Elio Motors is Trying to Raise $100 Million to Stay Afloat
Also, deliveries were delayed again, and the price of the car went up.
Elio Motors, the small, quirky company determined to shape the future of transportation, is in trouble. They’ve filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to hold an initial public offering for common stock in an effort to raise $100 million. That means you’ll be able to trade shares of Elio stock on the Nasdaq exchange if the filing goes through.
For those unfamiliar with Elio, they’re a company launched by Paul Elio back in 2009 with the intention of building a small, three-wheeled vehicle that was very affordable and got excellent gas mileage. The numbers they would always use were 84 mpg and a base price of $6,800 (and it just went up to $7,450). A lot of people believed in this idea and they currently have about 65,000 reservations to buy the three-wheeler when it comes out.
They have a manufacturing facility in Shreveport, Louisiana, but as of this writing, they have delivered zero cars. The IPO filing delays deliveries yet again, this time pushing the estimated time frame out to 2019 at the soonest.
This is a bit of a last ditch effort for cash for Elio which has been struggling since they don’t really have any revenue. A startup can only go so far on press coverage and hype before they run out of money. It’s tough for a car company to have a steady revenue stream when they haven’t actually sold any cars.
Is Elio going to make it, or will they be out of business before they sell their first car? Seems like we'll find out pretty soon.
