Electra Meccanica (three Wheel Electric) Email-11/2/15

[Ty]

I suspect Zongshen is ready to scale when worldwide market demand for a single passenger enclosed motorcycle is confirmed. No sense tooling for 250,000 units per year if the market demand is 5000< and there is a parts and servicing network in place to support those future sales.

Fair enough. I suppose they wouldn't gear up too fast till there's some proven demand. And THAT is why I didn't go into marketing...

 

[Rickb]

LOL, I appreciate what you do, first and foremost, so there is something for the marketers to market. Both important functions required to bring a new high quality vehicle concept to market and to help insure long term market success.

 

[KD]

I suspect Zongshen is ready to scale when worldwide market demand for a single passenger enclosed motorcycle is confirmed. No sense tooling for 250,000 units per year if the market demand is 5000< and there is a parts and servicing network in place to support those future sales.

That is one of the things I had doubts about with Elio, swinging for the fences first time at bat. 125,000 vehicles to start with an unproven seemed rather grandiose from the start. I enjoy the chutzpah, but let's get a few rolling around to get visibility and see how it holds up.

I understand the economy of scale, but as we have seen for the last few years, zero vehicles still equals zero profit. I guess you don't lose to much money producing zero vehicles, so there is that I suppose. LOL

 

[Maurtis]

That brings up something that Arcimoto did and has been mentioned here before, making some expensive pre-production units by hand to get out into people's driveways. That gets you more exposure, more real world data to improve the production model, and at least you can say you are not "the next Dale"/vaporware/etc.

Depending on how much they could hand build them for, I bet there are enough of us fanatics out there willing to way overpay for a chance to own a rattly, rough around the edges pre-production model as long as they were fully functional. People hand build custom cars all the time.

I am sure they would need to take pre-orders to line up the manufacturers to make small batches of the custom parts that are not off the shelf with full up-front payment, but at least it would be something. Seeing 25 hand built "Signature Edition" models rolling out of the shop would be freaking awesome. Shoot, I am 5 minutes away from Harris Hill Raceway and would be more than happy to get them some handling and endurance data

 

[Elio Amazed]

No, I was weeping for the horribly laid out manufacturing line for the Solo... Blanketed parts laying on the floor... hand carrying a windshield to install on a vehicle... not good at all.

I certainly think it makes sense to initially save mega bucks on a robot who's purpose is to lift and and place a windshield onto a vehicle if you're only planning on doing that fairly quick maneuver 5k times in the first year AND your labor cost is relatively cheap. Again, rather than sitting on your hands complaining that the market is broken and no-one will give you hundreds of millions to buy all the fancy things needed for a mega-line capable of producing 250k units a year. Especially when you don't know for certain that you'll have a 250k unit per year market and might end up with hundreds of millions worth of idle equipment with little chance to recoup your debt.

 

[Elio Amazed]

I guess you don't lose to much money producing zero vehicles, so there is that I suppose.

Only ~140 Million! So far...

 

[Elio Amazed]

That brings up something that Arcimoto did and has been mentioned here before, making some expensive pre-production units by hand to get out into people's driveways. That gets you more exposure, more real world data to improve the production model, and at least you can say you are not "the next Dale"/vaporware/etc.

Depending on how much they could hand build them for, I bet there are enough of us fanatics out there willing to way overpay for a chance to own a rattly, rough around the edges pre-production model as long as they were fully functional. People hand build custom cars all the time.

I am sure they would need to take pre-orders to line up the manufacturers to make small batches of the custom parts that are not off the shelf with full up-front payment, but at least it would be something. Seeing 25 hand built "Signature Edition" models rolling out of the shop would be freaking awesome. Shoot, I am 5 minutes away from Harris Hill Raceway and would be more than happy to get them some handling and endurance data

On that note, there are at least 39 such Solos on the road on a daily basis. The very first customer has ~10k miles on her solo and uses it as both a delivery vehicle for her and her sons deli business and for personal use. There are a number of businesses using the Solo with their logos displayed from stem to stern. They're all giving rave reviews. Click the thumbnails to see the larger pictures. Here's the gallery of those 39 vehicles...
http://electrameccanica.com/gallery...il&utm_term=0_b24b10d63c-ea6d91f19f-254324313

 

[Rickb]

That brings up something that Arcimoto did and has been mentioned here before, making some expensive pre-production units by hand to get out into people's driveways. That gets you more exposure, more real world data to improve the production model, and at least you can say you are not "the next Dale"/vaporware/etc.

