Poll ---- Your interest in an electric Elio ?

[JEBar]

over the years Elio Motors made many claims and promises about their trike .... all of them are totally irrelevant because none of them have been kept .... as can be seen by the number of reservations made, Elio's strong point was marketing .... the BEX is designed as an Elio type reverse trike with an enclosed cab, heat, AC, 2 doors and a base price around $10,000 .... Mark hasn't taken a penny from anyone .... where Elio's vehicle development was and still is cloaked in secrecy, Mark has been open with pictures and comments about things that have worked and those which had to be reworked .... his one man shoe has made good progress and I believe he will bring it to market .... anyone not happy with what he's doing would probably be well served to move on in an effort to find something they can be happy with

 

[RSchneider]

over the years Elio Motors made many claims and promises about their trike .... all of them are totally irrelevant because none of them have been kept .... as can be seen by the number of reservations made, Elio's strong point was marketing .... the BEX is designed as an Elio type reverse trike with an enclosed cab, heat, AC, 2 doors and a base price around $10,000 .... Mark hasn't taken a penny from anyone .... where Elio's vehicle development was and still is cloaked in secrecy, Mark has been open with pictures and comments about things that have worked and those which had to be reworked .... his one man shoe has made good progress and I believe he will bring it to market .... anyone not happy with what he's doing would probably be well served to move on in an effort to find something they can be happy with

Let's remember, Elio started this project in 2008 and was not asking for reservations until 2013. So, he had a running and drivable product that made for great videos. Yes, he made some big claims and thus we now see that being critical about the whole project was frowned upon up until recently. I feel that the majority of it was due to having paid into Elio. Where Elio ran into problems was for mass production and that would get the super low price. The capital for that and the overall business plan never could work. Too good to be true was what sold Elio.

As for BEX, I commend him on doing what he is doing. On the other hand, people need to be critical if he plans to sell this product. Will it be mass or low volume? What will be the new and long term service (remember when you go mass market, you cannot expect the customers to work on it themselves). Then there comes safety. The Vanderhall or Polaris are not really designed for safety and thus, they are accepted into the motorcycle arena for that specification.

For me, I find it hard to believe that someone can sell a reverse trike for half the price of something else that is already on the market that offers much less in the form of creature comforts. If Mark can, I will be the first to commend him on this accomplishment as he found the secret sauce that Paul never found. Again, No money put out by the reservationists. So if it never makes it to market, no big deal.

To end, what are the Elio Owners willing to give up from the 10 points I listed?

 

[Ace]

To end, what are the Elio Owners willing to give up from the 10 points I listed?

For me, the main things that attracted me to the Elio were the enclosed cabin (meaning heat and air), the price (10K - 12K is what I reasonably expected), the fuel efficiency, and the motorcycle (turned autocycle) designation.

Secondary considerations were a reasonable fit and finish, safety, and reasonable reliability.

Everything else fell below that, so if Mark can deliver on my primary and secondary considerations, I'll very very seriously look at it.

 

[W. WIllie]

The thing now that I believe a lot of people are questioning is the "Time Element".
I'm 80 YO and am I willing to wait for 3-5 years before something comes available?
The LRR has over 465K miles on the odometer now.

 

[JEBar]

Will it be mass or low volume? What will be the new and long term service (remember when you go mass market, you cannot expect the customers to work on it themselves).

from day one he has stated he's gearing his first production run to be 100 vehicles ..... based on the response, he will make a decision as how to continue with such runs or setting up to go into a much larger mass production .... decisions on shipping, sales and service are premature and will be made when the time comes

 

[Made in USA]

While price is a major consideration, it also depends on what is offered. For instance, for less than $10,000 USD I would expect a somewhat plain model without very many extras. For $15,000 USD I would hope that better features are offered. For $20,000 USD I would need some kind of rebate or other incentive to justify the price. For an EV model, it would be great if a package deal were made that included a house solar system that could function as a mini grid (stand alone during power outage).

 

[AriLea]

I think EM should have set out to do two models (maybe 3) from the begining.
Using the same basic body, they could have went for a initial low volume production.
One model as a sport(ish) / fun vehicle. The other as the low cost classic model.

The sport would come fully loaded, but also some sport assessories such as , and foremost,
the turbo unit. But also some dress-up panels, a spoiler. Certainly some custom paint.
And yes, exposed wheels with a selection of mag's, one option as wire wheels.

None of that available on the classic or luxury model. (except as after market add ons)

To keep everyone happy, the low volume production would make maybe two Sport models for each
classic, and they can sell the classic CM at a loss this way. Only reservationists can get a classic at the
promisary price.

But consider the Vaderhall below selling for $37,000.
Elio should have targeted an intial $40k SS (=Special Sport) and sold one CM (=Classic Model)
to reservationists for the $8k price, and one for a slight profit of say $17k as the LM (= Luxury Model).
Yea, make something special on the LM model to make it seem worth it.
Of course non reservatinist can buy a CM, but at a break even price (or better) of say $12k.

Then later they could have expanded into large volume production easier since any profit would
make this seem a lower risk to investment.

Well, I wasn't in thier management, so there ya are.!

 

[smithsonssg]

The time for ELIO has passed. No chance they will market anything. But maybe we can still dream.

 

[JEBar]

maybe we can still dream.

dreaming is about all there is to it

 

[Juney]

Simply nope. Eight years ago I plopped money down for a gas efficient car that would take me and a few personal items up to my cabin in the woods for the last years before I bought the big one. This would have saved me money for all the small projects I have going around here. Those projects are still ongoing. The original Elio as promised would have filled a niche so handy for me personally that I would have saved oodles just on the trips here alone. One way I drive about 175miles and that's not only on some highway but mostly foothills and windy roads, a little mountains. An EV? afraid I'll get stuck with no where to plug in one winter.