What's Your Theory?

[Burg]

I dont know if I would go that far. From what I have seen of the Elio E series, I think design is more than 50% done. Sourcing may be lagging. Something tells me there was a major design change with the E series right before Elio went dark though. Im also suspicious of the 80+ MPG figure. I dont think they will hit that mark with the current engine and auto design and they are aware of that. Still, at 70 or even 60MPG it would be worth it to me. I think there has been zero thought given to tooling for production yet. Not that I have seen or heard at least. That would take time, but not 10 years....

 

[RSchneider]

There is something else to remember. The longer Elio goes without actually spending money on things like outfitting the plant and buying products from their suppliers, the more difficult it will be for them to hit cost and timeline numbers. I'll give you an example. Elio is using Steel Strips Wheels that will be made in India. That announcement came out in August 2016. Like food, there is a "must use by" date on quotes and contracts. Most of the time it's between 30 and 90 days. Imagine if you went to a contractor and got a quote on building a new house. You can't get the quote and come back 18 months later and think that the quote and timeline will be honored because it won't. Plus you can't keep calling the contractor every month to check in and make sure nothing has changed. He'll stop answering the phone.

As for the Elio being less than 50% that is a true statement. It would be like building your own house and you have a $200K budget. If you have only spent $90K, that doesn't mean it's done. The design of the house might be done on paper but not in the real world. You could pour a foundation, frame it, install windows, doors, roof, siding, driveway mailbox and seed the yard. That looks on the outside like it's done, until you walk in through the front door and notice the plumbing, electrical, HVAC, insulation, sheetrock, flooring, kitchen, bathrooms and fixtures are all missing. Plus it needs to pass code all along the way.

That is what the Elio reminds me of. Look at all of the CAD screen shots they show in their blogs. Things like the suspension are different than the E series. The E1C still have a bunch of hand fabricated components that would never be on a mass produced car in the engine compartment. Plus it still has a front battery, gas port on the right side and a exhaust bulge. All of those changes are on CAD and not in real life. The basic design might be done but the details and all of those things people don't notice because they are covered up take the most time and money to perfect.