Chandler Fashion Center, May3rd, Chandler Az

[AriLea]

I went to the mall showing of the Elio P4 today in Arizona. I must say, it does indeed look much more interesting in person than in photos. Even considering I do love the look in photos. I'm building my own project car and it also exhibited that trait of looking better in person so I'm not suprised at all. Mr. Paul Elio was there by around noon. I got to shake his hand, which is grand for me, as I consider him my personnal hero. I started my own project car so I could present to the world just what this type of vehicle could be like. But then a few years a go the Elio appeared, and this has reduced the need for my project to enlighten the public. The Elio is truely an impresive execution of what I call the ideal 'Optimised Commuter Vehicle' My photos came out better than expected so I'll try and post them all here in this thread. I wanted to capture angles and parts that have not appeared elsewhere.

 

[AriLea]

I have 50 more photos, so I'll try and get all of them up today, but we'll see.
When Paul showed up, he had two children in tow. The one boy was hanging on to his sleave buttons, and very obviously loved his dad. Such a cute litte guy. Paul's got an exceptionally warm family by look of thier interactions. I got the chance to hold the camera for a couple of shots with them. It was all very indearing. I thought to my self, here's some very down to earth people. The crew on site were all the most dedicated and enthusiastic group you can find. It's just so obvious they all believe in what they are doing. It was just hugely refreshing for me.

 

[AriLea]

I don't think it's all debatible that there will be Elio production. It's a bit less firm what it will be to start with. Pretty obviously it will start a little slow the first few weeks sometime in 2015 and built up. Some of 'the crew' were saying 240 cars daily, some said 40k per year. A while back I'ld heard 50k and 68k per year. Then there was the 250k per year stated to answer a specific question (in context) last year, which certainly is a possible target, given that there could be world sales of the car. Look you have to understand, there are half a million sales of motorcycles in the US during the 'recession' and that is definately a niche. Even used motorcycles often cost more than the brand new Elio. The math is just plain adding up for a large swath of people.

 

[AriLea]

For all you Elio posters out there, 'The Crew' was really, really curious and interested that you (who said you might) should show up and say hello. Like everyone else they'd like to pin a face to your 'pen' name and meet you. I really got the feeling they thought you were all cool. Honestly, 'the crew' as I call them, was a VERY nice group.

 

[KN16]

NICE!

 

[AriLea]

Pretty much I had three objectives, see the P4, meet Paul, and let 'the crew' know how well the public is getting to know about the Elio. I had purchased 500 of my own business cards in February, showing my project and the Elio side by side. I would say, my own car was similar in nature, and this lead me to find out about Elio. Then I give them the card showing the website and not much else. At the first of March nobody had heard of it, but were VERY interested after I laid out the basics.. (6800, 84mpg, 2015). Now at the end of April, most everyone says they'd seen it, heard about that. And they usually know 2 of the 3 points of 'the basics' So Elio is definately getting out there. I have now about 150 cards left. I'll likely part with them less willingly than the prior 350.

 

[AriLea]

NICE!

Yes, thanks! The wonders of digital!

 

[AriLea]

So here's the last installment. I hope you find these helpfull. If you get interested in my own project, I have VERY detailed construct photos of the tooling 'plug' on face book at /araklea , cheers!

 

[KaziQaleph]

Thanks so much for posting these. Paul is such a cool dude, I also want him to be nice. These are all great pictures. Thanks a million again.

 

[azurehenfruit]

GREAT! Thanks for the many and very good pictures.