Elio Motors announced it has begun work on its fifth generation prototype vehicle following a successful supplier summit meeting last week. The P5 will include Elio Motors’ recently unveiled 0.9 liter, 3-cylinder engine prototype and a manual transmission. Created in 2008 by Paul Elio, Elio Motors is targeting a launch date mid 2016 for a vehicle that will get up to 84 MPG and is expected to retail for $6,800. The P5 is being developed using funds raised in a recent 506 (c) offering. The 506 (c) offering is made possible by the Jobs Act of 2012, and allows accredited investors to buy in to Elio Motors. The P5 is the first in a series of 26 prototypes, codenamed P5 through P30 that will be developed for a variety of testing and validation purposes.
The supplier summit, a unique supply chain management technique employed by Elio Motors, provides an opportunity for all of the company’s suppliers to come together in one room and meet on a regular basis to discuss every aspect of the vehicle’s design and manufacturability. The input and collaboration of the supplier team has been a critical element in Elio Motors development.”
The P5 build is another important step in our march toward production and is the culmination of several important strategic initiatives we have completed or launched in the past several months,” said Paul Elio, founder and CEO of Elio Motors. “The completion of our engine prototype, our offering to accredited investors and our recent supplier summit are all excellent examples of the progress we continue to make every day.”
In addition to updated styling that has been driven by aerodynamic improvements, two of the most critical elements being added to the P5 are the engine and the transmission. The enclosed, three-wheeled Elio vehicle requires a unique blend of power and efficiency. The company turned to world-class engine developer IAV to create a new technology from the ground up. The transmission on the P5 will be a Multi-mode Manual Transmission from Aisin the world’s largest transmission manufacturer. Elio Motors Inc.
I hear the theme from the movie “The Sting” playing and pictures of Ponzi floating in the air.
Awesome.
How many years now has Elio been saying they were going to go into production in the next year?
Good luck to them
I hope they do it… I hope they are successful. its difficult Launching a company alone. let alone a car maker. good luck Elio.
Far too many years BobS . Far too many indeed . Its getting to the point where its difficult to see Elio as anything but .. another vaporware company with more broken promises and missed deadlines than your average politician . The biggest criticism though has to be the fact that Elio is trying to answer a question no one is asking and filling a demand that does not exist
TJ I don’t disagree with your assessment, although I would point out that most of the world’s greatest innovations have answered a question no one is asking and filled a demand that didn’t exist. Things like horseless carriages, telephones, lasers, etc. If Elio could actually deliver on their promise they could probably sell 20,000 units a year here in the US and 2 million more per year around the world. It would be a great new US industry…if it weren’t an investor scam. I could be wrong but it seems like about 2011 or 2012 when they first started taking deposits for vehicles that were supposed to go into production in 2012 or 2013. It’s hard to produce anything from scratch for 6800 let alone a totally new vehicle that gets 84 mpg. If it sounds too good to be true…
Actually BobS .. not to be disagreeable but … if you look at history 99.999% of all innovators were in fact answering questions that almost everyone was asking . Can man fly ? Is internal combustion possible ? Will a digitally based communications system work ? Can we have personal computers small enough to fit into the palm of our hands etc . In all honesty I cannot think of one solitary major innovation that wasn’t answering a question that had been asked a million times or more beforehand . But who on the entire planet is asking whether or not an impractical three wheeler that in fact solves nothing and is more toy than personal transportation can be built ? As to Elio’s financial history ? Yes I remember the same story you do .. though the exact details at present escape me . All I do remember is the last major round was quite … errr …. ugly . BTW ” If it sounds too good to be true … ” words of wisdom to live by …. and then some . .
Interesting comments TJ, but I just can’t agree. Well, actually I wasn’t around in the 1890’s so I can’t tell you if there was consumer demand for a horseless carriage. I’ll take your word for it on that one :). But other revolutionary inventions…not only was there no demand for a telephone, the inventor wasn’t even trying to create it. It was an accident. The laser was invented over 20 years before we figured out what to do with it. Personal computers became available in the late 70’s, but nobody knew what to do with them. It was almost a decade later when a few university researchers alegedly got a grant funded by an influential senator that something no one else was asking for was created, the internet. All of a sudden AOL and a couple others figured out how to use it and home computers to create a product nobody knew they needed.
In the meantime, is it just verbage or what, that it’s not referred to as a car or automobile? It’s always a “vehicle”.
An interesting discussion BobS and one I hope Cyril & Co does not mind happening .
