Caddo Parish Commission - May 20th 2014 Meeting Minutes

[Edward]

Yes, but you can load up the new Elio with enough groceries and or electronics gear to actually save you money if you only shop there that one time.

My wife works at a grocery store. Her employee discount is pretty hard to beat!

 

[whattheelf]

Elio and a strategic partner could make it happen rather quickly with minimal cost. Initially minimal to no buildout required. Elio's small computer based sales areas wouldn't require anymore square footage than a COSTCO pharmacy or bakery and possibly generate more profit per sf. Sales areas I envision are shopping warehouse basic in decor to provide lower overhead and operating expense to insure the greatest amount of profit on that $6800 Elio. Elio customers don't need and or want a high end Tesla showroom sales environment in a luxury market location.

Yep, thats the idea, to shorten ramp up time to major visibility at a major retailer, while shaving retail buildout costs. Quite simply a trade show like booth area and a kiosk like area and private portable glass room area for admin stuff would be all it takes. Companies specialize in this and they even have quick knock down mezzanine low cost structures, you just need the footprint of a trade show booth. If say a Costco cut their Olympic pool sized blue jeans display, you could do wonders with the floor space.

But, you still have to go back to; whats' Costco's motivation here to sublease or subsidize EM retailer buildout?

Its never been a question of the Elio not being awesome, or possible, or producible. The conundrum is how does an innovation achieve both mass market volume demand and able to produce to meet that demand?

If you don't get the funding of course you look at partnering options, like these ideas presented, but that shares in the decision making, as nothing is free. For a retailer to surrender known profitable floor space, it has to see a product or service that can displace that space which is more profitable. So, for several years you would be asking Costco to give up guaranteed profits for a hunch, but business doesn't work like that.

Now, say Paul hits up private equity and tells them "hey Costco is willing to give us 500 square feet in all major metro areas, so we can deploy retail sites quickly, that may perk investors. BUT that would mean the funding would have to subsidize Costco for its lost revenues/profits, for perhaps years. Costco is a public company and is not going to take a flyer on something unless their revenue and profit forecasts remain strong and consistent. Costco people know down to the square foot how much they make per square foot. Again, nothing is free.

So, feasible, strategic thinking, but the devil is in the details. Could happen but with an engineering manager at the helm like Paul, I'm not expecting this type of creativity, along with a certain loss of control he would have by having to tiptoe around how Costco deals with all of this.

Its all possible, but the serious funding it takes is not like launching your new Iphone app out of your bedroom, this is massive infrastructure making, like building your own railroad, which can't be done on a tight tiny budget on the cheap, driving around mall to mall, and the occassional TV show that only people in retirement homes or trailer parks are watching, and this type of car is not for them.

Again, yes, but the business marketing strategy has to be 3X more carefully and creatively engineered than the actual engineering of the Elio. Thats how it works, especially if you are looking to revolutionize driving. But, so far, we haven't seen the type of team that knows, and has done this kind of path blazing before, so I'm not hardly betting this will happen, even though it COULD happen, you just need a well funded A team to do it, instead.

 

[Rickb]

The idea of finding a solution that allows Elio to cover a more expansive sales area lead me to the idea of partnering with an established retail chain like COSTCO.........I suppose PEP Boys would be the most logical choice since it's already a servicing partner. Sales/service at the same location would be ideal. My guess is that Pep Boys building sites don't have the physical outdoor space and/or available in store floorspace. Also, limited access to Pep Boys in many regional markets across the country.

Perhaps a better partner solution to consider for establishing a fast out of the gate sales network would be to partner with an established National Auto Rental business like Enterprise..........'Elio Enterprise' . Existing Enterprise locations seem to have adequate office and exterior parking space. Enterprise could even fleet purchase Elio's for lease and use those same vehicles as demos. Undecided customers could lease an Elio for a week to insure it's the right choice to meet their family needs prior to purchase.

ELIO Enterprise locations would provide Elio and Elio customers with the following: Customer assistance, test drives, rental options, on line-purchasing of the Elio and after market options. The personalized built to order Elio along with the selected options would be delivered to the sales centers with options installed locally. The customer picks up and drives their new Elio home.......or I believe Enterprise advertises.............delivered to your front door.

Elio would provide their own factory Trained Sales Specialists at each location. Fast ramp up time, major visibility in all cities, minimal to no build out cost, minimal staffing...........cost effective.

