So much fail in so little space, I have to be impressed. Mostly I'm laughing, yet still somehow impressed.
First, the Elio is not 8,500, it doesn't have bluetooth, automatic or a 70mog rating. It's VAPORWARE. It's not any closer to delivering on its promised specs than my $5000 time machine with leather interior, full bar, Playboy Playmate bartender and jacuzzi (invest now!! no CoolCoin accepted, cash only). Even if Elio isn't a con man and even if something similar gets built it won't come close to approaching those specs for that price.
But mostly, it's a silly idea in a silly package that's being marketed to a buyer that doesn't seem to exist anymore. A car like that will only appeal to the young, broke, urban audience. An older person won't go near one, a family or couple won't go near one, a person that drives often or more than 10 miles at a stretch won't go near one, etc etc etc. The only probable target buyers would be really lonely single males in cities like New York, San Francisco or Tokyo where traffic and space make having a real car difficult. But that demographic is split into two camps: First, those who understand a car isn't practical in that environment, but deals with one anyway because they need one for carrying things, weekend trips out of the city, etc. And second, those who have learned to live without a car entirely and rely on public transport, ride shares, etc. And none of those people are going to want an Elio. Those who want/need a car are going to look at it as a stupid compromise with most of the hassles of a real car, but almost none of the benefits and those who have learned to live without a car are not going to jump into car ownership hassles for something with none of the practicality of a car.
Larger companies, like Honda or Toyota, have sold hundreds of millions of small city cars to people who have to slog through gridlock every day. They have the resources and engineering to easily copy this basic package, which, lets face it, is nothing more than a motorcycle in a plastic egg like cheap pantyhose. It's something they could knock off in an afternoon and with economy of scale bring to market cheaper than Elio. The fact that they're not interested in doing it should tell you something. You can't make the vehicle Elio is promising at the price Elio is promising and even if you could, not many people would want one.
I always thought it would've made more sense to underspec and overdeliver (i.e. claim 70mpg, if you hit more than that, you can then shout about it; I realize being sensationalist helps attract attention, but I think 70mpg in similar package for $9999 would've gotten people to notice it just about as much, and it'd be more realistic, giving them a buffer, where they could work towards more for less money with revisions). I don't know if he's a conman or not, don't even care, as I'm more focused on the idea.
You say its silly, and it is, but I also like the type of silly it is. I've repeatedly said it, but I think this would make for a great "backpack" vehicle. Yes, you can get most of what it offers with a LOT of other practicality for the same or less in a used Prius (which you know will be reliable and has a pretty extensive network of service and parts). For the person ranting about used Leafs, the Prius is a much better argument. There actually is some company developing a car like the Elio that uses an electric drivetrain. I'd love for them to be successful.
I do think demand for it wouldn't be nearly what it could be (they need to put big wheels and tires - knobbly off road ones and call it an SUV), but then we can see that consumers often are irrational. So it'd probably be popular and then fizzle out. I actually think these would make sense for younger drivers in rural areas. It gets them a car, for cheap, that gets good gas mileage (they often will drive a fair bit for school and/or work), their parents can rest easy that they can't be too big of an idiot in it (and can't fit a bunch of friends in, which is a recipe for disaster with teens).
Certainly its a niche vehicle, but we have plenty of those (and a fair amount of them that are actually quite successful, even at ridiculous prices). I don't get the weird intense disdain some of you have for this type of vehicle.
You realize those exact same arguments were said about electric cars before Tesla, right? That's the thing though, those companies are fairly stuck in having to make a full billion dollar use case for most vehicles they make. That's exactly why they dragged their buts so hard on electric vehicles. And its why they nearly crashed their entire industry because they get stuck in stupid ways. Like how they knew people want SUVs, but couldn't deal with the jacked up prices and gas. So then they go and base them off of cars (all the way down to economy cars), add smartphone support, and now a decade later, in spite of rising gas prices, people are doing the same damn thing (buying SUVs and trucks). Many of these companies were completely opposed to even consider small projects like this (they themselves have said that, that's why they collectively freaked out when Tesla started being successful because they realize that they could get hit hard if someone were to come along and actually make some of these "silly" ideas work).
Wow over 3 years since I posted this and yet no 3 wheeled motovehicle. They still keep getting money thrown at them, Overstock threw 2.5 million at them, I guess they have too much money stuffed in safes and needed to unload excess money. How difficult is to start building a few?
I wonder how many years before Elio Motors is finally put out to pasture.
2019 for Year of Linux on the desktop and Elio in the parking garage?
I don't know, you tell us, after all weren't you the one predicting their imminent demise every few months? Were you the same one doing the same thing for Tesla?
I actually don't even get this weird infatuation with company "death watches", especially when it gets ridiculous (hasn't RIM been on "death watch" for like 10 years?)
Smells fishy could be scam The founder of Elio Motors has a separate company where he is also the CEO (ESG Engineering) He funnels money from Corporation A to the parasite corporation B.
Good sized chunk of the millions from deposits etc.. was used to pay for services provided by ESG to Elio Motors the parasite corporation sucking dry the parent. What Paul Elio wants to do is lengthen the death of the target corporation as long as he can while he keeps getting cash infusions and deposits that will be sent to ESG Engineering (16+ Million).
Oh and the 7.5 million dollar building lease, paid to a corporation that is connected to Elio via his buddy Stu Lichter.
Plus tons of stock handed to insiders that most likely got dumped via classic boiler room pump and dump schemes over time.
There might be other related parasite corporations involved as well. Why is the WSJ etc.. not doing any investigative reporting on mess?
OH!!! Forgot there is a Elio coin ICO in the works as well. Hey might as well dip your toe in the ICO once the automobile game blows over.
www.eliocoin.com
You seem like you sure know a lot, so why aren't you writing an explosive expose on all of this? Seriously, you'd be doing people a lot of good will if you actually were able to prove its a scam. And any of the well meaning people that just wanted to make or buy a quirky car won't keep wasting their time and money on this. Hell, I bet you could write a book and make some nice money even (although probably do better if you focused on trying to make it into a movie).
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