Paul's Latest Press Release, Raising Funding

[Thomas Malkin]

No response to this thread? I see this as a strong positive am I wrong? Does this mean Paul Elio get a negative response or decided to go for broke selling stock? My first thought after getting my email was "most encouraging thing about Elio in at least a year."

As I read it yesterday, several things were made clear by Paul and company.
-No angels will invest. They've been trying for a year and more, but as Paul himself said, they can't make enough profit to interest any.
-They need a hundred million just to survive a bit longer, not to bring out the car.
-Sadly, Wall Street will have a say in their future if they manage the IPO.
-The problem, as I've stated and Paul repeated in bafflement, is that the ATVM loan people have simply stopped giving loans.
-The IPO is a stopgap to stay alive long enough for the ATVM people to finally give out the money they (me editorializing) are bloody paid to loan out.
-The money they need has been at least doubled due to the delay of the intransigent ATVM loan crew.

 

[voyager]

Ask the Qatarese to invest in Elio, rather than in Barcelona star soccer player Neymar?

 

[RUCRAYZE]

Ask the Qatarese to invest in Elio, rather than in Barcelona star soccer player Neymar?

he plays football, unlike the rest of the planet we call it soccer, we play a game called football, that except for a few seconds per game do feet have any bearing
metrics anyone?

 

[Thomas Malkin]

You bet. This fact alone makes owning this car a no brainer. Once this car hits the streets at these prices, it will start selling itself. There were videos of the car rattling and wheel boot falling off and the reviewer wasnt really phased by it. They were enjoying driving it so much.

Yeah, the reviewer made a point of it, as he should, but it WAS a development vehicle. He was cool about it.

 

[Made in USA]

With Toyota and Mazda making a new car plant somewhere, it's interesting to see the numbers.
They plan on spending $1600 million (or 1.6 Billion), it should create 4000 jobs, and the expect to produce 300,000 vehicles.
This implies that with the 1400 persons needed to run the Elio plant, that the Elio is a much simpler vehicle to assemble.
As such, any production difficulties they run into should also be easier to correct. They may even tolerate certain issues in order to get production started. They may be up and running sooner than 2019.

 

[Bookly]

No angels will invest. They've been trying for a year and more, but as Paul himself said, they can't make enough profit to interest any.

Investors do have this picky thing about wanting to invest in something that might make $.

They need a hundred million just to survive a bit longer, not to bring out the car.

100 million and we're in the same spot as we are now, except Elio & staff are being paid.

The problem, as I've stated and Paul repeated in bafflement, is that the ATVM loan people have simply stopped giving loans. The IPO is a stopgap to stay alive long enough for the ATVM people to finally give out the money they (me editorializing) are bloody paid to loan out.

Elio Motors has never met the financial criteria of the ATVM loan program. It isn't even clear that adding a $100 million fixes that. It isn't even clear that the Elio would qualify as an ATV - "Advanced Technology Vehicle." Add to that, the current administration has proposed eliminating the ATVM loan program altogether.

So, a 100 million $ IPO. Life continues. Back to getting reservations. They state they would like to raise $110 million doing that. Optimistically presuming $1,000 per reservation, that is 110,000 new reservations.

How many years did it take to get 65,000 reservations? And that was when Elio was enjoying generally favorable publicity.

 

[Rob Croson]

Investors do have this picky thing about wanting to invest in something that might make $.

EM can make money by selling three-wheelers. The problem they have attracting venture capitalists who might be able to provide that much capital, is that the VCs expect rapid returns. If you can't promise returns within the year or two, they aren't interested. Paul has talked about this a few times.

100 million and we're in the same spot as we are now, except Elio & staff are being paid.

According to their SEC filing they need $33M to complete their engineering and test vehicles. So if they get $100M, we're much farther ahead.

Elio Motors has never met the financial criteria of the ATVM loan program. It isn't even clear that adding a $100 million fixes that. It isn't even clear that the Elio would qualify as an ATV - "Advanced Technology Vehicle." Add to that, the current administration has proposed eliminating the ATVM loan program altogether.

Based on mileage rating alone, the Elio is eligible for the loan program. They still have to meet the rest of the criteria, of course, but they have the hardware aspect covered. Keep in mind that Ford used the money just to upgrade their manufacturing facilities, with not a single dollar going to the actual vehicle design.

So, a 100 million $ IPO. Life continues. Back to getting reservations. They state they would like to raise $110 million doing that. Optimistically presuming $1,000 per reservation, that is 110,000 new reservations.

How many years did it take to get 65,000 reservations? And that was when Elio was enjoying generally favorable publicity.

That's 65,000 reservations based on nothing more than a wing and a prayer. Once financing is available, delivery dates start being promised, and the three-wheelers hit the streets, there's is undoubtedly a lot more reservations that will start rolling in.

