you promised good things (i.e. jobs) and then don't deliver. It will come back to haunt you every time. If Elio was literally 18 months from production back back in January 2013, then this would have never been a problem. Here we are, 5 years later and all they see are broken promises. Too bad he didn't tell the Caddo Parish the same thing he told the 65K reservation holders. If he did, then Elio would be in a much better situation today.

 

[RSchneider]

Looks like Alabama is the place to build cars nowadays where they currently have Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes and a Toyota engine plant. 4000 new jobs by 2021.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...illion-plant-in-alabama-sources-idUSKBN1EY2PF

 

[Sailor Dog]

Looks like Alabama is the place to build cars nowadays where they currently have Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes and a Toyota engine plant. 4000 new jobs by 2021.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...illion-plant-in-alabama-sources-idUSKBN1EY2PF

Just saw the same story on CNBC... 300,000 production capacity for the $1.6 billion, 4000 job Mazda/Toyota factory in Huntsville, Alabama by 2021! Wake up Shreveport, don't you want to produce something again?

 

[Made in USA]

I believe that Shreveport does want jobs, but blaming Elio is not going to be productive. If anything, they should be putting pressure on Stu as it is he who is trying to keep the plant open for Elio, instead of leasing it out to someone else. Looking at it from Stu's perspective, would he rather wait for Elio and have his stock worth something, or lease to someone else and just get rent money? When Elio does start, he will get a lot bigger return for his investment. The fact that he is still waiting is a hopeful sign.

 

[RSchneider]

I wonder if it's because Elio is being too efficient. Elio is going to make 250K cars per year with only 1500 as opposed to 300K with 4K people. It makes me wonder why Toyota can't build their 300K with only 1700 people. Something is wrong over at Toyota.

 

[Watashiwah]

As one who lived in Northern Louisiana for a few years it is difficult to describe what ails Shreveport (and to a slightly lesser degree, Bossier City) without pissing some people off and being ‘politically incorrect.’ There are good reasons why GM still isn’t there and it not just the locally elected, although they do literally represent the populace.

Just as an aside and interesting FYI: Bonnie and Clyde met their makers just a little south of S’port....