Technosports, Elio Prototypes

[Dustoff]

In a phone conversation with Phil Haigh of Technosports, Inc. at 08:20 today 5/20/2014 we discussed:
Three buildings at approximately 10,000 SF each or about 30,000 SF total.
They are a complete fabrication facility including CNC capabilities.
Phil said in addition to doing the bulk of their work for Ford, GM and Chrysler they are building Elio prototypes.
I have one more phone number to call, but may keep that private for a while.
I hope this settles down some of the misguided individuals.

 

[Tinybeetle]

Thanks Dustoff!

 

[elio_curious]

It's helpful, thanks.

The best way for Elio to silence the doubters is to get that thing rolling out of the Factory, even if the design isn't 100% perfect (which NO car ever is).

 

[Craig]

It's helpful, thanks.

The best way for Elio to silence the doubters is to get that thing rolling out of the Factory, even if the design isn't 100% perfect (which NO car ever is).

o_O

 

[Ty]

In a phone conversation with Phil Haigh of Technosports, Inc. at 08:20 today 5/20/2014 we discussed:
Three buildings at approximately 10,000 SF each or about 30,000 SF total.
They are a complete fabrication facility including CNC capabilities.
Phil said in addition to doing the bulk of their work for Ford, GM and Chrysler they are building Elio prototypes.
I have one more phone number to call, but may keep that private for a while.
I hope this settles down some of the misguided individuals.

Curious... they didn't happen to mention how MANY they were currently working on, did they?

 

[Dustoff]

Curious... they didn't happen to mention how MANY they were currently working on, did they?

Ty,
I am curious about current undertakings as well. Considering the new engine apparently isn't available yet I held off asking any questions about how many they were currently working on. I have a phone number and a name associated with it that I will call after we hear something on the new engine. Technosports, Inc. phone number is listed on their site and anyone is welcome to call.
I simply did this to put to rest the 400 SF garage workshop rumor.

 

[Lil4X]

The best way for Elio to silence the doubters is to get that thing rolling out of the Factory, even if the design isn't 100% perfect (which NO car ever is).

Probably the worst thing Elio could do at this point is to start up production with an undeveloped product. We have plenty of examples of cars that were foisted on the public without a full development cycle, to wit; Bricklin, DeLorean, even the Buick Reatta. Greed or poor business decisions put half-baked products on the market where they failed miserably. All suffered production problems that weren't apparent in development - and ultimately went belly-up. Released too soon in an attempt to generate profit to supplement gross underfunding, in the case of Bricklin and DeLorean, put trouble-prone, underperforming cars on the street that never lived up to their advertising and expectations.

Warranty work can kill a product very quickly. When you have dealerships flooded with poorly developed products you end up as GM did with diesel Oldsmobiles stacking up on their lots with no real fix in sight. It produced a cottage industry among independent mechanics to retrofit standard 350 CID engines into those diesels - while GM conveniently looked the other way. It destroyed public confidence in the brand, and years later closed the doors on Oldsmobile.

 

[Ty]

Ty,
I am curious about current undertakings as well. Considering the new engine apparently isn't available yet I held off asking any questions about how many they were currently working on. I have a phone number and a name associated with it that I will call after we hear something on the new engine. Technosports, Inc. phone number is listed on their site and anyone is welcome to call.
I simply did this to put to rest the 400 SF garage workshop rumor.

Okay. Makes sense. I thought IAV had reported that Elio now has the engine and that they were doing testing. I may be wrong there but that's why I asked the "how many" question.

 

[Ty]

Probably the worst thing Elio could do at this point is to start up production with an undeveloped product. We have plenty of examples of cars that were foisted on the public without a full development cycle, to wit; Bricklin, DeLorean, even the Buick Reatta. Greed or poor business decisions put half-baked products on the market where they failed miserably. All suffered production problems that weren't apparent in development - and ultimately went belly-up. Released too soon in an attempt to generate profit to supplement gross underfunding, in the case of Bricklin and DeLorean, put trouble-prone, underperforming cars on the street that never lived up to their advertising and expectations.

Warranty work can kill a product very quickly. When you have dealerships flooded with poorly developed products you end up as GM did with diesel Oldsmobiles stacking up on their lots with no real fix in sight. It produced a cottage industry among independent mechanics to retrofit standard 350 CID engines into those diesels - while GM conveniently looked the other way. It destroyed public confidence in the brand, and years later closed the doors on Oldsmobile.

Don't forget to add Harley Davidson to that... for years, dealers had to park bikes on cardboard to soak up the oil and there were copies in showrooms with the tail light wires hanging down against the tire. They've cleaned up their act a lot since those years but they are still used as an example in Industrial Engineering course work... specifically to point out that overly automating processes does have limitations and detriments.

 

[goofyone]

Okay. Makes sense. I thought IAV had reported that Elio now has the engine and that they were doing testing. I may be wrong there but that's why I asked the "how many" question.

The last solid information I heard was that IAV still had the first prototype motor(s) undergoing static testing in their test facility. As far as I know the first prototype engines were fully assembled sometime in March and begun testing at IAV's test facility which is able to thoroughly test new engines. I expect them to do the static testing for 2-3 months before they start putting these motors in cars which brings us to the June/July timeframe before they would be ready in Elio's hands ready for field testing. Of course I am not involved in this first hand and while I trust this source everything is subject to change.

i really don't want them to cut any corners at all when developing this motor so if they need a few extra months to get it right so be it.