Follow The Money Trail

Count de Monet: It is said that the people are revolting.
King Louis XVI: You said it! They stink on ice!

Maybe Eliomotors is short on staff right now, give the reservation counter time to be updated. I'm sure the actual number is less than 400 now.
R&D is a money pit, no matter what you are trying to do. Hard to put a price on hand built prototypes.
IMO, too many milestones met for this not to happen one way or another, sooner or later. Hopefully one way, and sooner.
"We're in fundraising mode, and so this next round of funding will set up the final timeline, and then we will start production. " - Paul Elio 2/7/17
Then it's time to tool up and throw down the 100.

I find it interesting people talk of EM as a scam or fraud. These are illegal activities and people doing illegal activities keep a low profile. They do not show their product to members of Congress having them sit in it (I believe this is how EM was introduced to the ATVM loan program). Neither do people doing these illegal activities go to state governments to change legislation.

Also interesting, it was mentioned that EM did not attend the La Department of Motor Vehicles meeting making it sound as if EM was suppose to be there. Actually, they were never invited. This is a reflection of why people are so critical of the new media.

"OH-EM-GEE! Day hazint even starded making teh carz yet! SKAM! What haz tey evur dun foar Shreevpord, aniweh?"

Well, for one, it's the only reason many of us outside of your immediate coverage area would ever pay even passing attention to your local rags and hack broadcasters, generating some of that sweet, sweet ad revenue for your continued contemptible endeavors, my children.

Sorry, but when faced with this level of either (a) lazy, half-done research, or, alternatively, (b) such a concentration of the broadcast equivalent of Gawker clickbait, I can either post a long, thorough essay critiquing the long tradition of sensationalism and inaccuracy in journalism, back to and including Pulitzer himself, or I can mock the perpetrators with a lolspeak interpretation of their melodrama. Seeing as others have done far better and far more with serious efforts, I opted for mockery.

Good God, people are stupid. They conflated accumulated deficit and debt again. They misrepresent governmental proceedings, as usual- these are the same caste of clowns who also tried to claim that EM was in trouble since they couldn't sell cars in LA without a dealership license, even though the laws to which they referred applied to cars and not motorcycles. They'll ignore that distinction, I'm sure, until they try to latch onto any three-wheeler's classification as a motorcycle as another 'red flag' about the car, and then suddenly it will be relevant to the story, no doubt involving crushed babies, ravaged young maidens, and a great pox upon the roads, or something similarly over the top.

The most confusingly annoying bit was the insinuation that using capital assets as collateral for loans is somehow a sign of mischief, rather than being exactly how you're supposed to secure loans. That, and I don't think they realize that some of that collateral was now-sold production equipment, and some of it was- an important distinction, now- retained equipment meant for later production use, still in place in the plant.

"However, they could be asked..."
"It may indicate..."
"It's legal, and unremarkably common practice, but..."

And I thought I was a champion of annoying sophistry and equivocation for laughs at the expense of others' sanity. My goodness. I bow before the masters.

"Go to our website to see how to get your refund back..." Did you get a refundable reservation? Great! It's in an escrow account- easy. You didn't? And now you don't seem to know what "non-refundable" meant? Sorry 'bout ya. Civil court would cost you as much, and likely much more than, your reservation was worth, even outright assuming a favorable judgment.

How long can failed journalism and communications majors grasp at straws on camera at a local station before they get embarrassed by their lack of requisite background information and base knowledge?


There are a host of reasons to be skeptical of Elio's chances at market and business success. Any automotive startup is much more likely to fail than succeed, and in particular some of the regulatory requirements concern me, partly since most of that stuff gets politicized in broad policy strokes but written by hordes of bureaucrats, some specialized in relevant fields and some not, since it leads to a confusing mess of statues, requirements, classifications and so forth. That could very easily kill the project; even if the repeated posts elsewhere about centered headlights can get a little tiresome, that sort of focus on a potential death by regulation or beyond into Kafka is what I worry about sometimes. EM's apparent reliance on CAFE credits in many of their business plan and funding pitches, which they don't actually qualify for outright, per se, also is a matter for preoccupation. Then there's the fact that funding besides has been very slow, and there is only so long that any company, labor of love or not, can hold on like Elio Motors has done in the absence of full funding.

The crap that some of the Shreveport press seems to compulsively publish? Largely pablum, and it draws attention away from both the legitimate criticisms and risks of Elio (or any such startup, as well) and from any appreciation of the quite interesting engineering that has been done. (Their visible- and unusually open and informative- approach to engineering as incremental revision and design conservatism is something I look for in favor of Wow, whizz-bang technical dazzlement. It's an aspect of engineering that I think is underappreciated by the public, and far more influential to quality and longevity than the oddball things that most concept vehicles or high-performance models put into design that nonetheless get breathless trade press coverage.)

...
Sorry, I've been up for almost 24 hours now, sitting at a mechanic's shop all day after third shift, waiting for the slow trickle of repair diagnostics to snowball on my old hatchback. I am not a patient individual normally, but I'm downright intolerant of abject stupidity from ostensible professionals right about now. I'm going to go have a bottle, a change, and a nap now.

Monday night and the count is 292,,,,,

Still excited.

I am still excited too!

Excited

still excited and waiting!

ecdriver711 said:

Excited

Click to expand...