Thomas Malkin
Elio Aficionado
The ATVM loan has been withheld for years now. The ATVM people slammed the company a horrible blow by changing the loan requirements just as Elio Motors had reached the finish line last June (2016). If the two hundred million or so had been released then, they'd be constructing the assembly line right now for production test runs in midyear 2017. Everything would have been ready for version 1.0 by then, and we'd have seen the autocar by fall or winter, barring meteors.
I'm of the opinion now that one or some on the ATVM board are ideologically opposed to loaning the money, perhaps a brace of Randians, who are not uncommon in government now.
They've delayed the process indefinitely now. Now, we've a Trump admin, whom I will posit will kill the ATVM loan program on ideological grounds. Not that they were about to lend money to anyone, anyway.
(edit) The killer here is the delay is costing tens of millions of dollars of company capital (and debt) every damned month. If the loan magically popped up now, they'd not only need to tool up, but cover the massive debt they've built up keeping the company going as they waited all these years - which will tickle the agent in the ATVM process who wants them dead anyway. Proof the government doesn't work! Which is *definitely* gonna happen if you have to force it to fail by drawing a salary and sandbagging your applicants. Win-win for the bugger(s) who are killing Elio.
I'm of the opinion now that one or some on the ATVM board are ideologically opposed to loaning the money, perhaps a brace of Randians, who are not uncommon in government now.
They've delayed the process indefinitely now. Now, we've a Trump admin, whom I will posit will kill the ATVM loan program on ideological grounds. Not that they were about to lend money to anyone, anyway.
(edit) The killer here is the delay is costing tens of millions of dollars of company capital (and debt) every damned month. If the loan magically popped up now, they'd not only need to tool up, but cover the massive debt they've built up keeping the company going as they waited all these years - which will tickle the agent in the ATVM process who wants them dead anyway. Proof the government doesn't work! Which is *definitely* gonna happen if you have to force it to fail by drawing a salary and sandbagging your applicants. Win-win for the bugger(s) who are killing Elio.