This May Be the End for Elio Motors, Finally (2024)
If its website is any indication, any connection the rest of the world had to Elio Motors has now timed out. The company’s website officially 404’s now, long after its cars effectively did the same.
If you’re new to the name Elio Motors, you’re not alone. The small automaker started more than a decade ago with a supremely lofty goal: 84 mpg, three wheels, for less than $7,000. Since 2009, not much more than a promise has ever materialized from Elio Motors or its founder, Paul Elio, despite assurances that something—anything—was just around the corner. We reached out to Elio Motors and they replied: "The tech team is aware and working on it, thanks for the heads up though, we appreciate it. And yes, we are still here grinding every day to make the Elio a reality."
That an automotive startup flounders isn’t especially remarkable. When it drags a town along with it, it is. When it initially launched, Elio secured space in a former General Motors assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, by promising more than 1,500 manufacturing jobs in the town by the end of 2015. Elio paid for its lease through stock in its company—stock that’s effectively worthless now—and raised more than $100 million to build its cars. Pre-production three-wheeler prototypes were spotted, but nothing more than show cars that showed the company could make something from more than $100 million in startup funding.Last year, the company reported a $10 million loss in the first six months, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.
First blaming the economy, then blaming lower gas prices, then blaming the consistently expensive business of building cars, Elio pushed back production of its cars from 2015 to 2017 and said it needed to raise more than $300 million for production. Pressed by local authorities and legislators, Elio never answered how he was awarded a prime sublease at the GM plant, what he planned to do with the money and tax breaks he was offered, and when his promise to workers laid off in 2012 by GM would finally pay off.
“This has not happened on the time frame we thought. There have been a lot of obstacles, but we’ve hung in there,” Elio said in 2016, according to theShreveport Times. “We don’t give up.”
Getting fined in 2017 for unlicensed sales, Elio consistently failed to provide details on its plan to do much more than sell off tooling in the GM plant it occupied. Then, in 2018, the company announced a bizarre cryptocurrency plan and venture with Overstock.com to fund the development of the same car 8 years later. By then, the economy and gas prices had significantly changed since 2009, when Elio announced his plans, but the company maintained it would make good on its promises to Shreveport, Louisiana, and sustainability. That predictably failed, and in 2021 the last gasp from Elio came by way of an electric version of its car, called the Elio-E, and more promises of production.
“We are planning on starting production with the Elio-E to take advantage of both financial investment opportunities and consumer demand in the electric market. Hundreds of institutional investors are looking to invest in the electric vehicle market. After the Elio-E is funded and there is sufficient demand left, we will launch a gas version shortly thereafter,” the company wrote on its Facebook page in 2021,its most recent post.
It's unclear what, if anything, Elio has done with the deposits and money it collected over numerous rounds of funding nor is it clear what the future will be for its cars or plant in Shreveport. If its website is any indication, Elio’s future can be summed up in two concise and accurate words: “Not Found.”
Since the 2009 conception, the company illustrated and repeatedly delayed a release date for its original gasoline powered vehicle, pivoted to an electric powered concept, collected an estimated $28 million of deposits, has been fined $7.5 million for failing to create promised jobs in Louisiana — and as of May 2022 ...
The company's tiny, three-wheeled car attracted national attention a few years ago, but after struggling to secure financing, the car has never reached the production line.
Waiting for Elio. Since it began accepting customer deposits in early 2013, start-up automaker Elio Motors collected at least $28 million in deposits from more than 65,000 reservations but has failed to deliver a vehicle to customers despite repeatedly pledging that production would begin.
Since early 2013, Elio Motors has accumulated more than 65,000 deposits for its three-wheeled, two-seat, 84 mpg vehicle. But it has failed to deliver any vehicles.
In the final part (called “Da Capo,” an Italian musical term that translates to “repeat from the beginning,”) Elio and Oliver now miraculously live together in Italy several decades after separating, in the same house where it all began.
He reunites with Elio in Italy, and they reconnect romantically. Though Sami has died, he fathered a child with Miranda, whom they named Oliver. Da Capo: Elio and Oliver are together again, raising Little Ollie, Elio's half brother.
People have been waiting nearly two years to get a glimpse of the three-wheeled two-seater with a gas engine that gets an estimated 84 mpg on the highway. And at a pre-production price of about $6,800, you can get a half-dozen for any one Model 3.
Priced at $6800, the Elio is half the cost of the cheapest car in America and less expensive than a golf cart. Elio Motors was able to achieve this by using a gas-powered powertrain engine instead of popular and expensive electric engines.
Toyota:Toyota has a reputation for producing reliable and long-lasting vehicles. Models like the Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, and Toyota Prius have often been praised for their dependability. Lexus:As Toyota's luxury division, Lexus vehicles are also known for their reliability and longevity.
Yes. GEM is the leader in the LSV (Low-Speed Vehicle) market, and GEM vehicles are street-legal in nearly all U.S. states. An LSV is a vehicle class that follows federal safety standards, has a maximum speed of 25 mph (40 km/h), and can legally be driven on most U.S. roads posted 35 mph (50 km/h) or less.
A Dale was eventually made roadworthy, but just barely. A handsome brochure said the two-seat, featherweight (less than 1,000 pounds) Dale Car would get 70 miles per gallon and cost less than $2,000. Power came from a two-cylinder motorcycle engine, from BMW by some accounts, yielding a top speed of 87 mph.
The Aptera is a two-seat, three-wheeled solar electric vehicle under development by the crowd-funded American car manufacturer Aptera Motors. The stated design goal of the car is to be the most energy efficient mass produced vehicle ever.
Perhaps Oliver is bisexual; perhaps he thinks a more conventional life will be easier or better for his career; perhaps he wants children; perhaps he doesn't have the courage to try to live at the pitch of intensity that he and Elio have sustained during their weeks together; perhaps, as Alex suggests below, he doesn't ...
After Oliver tells Elio that he'll meet him at midnight, Elio periodically checks his watch to see how much time remains. I love little details like this because they're easy to miss but say so much about what the character is feeling.
He's initially reluctant to start his relationship with Elio because he's afraid of his desires. Oliver chooses the parallel life and Elio in-turn suffers through it as well, in a metaphorical way of saying they are the "same person" who have made the same choice.
Introduction: My name is Aron Pacocha, I am a happy, tasty, innocent, proud, talented, courageous, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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