As Elio Motors continues its fledgling future, another start-up is seeking the opportunity to capitalize — if the long-promised but undelivered three-wheel fails.
Elio Motors’ website lists more than 62,000 reservations for the futuristic-looking 3-cylinder vehicle its founder Paul Elio claims will get as much as 84 mpg.
But a recent report on the website Gas 2.0 details Elio Motors loss of more than $123 million in its filing with the Security Exchange Commission (SEC). In the filing, Elio further reports its future is in jeopardy without additional fundings.
In reaction to the most recent post on TheWeeklyDriver.com (we’ve written more than a dozen articles on Elio Motors), A Canadian EV start-up, Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corp., sent us a comment:
It read:
“With the recent financial and production challenges faced by some of our competitors, we’ve had some of their reservation holders ask us if they could transfer their deposits over to a SOLO because of either uncertainty about their vehicle ever being produced or they just didn’t want to wait for years to get their car. We wanted let others know that we will accept those deposits and provide relief for reservation holders with a suitable vehicle replacement option.”
Interested individuals can get more information at https://smallEV.com.
Established in 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Electra Mecccania is in the electric three-wheel vehicle market. Its zero-emission, one-seater is reported to have 100-mile travel range and 3-to-6 hour recharge range. It’s called the Solo, and its manufacturer claims it will available to the pubic in 2017 in Vancouver as well as in California and Nevada.
ElectraMeccanica promotes its vehicle as “The Smartest Commuter Car on The Planet.”
The Canadian EV start-up was co-founded in by Henry Reisner of Intermeccanica and Jerry Kroll, former race-car champion and former CEO of CRAiLAR Technologies. Kroll previously developed electric drive systems in race cars for five years at the NASA Research Park in Mountain View, California.
Since its debut in 2009, Elio Motors has had many supporters and many detractors. The first announced public debut of the vehicle was 2014. Several other deadlines have also expired without the debut of the vehicle. A promise of 1,500 employees in a manufacturing plant in Louisiana has also not occurred.
Several other release dates have been missed. The originally announced price of the car has also been increased $500 to $7,300.
To date, the Solo has received about 400 reservations. It’s announced price is $15,500.
Article Last Updated: December 13, 2016.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
I would love to divert my Elio deposit to ElectraMeccanica because this way I will at least get something. I invested $1,500 years ago and have nothing to show for it.
[email protected] is ny email address.