Elio's time has come again?

[LillyMayPatterson #1685 & #5648]

That was Stuart Lichter, he was sued for misuse of funds, $36 million dollars in the Hoover building project. Settled out of court in 2018.

Thanks. Stuart Lichter is the serial entrepreneur; I am most to be mad at. Not Paul. I trusted Paul, I still wish him well. Heck, I still want my Elio.

 

[JohnJ]

Heck, I still want my Elio.

You're not the only one.... I would venture to say that for every one person on this site who wants his Elio, there are a thousand out there who want theirs too. The difference is they have simply given up, whereas we are so bullheaded and gullible we think there might still be hope. If Paul can't make it happen, maybe someone else can.

 

[Rickb]

Remember, Paul took a massive gamble back in the end of 2012 and that set up for the downfall of the company because it drown in debt. That was taking out a $26M loan and the $250K/month for the plant lease. When Elio defaulted right out of the gate, all of a sudden it was 18% interest on the loan and fine/penalties on missing those payments. When funding did come in, those people had their hands out because he had to pay them or lose the things that showed they were legit and could build it. When that $7.5M fine came rolling in because the 1500 jobs never materialized, it was icing on the cake. Then all of those convertible notes, that was a day of reckoning down the road.

Literally, all non refundable reservation money went to that plant and equipment. None was ever used. Elio raised $110M and spent $36M on the car. The rest went to everything else. Literally, 1/3 was just for the product. Those SEC filings killed the company because every investor seen what was happening. Up until that point, Paul did a great job of fooling everyone. After that, it was just damage control until Elio closed up shop.

Three wheelers just don't sell good anywhere unless you are in India or somewhere in Asia. They are known as the base junker. If they couldn't sell them for less than $5K at the time, Elio has no way of doing his at $6800. Arcimoto found out the hard way of crossing the production finish line, getting it certified and having them out on the street, was not a recipe for success. They cut corners to get to that point and the same with Solo. Both cost the companies dearly and both are done.

Elio knew they needed the optics of looking like production was around the corner to keep the reservation coming in. The clock ran out on that and thus, it was a great exercise. Many people made lots of money and have moved onto their next adventure.

Three wheeler motorcycles and ATVs do sell in the USA. I think the Arcimoto FUV was one of the safest most functional three wheeler motorcycles out there. If they could make the tweaks needed for production scale, it would sell in reasonable numbers in the USA and worldwide market place. It’s the only motorcycle I’ve felt ‘relatively safe’ riding. Perhaps Arcimoto’s time will come again.

Arcimoto – Ultra-Efficient EVs

Contact: support@arcimoto.com The Ultra-Efficent Right-Sized Vehicle The Arcimoto FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle) & MUV (Modular Utility Vehicle) is fast, fun, and versatile beyond anything else on the market. Revolutionary Design.

www.arcimoto.com

 

[Coss]

Three wheeler motorcycles and ATVs do sell in the USA. I think the Arcimoto FUV was one of the safest most functional three wheeler motorcycles out there. If they could make the tweaks needed for production scale, it would sell in reasonable numbers in the USA and worldwide market place. It’s the only motorcycle I’ve felt ‘relatively safe’ riding. Perhaps Arcimoto’s time will come again.

Arcimoto – Ultra-Efficient EVs

Contact: support@arcimoto.com The Ultra-Efficent Right-Sized Vehicle The Arcimoto FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle) & MUV (Modular Utility Vehicle) is fast, fun, and versatile beyond anything else on the market. Revolutionary Design.

www.arcimoto.com

I couldn't agree with you anymore, and there are others that never saw an Elio, but I lay you odds that if they did, they would beat a path to the door to buy one. Especially now, build over the winter, come spring, roll them out, and you would have droves of people with cash in hand that just had to have one.
[ <Grin> sell them everywhere except Florida and say something like the non-Trump Mobile. You would have people wanting one just because of that. Geeeeee could you guess who's a Democrat?] Wait a minute I better leave politics out of this to avoid trouble; this has had enough already.

 

[RSchneider]

Hari? Was that that the guy's name who funded Elio in the beginning? Wasn't he involved in a hover building renovation, that didn't pan out? And the renovation of the Goodyear Property in west Akron? And the big ass monster jeep thing, that turned out to be built from mostly plastic? A guy I worked with at the steel mill bought one of those. I had a look at it and was deeply disappointed. 'Welcome to the world of a serial entrepreneur.' Well, that hurt. What was his last name?
Hook, line & sinker, I was all in.

