I shared the same initial flash reaction: "why only $100M?"
The ATVM loan application was for $186M, FWIW. That office and loan guarantee program is still open and functioning, and stands to continue operating into FY2018 based on subcommittee budget proposals being passed out of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. An estimated $16 Billion in ATVM loan funding authority still stands to be lent out to approved applicants.
It's been 9+ months since Elio's public press release announcing that it had "engaged Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Northland Capital Markets for investment banking services, including strategic advisory, financing and capital markets strategies". So far, we've heard nothing of substance related to this business partnership.
What I look forward to the most in Elio Motors' application to trade publicly on a major stock exchange like the NASDAQ is the enhanced scrutiny, stricter reporting requirements, tighter auditing rules and increased publicity. While trading on the OTCQX as a 'pink-slipped' ticker symbol, we were lucky to hear much of anything 2-4 times per year via comprehensive SEC filings. On the NASDAQ, the flow of information between the Elio Motors Board of Directors and investors at-large would justifiably increase in reporting frequency and comprehensiveness of material disclosed.
For all of the 65,3xx+ reservation holders and holders of ELIO stock -- the 'true believers' -- jumping from an OTC market to the NASDAQ also provides, albeit subjective in nature, a sense of realness and legitimacy that ought to silence skeptics, naysayers, and critics who accuse Paul Elio's venture of being/becoming a swindle or Ponzi scheme.
Paul Elio has said for a long time that his capital strategy never rested solely on the ATVM federal government loan from the Dept. of Energy. Even I began to believe, unfortunately, that he may have naively bet his business on that program and wound up with a losing hand. But maybe, just maybe, he really does have multiple capital sources lined up, and the NASDAQ offering represents just one such option.