Also, keep in mind that the funds they listed are to take them to "cash flow positive", and not to "vehicle 1 rolls off the line". They don't need all the money up front to produce 65,000 vehicles. The money they get from selling #1 will be used to buy the stuff they need to build #100, etc.

 

[Bookly]

...the VCs expect rapid returns. If you can't promise returns within the year or two, they aren't interested. Paul has talked about this a few times.

If that has been cited that as a reason, it just doesn't match with reality. Of course there are large investors that invest long term, they just have to believe a long term gain is actually likely.

That's 65,000 reservations based on nothing more than a wing and a prayer. Once financing is available, delivery dates start being promised, and the three-wheelers hit the streets, there's is undoubtedly a lot more reservations that will start rolling in.

Delivery dates "start" being promised? How many dates have there been already? Going back how many years?

Those reservations came in with announced production dates. That got moved. And moved. And moved, and moved again.

Re "hit the streets"... this new money wouldn't get the vehicle to actual production, based on Elio's own SEC filing.

If you mean prototypes, here's hoping you're right. The last funding was supposed to get 25 done, and then 100 done. Reality ended up as one, two or three... depending on whose counting.

 

[3wheelin]

As I read it yesterday, several things were made clear by Paul and company.
-No angels will invest. They've been trying for a year and more, but as Paul himself said, they can't make enough profit to interest any.
-They need a hundred million just to survive a bit longer, not to bring out the car.
-Sadly, Wall Street will have a say in their future if they manage the IPO.
-The problem, as I've stated and Paul repeated in bafflement, is that the ATVM loan people have simply stopped giving loans.
-The IPO is a stopgap to stay alive long enough for the ATVM people to finally give out the money they (me editorializing) are bloody paid to loan out.
-The money they need has been at least doubled due to the delay of the intransigent ATVM loan crew.

"...as Paul himself said, they can't make enough profit to interest any."
I guess it finally dawned on Paul that he shouldn't have said "half a car, half the price" too soon even before all expenses has been tallied. Advertising at a projected price of $6800. from the beginning was so ambitious but it was the quickest way to garner interest and the resulting reservations....except the investors doesn't share his enthusiasm. I goggled and shared the cost of creating a new car from the ground up a while back and it's an easy half a billion. As this project drag along, does anybody still doubt it'll be what EM needs to get the motors runnin'?

 

[Rob Croson]

If that has been cited that as a reason, it just doesn't match with reality. Of course there are large investors that invest long term, they just have to believe a long term gain is actually likely.

Could be. I'm just reporting what Paul has been heard to say. He has stated several times that he hasn't been able to find investors that wanted anything other than a quick-turn-around profit. I have no experience raising capital at that level, and neither, I'm willing to venture, are you. So I think we'll just have to take him at his word. Keep in mind that Paul also doesn't want to just sell his idea, or give up control of his dream. Perhaps that's part of the problem, too. Maybe if he had been willing to let someone else buy into some control, he could have gotten the funding. But then maybe the partner would have forced enough design changes, that we'd end up getting the same overpriced, unaffordable vehicles that Detroit is already pumping out.

Delivery dates "start" being promised? How many dates have there been already? Going back how many years?

Point me to one person who was told by Elio Motors that "your vehicle will be delivered to you on mm/dd/yyyy, please be waiting by the curb and have your payment ready for the delivery driver ".

EM has stated potential start of production dates, and estimates when vehicles are going to roll off the line. And, yes, none of those have been made. (Obviously...) What I'm talking about are hard delivery dates of vehicles to specific people. Once people are driving them, and people are given delivery dates when they fork over the deposit money, that's when you will start getting more orders. Right now, someone who needs a vehicle isn't going to hand over $1,000 and hope that it eventually gets made before his beater craps out.

Those reservations came in with announced production dates. That got moved. And moved. And moved, and moved again.

Estimated production dates are not delivery dates.

Re "hit the streets"... this new money wouldn't get the vehicle to actual production, based on Elio's own SEC filing.

No, it won't. And I didn't say it would. I said that the extra money from reservations would come once they start delivering vehicles. There are only so many people who have the money to be able to lay down for an uncertain reservation, and the willingness to so.

If you mean prototypes, here's hoping you're right. The last funding was supposed to get 25 done, and then 100 done. Reality ended up as one, two or three... depending on whose counting.

Yeah, I know. That's my big beef with the Red A+ financing. We were supposed to get 25 engineering evaluation prototypes. That was then dropped to 23. Then most of that money was sunk into a frame/body panel redesign, and we only ever got three, and a couple of unfinished frames. That bugs me, but I have to hope that at least the money was well-spent on the redesign, and that it will eventually be worth the cost.