If you study the history of each and every as you’re calling them ‘ ground breaking ‘ innovations you will find every one was proceeded by years if not decades of experiments , speculations , failed attempts etc . AOL ? AOL was simply the consumer version of what was previously a military and government technology as well as a mode for academics to communicate and share information . Horseless carriage ? Ever since the dawn of the steam engine in the 1700’s there were horseless carriages [ as well as motorcycles ] . The telephone ? Read the details . That was no accident .. thats pure unadulterated abbreviated myth . The end result coming about after years of research and failed experiments and in fact came within a hairs breadth of being usurped by another inventor . To put it simply without gloaming up Cyril’s pages … There truly is nothing new under the sun . Everything being an extension or evolution of that which proceeded it . Nine times out of ten the people getting all the credit having been in the right place at the right time and during the right age to finally take advantage of all that came before them . In conclusion though BobS .. a fascinating discussion . Civil . Respectful ..everything the internet should be but hardly ever is . But if I may be so bold in the spirit that this is intended good sir . Take the time and effort to go beyond the myth that was placed before us in Jr High , HS and too often college as well … and read the in depth history behind many of the innovations that seem to of captured your attention . Trust me when I say the reality is ten times more interesting than the abbreviated myth could ever hope to be .
And thank you in advance to Cyril & Co for allowing this to stand … which I assume you will
I’m actually really looking forward to this vehicle. I think the engine will be simple enough to tinker with and the simple platform of the vehicle’s layout will hopefully be user-friendly. I just hope they do not encase the engine in plastic covers. Please for the love of the home mechanic, DO NOT encase it!
The Dale. Part II
“Groundbreaking”? This fantasy has been around since 1973, actually- in fact, the Dale bears a more-than-passing resemblance to this thing.
It’s not about the vehicle itself. Never is. The Dale was about an IPO scam. This 506 (c) isn’t too far off that mark, tho it’s more about taking advantage of a government bent on spreading risk via social welfare, rather than let capitalism work its magic.
Regardless, this ALL goes away when 1) the Elio racks up a real-world 42 MPG, because despite all the hype, they’re not rewriting any laws of physics, and 2) the subsequent class-actions by all the “investors” when they realize they’ve been duped, because their “investment” is simply a clever voluntary tax that will NEVER yield any real return. Ask Tesla about their profits, despite massitve government subsidization- I believe their answer is “Uh…………..”.
Oh, and let’s not forget EVERY car manufacturer in the world lining up against Elio, because unlike them, Elio seems to be magically pardoned from the exhaustive list of safety and air polution certifications that comprise a HUGE chunk of today’s window sticker;
MAYBE they’ll all decide to just join hands and sing Kumbaya and let Elio undermine their businesses- yeah, that’s how they do things, sure……
Thoughts:
I agree with the 42 mpg assessment, I think they’d have to bring down displacement to about 250-300cc to achieve 84mpg (amusing no regeneration schemes).
DOT safety requirements are almost nil, as it’s a motorcycle.
I really wish this was REAL… As I think there is a real demand for cheap transportation out there. All the car companies are working as hard as they can ADDING cost to the car. Nice to see someone going the other way (like Tata). But I just don’t understand the wait for this-
I think Paul honestly isn’t trying to scam, but i think he’s also seeing this as his (paid) job for all these years. [Put out a product, even if it’s bad. Then refine the design is subsequent years.]
BTW – Horseless carriage was to solve the problem of horse pollution (in the gutters) AND the long setup time involved with “hitching the wagon.” It needed no gov incentives, it stood on it’s own merits!
@MPK,
There is current legislation before the US Senate (S. 685) sponsored by Sen. Vitter from Louisiana that would reclassify this vehicle as an “Autocycle” and require a slew of automobile safety standards. It might be back to the drawing board for Elio for another year or more.
@Chris,
Perhaps that’s what the folks behind this are praying for. “Not THEIR fault it all fell apart when the law changed” 😉
It’s easy to pick this thing apart. Pessimism is our natural state. You have to work hard to be optimistic and sometimes engage in a bit of self delusion. Even then, a big old splat might be in your future, as you are surrounded by a gaggle of folks yelling “I told you so”.
With all that, I tip my hat to these folks. I would imagine that somewhere on their wall is the Teddy Roosevelt quote:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Taking money for something that hasn’t even been mass produced yet and NOW they have a 5th generation prototype that they can hype for MORE deposits. I see nothing could go wrong with that unless you actually would like a refund when they announce they can’t produce them
“who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly ” Um, I think the key here would be the “spends himself” part of that TR quote. What I see is folks spending OTHERS’ funds in a questionable cause. It doesn’t take nearly as much courage for me to sit at the blackjack table with other people’s money.