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Sister Mary Elephant

booboo

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Why has ElioMotors not found the millions they need to start production yet?

Is it a conspiracy?
How many billionaires are interested in a company that will produce a $7,450 vehicle ?
How many millionaires, or for that matter, thousandaires, give a rats ass about a $7,450 vehicle?
How many vehicle manufacturers, and their backers, want more competition?

https://inequality.org/
 

RSchneider

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Why has ElioMotors not found the millions they need to start production yet?

Is it a conspiracy?
How many billionaires are interested in a company that will produce a $7,450 vehicle ?

There were a few. Interestingly enough, this company had Hari as a full-time consultant from ESG Engineering from October 2006 to September 2009. They had green venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins, former Texas oil magnate T. Boone Pickens and former Oracle Corp. executive Frank Varasano. Plus former Mazda designer Tom Motano, who’s credited with designing the RX-7 sports car and the MX-5 Miata. The VC and Pickens threw in $100M. The state of Louisiana would have thrown in $67 million in state funding and $15 million from Monroe, Louisiana if they would have created the 1400 jobs in the plant they leased in Monroe. The whole thing went belly up when they did not get the $321 ATVM loan. So they renamed it Next Autoworks, made Hari the VP of Engineering and about a year later it went belly up because they must have figured out that their ATVM loan was not going to happen.

What was is really interesting is that Steve Jobs was interested in this car too. At the time he had a few bucks in his pocket too. It was to be 40% lighter than a steel car (made mostly out of plastic), cost around $14K and give 70mpg all while using ICE.

Now LCV capital bought the design and that's the last anyone knows about it.

So, the billionaires were there but not now. Even though the VC and Pickens are billionaires, they didn't become that by throwing large amounts of money away.

https://www.fastcompany.com/1297138/v-vehicle-auto-start-t-boone-pickens-and-kleiner-perkins
https://www.fastcompany.com/1695394/t-boone-pickens-v-vehicle-now-next-autoworks
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/06/09/steve-jobs-v-vehicle-creator/
The Next Autoworks story sounds eerily similar to Elio except they got funding from a few billionaires and Elio got it from lots of thousandaires. Both leased plants in Louisiana, promised almost the same amount of jobs, cheap car with exceptional mpg. I think the reason why nobody remembers this company is because they took a few billionaires money and were privately held. I wonder how much ESG Engineering got paid for 3 years of engineering work.
 

4matic

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There were a few. Interestingly enough, this company had Hari as a full-time consultant from ESG Engineering from October 2006 to September 2009. They had green venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins, former Texas oil magnate T. Boone Pickens and former Oracle Corp. executive Frank Varasano. Plus former Mazda designer Tom Motano, who’s credited with designing the RX-7 sports car and the MX-5 Miata. The VC and Pickens threw in $100M. The state of Louisiana would have thrown in $67 million in state funding and $15 million from Monroe, Louisiana if they would have created the 1400 jobs in the plant they leased in Monroe. The whole thing went belly up when they did not get the $321 ATVM loan. So they renamed it Next Autoworks, made Hari the VP of Engineering and about a year later it went belly up because they must have figured out that their ATVM loan was not going to happen.

What was is really interesting is that Steve Jobs was interested in this car too. At the time he had a few bucks in his pocket too. It was to be 40% lighter than a steel car (made mostly out of plastic), cost around $14K and give 70mpg all while using ICE.

Now LCV capital bought the design and that's the last anyone knows about it.

So, the billionaires were there but not now. Even though the VC and Pickens are billionaires, they didn't become that by throwing large amounts of money away.

https://www.fastcompany.com/1297138/v-vehicle-auto-start-t-boone-pickens-and-kleiner-perkins
https://www.fastcompany.com/1695394/t-boone-pickens-v-vehicle-now-next-autoworks
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/06/09/steve-jobs-v-vehicle-creator/
The Next Autoworks story sounds eerily similar to Elio except they got funding from a few billionaires and Elio got it from lots of thousandaires. Both leased plants in Louisiana, promised almost the same amount of jobs, cheap car with exceptional mpg. I think the reason why nobody remembers this company is because they took a few billionaires money and were privately held. I wonder how much ESG Engineering got paid for 3 years of engineering work.

Thanks for the posting...lots of great information!!
 

RSchneider

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If this is all true, and it looks like it probably is, what a shame! I was so looking forward to getting my Elio. :(
If you go to the Elio Website under Investor Relations, here's Hari's resume:
Hari Iyer, Director. In addition to serving as a director, Mr. Iyer was the Chief Operating Officer of Elio Motors from January 2014 to May 2016. He left the Company to start a new business, YoYo, an on-demand, pay-per-mile car subscription service as an alternative to buying or leasing automobiles. He brings nearly 25 years of product development, business strategy and operations expertise in the automotive industry. From January 2011 to August 2013, Mr. Iyer was Executive Vice President at Envia Systems, a Silicon Valley battery manufacturer, where he led all aspects of business strategy and product commercialization. From October 2009 to November 2010 (and as a full-time consultant from ESG Engineering from October 2006 to September 2009), he served as Vice President of Engineering at Next Autoworks Company. At Next Autoworks, Mr. Iyer developed the original vehicle architecture, led the selection of vehicle technologies and suppliers and was responsible for all module engineering teams. From June 1999 to September 2009, Mr. Iyer was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at ESG Engineering, a product development firm specializing in the automotive and cleantech space. Mr. Iyer held various positions at Johnson Controls, Automotive Systems Group from January 1989 to August 1997. He received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State and his M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Also, if you wonder what happened at Envia systems (where he worked before Elio Motors), read this:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1089261_collapse-of-battery-startup-envia-what-really-happened

There's also a link at the end of the article that goes into the details. I don't know about you but it seems like Hari is a bad luck charm when it comes to business.
 
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KD

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If you go to the Elio Website under Investor Relations, here's Hari's resume:


Also, if you wonder what happened at Envia systems (where he worked before Elio Motors), read this:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1089261_collapse-of-battery-startup-envia-what-really-happened

There's also a link at the end of the article that goes into the details. I don't know about you but it seems like Hari is a bad luck charm when it comes to business.
An interesting read, funny how Livonia, MI is a crossover between Elio and the battery business...
 
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