Elio Motors is continuing with the building excitement for the company’s highly-anticipated three-wheeled vehicle and its prospects. It recently discussed the possibility of the company producing its fleet of electric vehicles. Elio Motors mentioned in one of their blog posts as to why their first car was gas powered.
According to the team, there are four ‘musts’ that need to be kept in mind while thinking about any decision regarding the vehicle. Their mission is to make an efficient, affordable and safe car that is also manufactured in the United States of America.
The solution needs to go through these four steps similar to any other decision regarding the car or the company itself. The four guiding principles remain at the heart of their objectives, and that is who they are, as a company. If they had made Elio an electric vehicle, it would have gone against their ‘affordability’ tenet.
The team also explained that electric cars are much more expensive to produce, compared to a gas-powered vehicle. They also mentioned that electric car replacement batteries are expensive, ranging from three thousand to six thousand dollars. According to Elio, an internal combustion engine will work much better in this case.
They also explained why they think Elio’s car is for every citizen. He mentioned that Elio has an undeniable appeal, be it environmental friendliness, focuses on personal savings, saving time on a day-to-day commute or American-manufactured products, the Elio is perfect for us. When compared to gas-powered vehicles, the infrastructure in electric cars is lacking.
The upcoming vehicle from Elio is designed for more than just short trips around town or long drives to and from work. They have designed the vehicle keeping in mind that it needs to be a viable solution in both cases and that makes a gasoline-powered car more logical. Approximately 17 million dollars were secured by Elio Motors on StartEngine.
The mini-IPO type of offer was accessible to anyone and not just serious accredited investors. Under the Reg A+ rules, the securities become immediately available as well. The shareholders were able to purchase shares at $12 per share.
The company worked hard to make sure that their shares were listed on OTCQX. It is the market reserved for the highest companies listed on the OTC platform. The company completed a large crowd funded stock sale, earlier this year and the completion of the E series was heavily financed by that.
The base model of the three-wheeled car from Elio was locked at a price tag of $7300 and the company also revealed that it took a $185 million Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan from DOE (Department of Energy).
Meanwhile, the delays by Elio Motors are testing the patience of Shreveport, Louisiana. An old GM plant was taken over by the company, and they promised the availability of 1500 jobs. Sadly, even after taking the company public this year, Elio needs more money as a result of which the jobs are yet to be materialized.
The Shreveport citizens are getting nervous since the plant is still empty. They have their hopes on Elio while the plant sits naked and Elio doesn’t pay any property taxes. At a public meeting in the parish of Caddo, Paul Elio explained the delays and challenges that the company needs to overcome to get to this point.
Elio and RACER Trust were grilled by Rep. Cedric Glover over the presence of an empty building and the possibly wasted opportunities of another potential tenant which came with the nickname ‘Project Phoenix’. Following GM’s 2009 bankruptcy, the US Bankruptcy Court created RACER Trust to redevelop the properties owned by GM.
If Elio builds it, I’d like to build an integrated kit for the rear wheel including electric motor and small battery for hybrid operation, with an integrated wheel and hub motor and a Raspberry Pi as the system microcontroller.
Figure maybe $5,000 for the kit with machined parts included, parts list, plans, and code at no charge if you want to DIY.
Elio’s right to design it for an ICE before moving forward with plug-in hybrid or EV variants. In the end, with a front wheel drive automobile, designing this way leads to a large equipment bay with drive access to the front wheels and power cable access to the rear wheel. There’s no reason to consider concessions to EV or PIH at this juncture because there’s no reason the Elio would make that transition even remotely difficult.