2017 Production A Long Shot...

[TCBronson]

Very well said John. And that "significant increase in the line for production tooling" and all related stuff to create our ELIO is my concern. And I know EM is fully aware that their projected base price of $6800 is a dream. For them to recoup and make money, those expenses have to be added to the final base price....unless all of us are so naïve of the significance of the delays....inflation. And Paul Elio is no Elon Musk who can operate his pet projects at a loss. Ok enough of negativity and I'll check back when EM makes their big announcement that the e-series has been completed!

You may be right, but I think Paul will honor the base price of $6800 for at least the folks that have a reservation. Once reservations are not available I can see the price going up some.

 

[3wheelin]

You may be right, but I think Paul will honor the base price of $6800 for at least the folks that have a reservation. Once reservations are not available I can see the price going up some.

I would like to hope so. It will be a first at that price w/ AC, heat, 5 speed, 5 star rating , etc. Never been done before successfully and if it does, that would make him more famous than Elon Musk! Successful result of the e-series tests could mean orders coming from all over the world specially the 3rd world countries who have smaller streets, smaller budgets and needs ELIO that can go for 600+ miles between fill ups.

 

[KD]

I would like to hope so. It will be a first at that price w/ AC, heat, 5 speed, 5 star rating , etc. Never been done before successfully and if it does, that would make him more famous than Elon Musk! Successful result of the e-series tests could mean orders coming from all over the world specially the 3rd world countries who have smaller streets, smaller budgets and needs ELIO that can go for 600+ miles between fill ups.

Got to remember Elio has quietly stepped away from the 5 star rating. Maybe not so much of the Elio design but as more the rules have changed in the last year or two.

The overall footprint of the Elio is bigger than you realize. The "box" it sits in is still real close to my wife's Altima.

More famous than Elon Musk? That will take some kind of doing! Paul is not dreaming of making space travel affordable to the masses as far as I know. Elon has many different things going on, and that is indicative of what having lots and lots of dollars available to you at a young age and being insanely driven. In an interview I saw (60 Minutes?) he mentioned how he doesn't understand why people want weekends off! Don't misunderstand me, he is well deserved of all his accomplishments.

All that being said, Go Team Elio!

 

[Coss]

I would like to hope so. It will be a first at that price w/ AC, heat, 5 speed, 5 star rating , etc. Never been done before successfully and if it does, that would make him more famous than Elon Musk! Successful result of the e-series tests could mean orders coming from all over the world specially the 3rd world countries who have smaller streets, smaller budgets and needs ELIO that can go for 600+ miles between fill ups.

3rd world countries? Maybe later down the line, but not on this first run.
I've talked to them about sales to Saudi and Australia; that was maybe later, but no plans in the foreseeable future; first goal is Elio takes off, and makes it consistently here first.
I agree with KD on the comparison between Paul and Elon; Elio is not even playing in the same ballpark.

 

[Elio Amazed]

It's obvious that they have the funds to build the e-series...

No it's not.
They stated in their filing that they do not have enough funds to finish the e-series and it's testing.

 

[johnsnownw]

You may be right, but I think Paul will honor the base price of $6800 for at least the folks that have a reservation. Once reservations are not available I can see the price going up some.

It would be nice, but I don't think it's likely. The issue is that EM is a company, even if Paul is a good guy, he still has to run a company. A company that is now publicly traded. The $6800 has always had an (*) associated with it. Or, it has since I've been paying attention. You'll also notice that in the SEC filing they list $7600 being the current price with 125k/yr...and they have ~52k reservations. They also decided to include cruise control after the SEC filing, as well...which is another expense, but may be more doable if they actually plan to offer the base vehicle at $7600. Speculation, of course.

If you look at it his way, selling 52k vehicles at $6800, when they need to sell at $7600, is a loss of $41.6M...which is no small amount.

 

[Ty]

I've been by the Elio factory several times since they rented it. It is obvious someone is working there... Comau, most likely. The "tooling up" of the factory has been going on. It isn't like in December, they will be starting from scratch. Another thing, (fur ruffled here) I bet the 100 Elios are, aside from maybe painting the body panels, assembled on the actual assembly line. Think about it. It lets Elio test fittings, stations, AND let's them validate the assembly process. I would bet you'd have that handful of people following the Elio from station to station... maybe send one vehicle down the line with everyone going along and making sure the stations are set up for the next 99. Then, you could turn the line on and try assembling single cars at half speed or so to see if the stations are actually set right. If you took six people, say, and had them man six consecutive stations, you could have them play leapfrog all down the line as they'd each have seen the operations done once already. Each person would work every 6th station... Bob would work station 1 and then could saunter over to station 7 where he would do that job and then he'd go to 13, 19, 25, etc. He'd have 12 minutes if the line was moving at half speed to go from station to station. That is easy enough to imagine, isn't it? Seriously, the stations were all pretty obvious and took me maybe twice watching each to be able to do it myself. Think about it. Even if station X was complicated and needed a fixture they didn't have set up yet, like the windshield application station, they could pull the cord (stop the line) and all 6 bubbas could manually do that one station, go back to their stations, and re-start the line. I'd love to do that. But, give them all golf carts. That line is pretty long.

 

[3wheelin]

Got to remember Elio has quietly stepped away from the 5 star rating. Maybe not so much of the Elio design but as more the rules have changed in the last year or two.

The overall footprint of the Elio is bigger than you realize. The "box" it sits in is still real close to my wife's Altima.

More famous than Elon Musk? That will take some kind of doing! Paul is not dreaming of making space travel affordable to the masses as far as I know. Elon has many different things going on, and that is indicative of what having lots and lots of dollars available to you at a young age and being insanely driven. In an interview I saw (60 Minutes?) he mentioned how he doesn't understand why people want weekends off! Don't misunderstand me, he is well deserved of all his accomplishments.

All that being said, Go Team Elio!

Come back to me when Elon Musk sells a car, electric or gas for what our ELIO will sell for, or when his space travel becomes "affordable to the masses" (that's a laugh) then we'll talk. For now Paul Elio is a hero in my book for trying to bring a real and affordable transportation to the masses.

 

[3wheelin]

3rd world countries? Maybe later down the line, but not on this first run.
I've talked to them about sales to Saudi and Australia; that was maybe later, but no plans in the foreseeable future; first goal is Elio takes off, and makes it consistently here first.
I agree with KD on the comparison between Paul and Elon; Elio is not even playing in the same ballpark.

That's what I mean.

 

[JEBar]

It would be nice, but I don't think it's likely. The issue is that EM is a company, even if Paul is a good guy, he still has to run a company. A company that is now publicly traded. The $6800 has always had an (*) associated with it. Or, it has since I've been paying attention. You'll also notice that in the SEC filing they list $7600 being the current price with 125k/yr...and they have ~52k reservations. They also decided to include cruise control after the SEC filing, as well...which is another expense, but may be more doable if they actually plan to offer the base vehicle at $7600. Speculation, of course.

If you look at it his way, selling 52k vehicles at $6800, when they need to sell at $7600, is a loss of $41.6M...which is no small amount.

I can only go by what Paul says .... he says his target price for the base model is $6,800 .... if he can't, the price will be as close to it as they can come .... he says that is the way he looks at it .... in short, anyone other than Paul who hasn't talked with Paul and who professes to know how he looks at things, is guessing