Elio should have upped the price to $15,000 or $16,000 just to get the thing built and then tried to lower the price after that. Many of us would have still bought the car at that price.
That becomes the predicament. Elio would have never got 65K reservations over the 4 year span that it took to get that number. Maybe something like 20K. On the other hand, a more realistic price and units per year along with a healthy profit margin, could have generated more serious investment from people willing to spend real money. Trying to sell a three wheeler (which the US market is very leery of to begin with) that has a business plan which had way too much initial expenditure (i.e. the plant, high volume production, the 120 company owned stores, overly expensive distribution system and customization program), depending on a failed ATVM loan program, just resulted into a massive risk for an institution to throw $500M into it. As for a $1k investment for people like here, it's no big deal. When you get to big numbers, then you decide to look into it a bit more. Now looking at Elio, the warning signs were right. Paul knows he cannot show his face in public because not only did the business plan not work, he treated the reservation holders like garbage. He hasn't spoke to you since May of 2018 and it takes over 6 months for people to get a refund. Add into that, he shut down the IR and customer login page. He even took the stock investors and refuses to talk to them either. Think about it, if Paul made an announcement today that he got full funding and that in 76 weeks production begins, would you believe him?
Seriously, just take his word? Wouldn’t it be wise to test drive the Elio, check out the test data on the Beta Fleet, tour the manufacturing plant to see parts inventory and trained employees hard at work, and check that the Elio passed the FMVSS Certification testing requirements to confirm your belief?
Well let's see, I've already driven one, and had time to check it out. Tour the manufacturing plant, Yes, would love to tour the plant. Meet the people building it, yeah, that would be nice. Pass the what??? FMVSS, what the hell is that. Didn't do anything like that when I paid $25,000 for my Dodge, but drove it first.
