Let's discuss... Elio.

[Kchrpm]

Someone that needs more money.

It very much depends on what was promised with the deposits. I've no idea in any direction, they could be well aware that the delivery date of their product is nearly unknown and may never come, or they could have thought it was a guarantee to the second, or anywhere in between. I'll let them handle their own lawsuits if they were misled.

[thesameguy]

All of them?

The S was delayed several months (six or eight)
The X was delayed nearly two years (2013 to 2015)
The 3 was supposed to be delivered the end of this year, best estimates now are end of next year

[thesameguy]

Someone that needs more money.

It very much depends on what was promised with the deposits. I've no idea in any direction, they could be well aware that the delivery date of their product is nearly unknown and may never come, or they could have thought it was a guarantee to the second, or anywhere in between. I'll let them handle their own lawsuits if they were misled.

Indeed. Producing new cars on a speculative basis in '16 would be insane if it were even possible.

[Drachen596]

Did Teslas do it with the roadster as well?

For the models you listed above theyd already proven they could actually produce cars.

Plus has anyone seen an actual production model of the Elio yet? Articles seem to be only about the prototypes.

maybe I'm just really cynical about these things especially when the promises seem a bit too good to be true things.

[Kchrpm]

Did Teslas do it with the roadster as well?

Yes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_7001525

Tesla Motors announced the third delay for its widely anticipated electric cars, saying the first of its Roadster models wouldn't arrive until the first quarter of 2008.
...........
Tesla has taken about 600 orders for the two-seat Roadster model that will cost about $100,000. It will be built in England by Lotus. The company originally had promised its first cars by summer 2007, but that slipped to before the end of year.
...........
Tesla said it would soon stop taking orders for its 2008 Roadster, since the entire production run is nearly spoken for. A $5,000 deposit will be required of those wanting to get on the waiting list for a 2009 model.

Not only were they delaying it, multiple times for months at a time, they were still taking orders and deposits for it during the delays.

[Kchrpm]

http://jalopnik.com/elio-motors-futu...the-1790947889

Elio Motors, the company that keeps delaying its three-wheeler street car with a price so cheap it’s almost too good to be true, may never get one of those cars on the market. If that doesn’t come as a surprise to you, this may: Elio says it has about $100,000 in the bank and an over $123 million deficit.

[thesameguy]

Yeah, I've been following them. I'm not sure what precisely they did or didn't do wrong, but it just confirms how difficult it is to be a new car company these days. A good idea and some help isn't even remotely enough. IMHO the government needs to ease off on these companies somehow or there will be no more competition.

[Kchrpm]

Or this was someone that was completely unprepared to do the job right in the first place, but more than willing to give himself a quarter million dollars a year to give it a shot.

[thesameguy]

I do understand your point, but $250k for a CEO in charge of business of Elio's overall size & financials is hardly out of whack. Considering he's pocketed $1.75m since '09 and their debt is $123m, it really doesn't seem like his salary is even on the list of causes for the situation. Having an extra $2m right now wouldn't change the headline one iota.

I'm sure bad decisions were made, but at the same time it should not cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a shitty $7,000 car. It really seems like a problem with regulations to me. I don't know how to fix it, but unless we do we'll be relying on the Big Ten to fill the world's automotive needs forever.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Well, Elon Musk overcame regulations... and I'm sure his premium car with 4 wheels probably had to overcome way MORE regulations than Elio's 3 wheel tricycle!

I think it all comes down to founder's problem solving abilities... along with hiring the right folks with just as much problem solving abilities...

A lot of new car companies failed. It must be because there are a lot of problems to overcome. For sure regulations can be difficult to meet, but it's obviously been proven to be not impossible. I'm sure SpaceX has even greater regulations to overcome.

So either the idea itself just wasn't right from the start or the company just doesn't have enough problem solvers.

Elio developed their own engine, right? They should've just went ahead with Geo Metro engine and have their 1st generation car doing 66mpg. Yeah, it's old tech, but still much higher MPG than anything we have in the market. Surely somebody will buy that and allow your company to generate some income earlier... where as instead you invest more money and time to develop and brand new engine... yeah, it gives you better mpg on paper, but where's the car now?

Since premium wasn't what they're shooting for, they really should just go with as much off the self parts as possible and just get it out on the market as quickly as possible... and then tinker with it and improve it.

Anyway, at the moment, the CEO's salary could just be $1 and it'd still be too much. Still, I'm sure CEO salary is the least of Elio's current problems.