Just Wow!!!

[3wheelin]

Wait a minute! Arcimoto is doing it at their Eugene,OR manufacturing plant. I toured the plant last week. They are busy assembling FUVs, while cutting and tooling the parts from raw materials in house, which eliminates their reliance on parts suppliers, controls their parts inventory, and keeps their cost down. Also, I test drove a made in the USA FUV - - - WOWser! Arcimoto currently employs 84 highly motivated people. The ones I saw working at the AMP all had smiles on their faces. Yes, it can be done. Perhaps Elio could do it too if they only had a validated prototype.

I prefer the faces and location of this business model picture
View attachment 22949

over the faces and location of this business model picture
View attachment 22948

I applaud them RickB. They can do it. They're actually doing it and if they can keep their cost down, I won't be surprise to see more FUVs in our local streets than the SOLOs.

 

[Rickb]

I applaud them RickB. They can do it. They're actually doing it and if they can keep their cost down, I won't be surprise to see more FUVs in our local streets than the SOLOs.

I’m hoping to see the general shift to high MPGe or MPG three wheeler vehicles for everyday commutes on the roads.......several successful three wheeler startups providing us with our preferred choice of vehicles. The Arcimoto for me, the SOLO for you, the Elio for others, and who knows what the next new startups or major auto company concept might be. There is no single vehicle that meets all our needs/wants/desires. Nice to have choices. Heck, I’ve been hoping for ‘this’ option for over a decade, had hopes for an Elio, but happily decided on the most fun I’ve had driving any vehicle......the Arcimoto. Go three wheels!

 

[3wheelin]

I’m hoping to see the general shift to high MPGe or MPG three wheeler vehicles for everyday commutes on the roads.......several successful three wheeler startups providing us with our preferred choice of vehicles. The Arcimoto for me, the SOLO for you, the Elio for others, and who knows what the next new startups or major auto company concept might be. There is no single vehicle that meets all our needs/wants/desires. Nice to have choices. Heck, I’ve been hoping for ‘this’ option for over a decade, had hopes for an Elio, but happily decided on the most fun I’ve had driving any vehicle......the Arcimoto. Go three wheels!

View attachment 22956

Well said RickB! Well, it looks like a perfect fit for you with room to spare. Yeah we all have high hopes for the ELIO and while it's obvious that funding is still a big issue, I give them credit for hanging in there. It's sad that they started with "no new technology" but it's clear there was no set plan to follow...it's a work in progress, with changes here and there, panel material changes, making their own engine (we didn't even know what came about of it or how expensive it was to build their own), now wants Ford engine, etc. I saw a movie once about this guy on his first solo flight going through the motions everything he's been trained to do over and over again in his head, and in the end, his instructor said you're ready..."just fly the darn thing!"

 

[pistonboy]

For the sake of discussion, lets assume the engine is the eco boost.

Has this engine just recently become available to EM? I assume EM looked at many modern engines trying to use them but were told "No" by those who owned the rights to them. If this is the case, what caused Ford to change their minds. Did they come to Elio offering the usage of this engine? I always thought those who owned rights to engines restricted their usage, reluctant to license others to use them. What engines they could use were very old technology and far behind, and thus EM had to develop their own.

I guess Ford allowed an engine manufacturer to make these engines and sell them to EM with Ford getting a portion of the profit.

I wonder if Ford is getting any control of EM.

Who approached whom about using this engine? Did EM approach Ford for the first time? Had EM approached Ford before and Ford changed their mind? Did Ford approach EM?

 

[W. WIllie]

Elio has relations with Roush, Roush has relations with Ford.

 

[champsman]

I would assume Ford would have an over abundance of these engines since quitting small auto production

 

[Elio Amazed]

For the sake of discussion, lets assume the engine is the eco boost.

Has this engine just recently become available to EM? I assume EM looked at many modern engines trying to use them but were told "No" by those who owned the rights to them. If this is the case, what caused Ford to change their minds. Did they come to Elio offering the usage of this engine? I always thought those who owned rights to engines restricted their usage, reluctant to license others to use them. What engines they could use were very old technology and far behind, and thus EM had to develop their own.

I guess Ford allowed an engine manufacturer to make these engines and sell them to EM with Ford getting a portion of the profit.

I wonder if Ford is getting any control of EM.

Who approached whom about using this engine? Did EM approach Ford for the first time? Had EM approached Ford before and Ford changed their mind? Did Ford approach EM?

It was never established at any time that there was even one instance of Paul asking and a manufacturer saying "No".
There were, however, a few instances of Paul publicly saying that going with another motor was unacceptable to EM for one reason or another.

 

[Maurtis]

It might have just been a timing issue. Remember Elio was started in 2009 and the 1.0L 3 cylinder Ecoboost motor was not put into production until 2012 and did not hit the US until 2014. The earliest info I could find about the IAV motor was the youtube video from 2013, so Elio was already working with IAV before the Ecoboost 1.0L hit our shores. It is also possible that Elio was set at the time on a non-turbo option initially, thinking a turbo would drive up the price and complexity?

Here is the video from 2013:

 

[Ty]

It might have just been a timing issue. Remember Elio was started in 2009 and the 1.0L 3 cylinder Ecoboost motor was not put into production until 2012 and did not hit the US until 2014. The earliest info I could find about the IAV motor was the youtube video from 2013, so Elio was already working with IAV before the Ecoboost 1.0L hit our shores. It is also possible that Elio was set at the time on a non-turbo option initially, thinking a turbo would drive up the price and complexity?

Here is the video from 2013:

It's also likely that there wasn't enough excess capacity at Ford at the time to produce enough motors to meet both, their and Elio's production demands.

 

[raptor213]

It's worth noting that Ford is only halting distribution of small passenger cars in the North American market where pickup trucks, SUVs and crossovers offer more profit margin and the American consumer seems to have no ethical issue against financing that extra price premium over 60-84 months. Contrast that to the European vehicle market where subcompact cars and crossovers featuring fuel efficient technologies are all the rage:

"Eleven Ford models, including Fiesta, EcoSport, B-MAX, Focus, C-MAX, Grand C‑MAX, Tourneo and Transit Connect, Tourneo and Transit Courier, and Mondeo are available in Europe with the three-cylinder engine. One in five all-new Ford vehicles sold in Europe in last year were equipped with the 1.0-litre EcoBoost, including almost two in five Fiestas."

^^ and that quote is two full years old, and Europe has only drifted more heavily in favor of fuel efficiency over gluttony in the last 24 months.

https://media.ford.com/content/ford...g-cylinder-deactivation-tech-for-1-0-lit.html

My point is that the 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine is not dead and in need of resurrection by Elio Motors. Rather, those engine subassembly lines are very likely bustling along just fine. So let the speculation continue...