Hari lyer. The guy who was Pauls Partner in Elio Engineering in 2001. Same Hari that was the head of engineering for V-Vehicle and Next Autoworks all while he was running Elio Engineering with Paul. Same Hari that got onto the BoD of Elio Motors. Same Hari that we covered here many times. He did not fund Elio Motors. He worked with Paul to get that funding.

As for Stu, he just offered Paul the opportunity to lease the plant and get a $26M loan on the equipment inside. Stu is not to blame at all. He just presented the chance for Paul and company to make a go of it. Since he never worked out, it's not his fault.

By the way, Hari is still partners with Paul Elio in Elio Engineering today. This is why public records confirm this.

 

[RSchneider]

Three wheeler motorcycles and ATVs do sell in the USA. I think the Arcimoto FUV was one of the safest most functional three wheeler motorcycles out there. If they could make the tweaks needed for production scale, it would sell in reasonable numbers in the USA and worldwide market place. It’s the only motorcycle I’ve felt ‘relatively safe’ riding. Perhaps Arcimoto’s time will come again.

Arcimoto – Ultra-Efficient EVs

Contact: support@arcimoto.com The Ultra-Efficent Right-Sized Vehicle The Arcimoto FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle) & MUV (Modular Utility Vehicle) is fast, fun, and versatile beyond anything else on the market. Revolutionary Design.

www.arcimoto.com

Three wheelers do sell in the USA. Problem is this, not at the volume that these startup three wheelers tell everyone. Arcimoto was to produce 50K units by the end of this year. It came from the founder and CEO. Now the company has tiurned into a mom and pop repair center and no product over the last two years but full of hopes and dreams. Arcimoto even had a glut of product even though they crossed the production finish line, was 100% certified, people buying and renting them, that never was close to what the company thought for actual sales. If it was such a shure fire sales pitch, they would still be making them.

Solo is another failure that shows that forcing to production is a major problem and with limited sales not close to what they predicted, it killed them off too. Even Storm Sondors gave up on his project. Thus we have Vanderhall which is privately funded. Thus they are smart and know the volume to make because it's too hard to get into (the step into the Vanderhall is massive and it's not enclosed). Top it off, Polaris, a company that groups all sales into one and as we all know, it's a play toy. Again, doesn't meet what people want from a car.

Now we have Aptera. Yep that company we disacussed many years ago and has yet to make a single product to sell. Never crossed the production finish line and never oficially certified. Yet they are over the top popular because they have 50K refundable reservations and it's a vehicle that never needs to be plugged in or filled up. It's literally free energy that it makes. Yet, the company insists they will be making 20K units per year and cut and paste other plants in the US that make the same volume. All is well on another journey down the mass acceptance of three wheelers. I guess if you took all sales in the US and applied it to Luxemberg, then it would be a sales hit.

I say, Vanderhall and Polaris got it right. All others keep getting it wrong. Vanderhall will be 10 years into production in a few months. Who knew they could accomplish that?

 

[JohnJ]

the non-Trump Mobile

Wait a minute... Maybe Trump would get behind the Elio project if they made a special edition he would like. Maybe all gold?

 

[RSchneider]

Wait a minute... Maybe Trump would get behind the Elio project if they made a special edition he would like. Maybe all gold?

Too late. This three wheeler company beat you to the punch last year.

 

[Rickb]

Too late. This three wheeler company beat you to the punch last year.

Regarding the Aptera’s body styling and driver comfort, or lack of it. The seat will elevate the driver a few inches off the floorboard. The headroom appears minimal.

 

[RSchneider]

Regarding the Aptera’s body styling and driver comfort, or lack of it. The seat will elevate the driver a few inches off the floorboard. The headroom appears minimal.

View attachment 27144

We are talking about how a gold Elio will get Trump to fund it. Since Aptera already has got a gold version of the Elio, then Trump will fund it. Why bringing up the headroom and seat is beyond me. Gold three wheeler is what funds projects. Headroom, looks like that's another issue they can fix down the road. Maybe, Arcimoto should have made a gold FUV and that would fund full enclosure, climate control, full service network and RAMP that would bring it down to $11,900. That would have been cheaper for us taxpayers to pay for as the FUV was already across the production finish line and fully certified. Adding a few bits would have cost pennies as compared to everyone else.

There's still time for Arcimoto to do this as Aptera is not in production and not certified by the US Government.