There are actually only three major rental-car companies in America. Most of them are actually the same company—Avis owns Budget and Zipcar, Hertz owns Dollar and Thrifty, and Enterprise owns Alamo and National.

Would Elio and/or any one of the major three car rental players be interested in partnering?

 

[Ty]

Well, so whether it be as I suggested, an idea being a strategic partnership between a Pep Boys, Costco, NTB, Sears, Autozone, or all the above, yes its about a rapid ramp up targeting regions with the greatest sales penetration potential, the areas of highest foot traffic/demographic, and within places that can sell and service the Elio.

The problem again is, of course who is not only going to pay for such a buildout, but also who is experienced enough and has done it before, to be fast enough, to manage such an aggressive rollout which delivers major sales traction? There would first need to be a business case incentive for a large retail chain to give up floor space, their staff, plus pay all the related square footage costs, on a vehicle of course that will lose a lot of money for perhaps a few years, on each car? Even if it sees profitability, even if a major retailer subsidizes the effort, how are they going to parse up the measly profit margin in these vehicles which is just around $1500 per car as I believe. Therein is the problem, not enough funding to incent a retailer, and not enough margin to incent a retailer to invest/subsidize this enterprise, all of which significantly disrupts a major retailer's core focus, and risking their core focus, just nowhere enough foreseen ROI for the risk.

This is why Pep Boys has said, sure we'll service it, and then they'll worry about it if/when the time comes, that's about as far as they'll invest. In other words show me the money first EM.

You can't revolutionize the auto business, with enough of a rapid adoption rate, to hit parity or profitability without massive funding to float this operation for perhaps the years it will take to convince the mass market they NEED this car. Its mainly a want, a niche, an "and" vehicle, which is hard to envision being sold at the same rate Honda Civics do. To hit such numbers, massive funding has to blitz into the auto market. Its just not going to happen by driving into shopping malls on the cheap.

Maybe the hundreds of millions in CAFE credits that Elio will, undoubtedly sell other manufacturers?

 

[Jeff Porter]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread yet or anywhere else on elioowners.com, but I read on a FB post recently... The people working at the Pep Boys and servicing Elios will be trained by Elio Motors. I suppose they would still be Pep Boys employees... might be all kinds of legal difficulties to have Elio employees working at a Pep Boys location. Anyway, thought it was interesting.

 

[Rickb]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread yet or anywhere else on elioowners.com, but I read on a FB post recently... The people working at the Pep Boys and servicing Elios will be trained by Elio Motors. I suppose they would still be Pep Boys employees... might be all kinds of legal difficulties to have Elio employees working at a Pep Boys location. Anyway, thought it was interesting.

Certified Elio Factory Training of Pep Boy's 'assumed' already certified mechanics is a good thing indeed.
Maybe there will be specially equipped Elio Servicing bays for those Certified Elio Mechanics (CEM's), Elio Factory mandated service excellence, and most importantly a complimentary coffee and cookie bar.............based on the Lexus Servicing Model. Wishful thinking! I agree, I find the whole process of a new start up car company interesting.

 

[Edward]

Certified Elio Factory Training of Pep Boy's 'assumed' already certified mechanics is a good thing indeed.
Maybe there will be specially equipped Elio Servicing bays for those Certified Elio Mechanics (CEM's), Elio Factory mandated service excellence, and most importantly a complimentary coffee and cookie bar.............based on the Lexus Servicing Model. Wishful thinking! I agree, I find the whole process of a new start up car company interesting.

Free cookies? Maybe I will drive 70 miles to PepBoys for oil changes.
But only if they are homemade. Not driving across the street for store bought cookies.

 

[Rickb]

Free cookies? Maybe I will drive 70 miles to PepBoys for oil changes.
But only if they are homemade. Not driving across the street for store bought cookies.

I agree..............and they have to be from scratch dough fresh baked cookies..........not dough processed in some corporate kitchen and baked in Pep Boys new ovens.

 

[outsydthebox]

I agree..............and they have to be from scratch dough fresh baked cookies..........not dough processed in some corporate kitchen and baked in Pep Boys new ovens.

That's right! They have to be "ASE certified" cookie makers.

 

[Edward]

That's right! They have to be "ASE certified" cookie makers.

American Society of Eaters?