Depending on how much they could hand build them for, I bet there are enough of us fanatics out there willing to way overpay for a chance to own a rattly, rough around the edges pre-production model as long as they were fully functional. People hand build custom cars all the time.

I am sure they would need to take pre-orders to line up the manufacturers to make small batches of the custom parts that are not off the shelf with full up-front payment, but at least it would be something. Seeing 25 hand built "Signature Edition" models rolling out of the shop would be freaking awesome. Shoot, I am 5 minutes away from Harris Hill Raceway and would be more than happy to get them some handling and endurance data

Elio’s initial $15,000,000 Reg A+ funding round was specifically earmarked for the low production (25) E Series Elios, you mention, that would have been in a few early adopter driveways for everyday use testing, used for test drive events, and others used for engineering tests to validate a production Elio. I could speculate where that money went, but the mods would ask why I’m still here. The answer to that question would have been, “I like you guys, the mods, and the idea of the Elio concept”. EMV and Arcimoto put their funding into R&D, efficiently did what they said they were doing with that limited funding, about to start manufacturing lower volume reservation retail vehicles while preparing for scaled production (pending market demand), and it’s paying off for those startups.

 

[Maurtis]

Elio’s initial $15,000,000 Reg A+ funding round was specifically earmarked for the low production (25) E Series Elios, you mention, that would have been in a few early adopter driveways for everyday use testing, used for test drive events, and others used for engineering tests to validate a production Elio. I could speculate where that money went, but the mods would ask why I’m still here. The answer to that question would have been, “I like you guys, the mods, and the idea of the Elio concept”. EMV and Arcimoto put their funding into R&D, efficiently did what they said they were doing with that limited funding, about to start manufacturing lower volume reservation retail vehicles while preparing for scaled production (pending market demand), and it’s paying off for those startups.

Yeah, I got in on some $12 shares... I even remember Elio saying:

"PHOENIX, Dec. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Elio Motors today announced that thanks to its supporters and the funds raised during its current stock offering, it will move forward with the development of 25 engineering and test vehicles."

We were so excited about those E-series too, and then the 100 fleet vehicles? Man things seemed so much brighter just a few years ago. But there is still hope. And if they offer some hand built units like EMV and Arcimoto did, I am sure they will easily find adopters willing to foot the bill (again). It might be slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

 

[RUCRAYZE]

Did you have a refundable deposit and did you request a refund? If this is the case and you are not getting your money back then this is a huge issue.

If you have a non-refundable deposit then you will never get your money back, but one day you might get the value returned in the form of a discount on an Elio. But the timeframe for that is completely unknown due to lack of funding to proceed at this moment.

"supposedly" refundable (want-in's) money was to be put in a third party( escrow), secured to protect those deposits....

Good a place as any, having this holiday to reflect it now seems to me there is a VERY small market that 3 wheelers- and we "believers" have faith the public will see all of the "limited" advantages our Elio can provide.
Further, with the reduction of car production, and no press releases, it seems that the folks who could mass produce an Elio haven't touched it (Toyota the exception of another three wheeler that brings large grins to everyone who drives them.)- but only a concept-

The following seems to be the limitations-
first, and foremost no $$$$. No deep personal or corporate pockets have touched it, and why would they now?
2nd- old technology
3rd- it can never be used as a one car family-yea I know the "&", try as suggested- roof racks, trailers - it will only seat 2, (with the passenger "trapped" in the rear. )
4th- Poor folks looking for transportation won't touch it.
5th- 3 wheels?? big obstacle to overcome
6th- price?, as mentioned there are a lot of very safe used, 4 wheelers, 4 passenger cars out there with extended warranties- my Kia Soul- 6/ytrs. 60,000 bumper to bumper, with a fee can be transferred to a second owner
7th- the "kids" are not buying homes. cars and making babies (IMO- they are too busy looking for "likes")
8th- just as metrics (in the public sector) hasn't been adopted, so too the difficulty of 3 wheel sales being accepted by the "public"
9th- the public recognizes the risk(s) of motorcycles, this generalization will be applied to 3 wheels.
and 10th- the first fatal accident will doom it (think about a president unable to master the (insert name-I can't recall it) they are now basically used by tour companies, airports, and other minimal applications - NEVER caught on(Price?), and now with electric scooters/bikes so, so so, much cheaper they ain't never crank out 250,000 units a year.
and yet, I still hope for the best-
Happy Holidays all, I'll check under the tree next year!!