Transportation - Elio Slips Again

Right up front let me repeat that I'm a big fan of the Elio vehicle having built something similar about 20 years ago. If they were on a dealers lot right now, there would be one in my driveway. That said I'm finding it a bit discouraging to see the scheduled release date keep moving out every 6 months or so.

Now I'll be the first to acknowledge that bringing a brand new production line out is not a small project. I'm not told how the project got to where it is now, but owning a facility big enough to supply the U.S. with say small Hyundai's seems a bit optimistic for an initial start. OTOH they now have nearly 40,000 paid pre-orders in their pockets right now. Sub-assembly lines should be going in right now and who knows, maybe they are. So far though the plant looks like this:

It would give me a warmer fuzzier feeling to see some welding fixtures or other assembly jigs behind the car.

I also signed up for their marketing releases and I get two a week on a regular basis. These are worth reading in detail as they contain such gems as this:

As soon as one of these options comes through, Elio Motors will be able to communicate a more specific date for the vehicle launch, which is targeted for the first half of 2016.

First half of 2016 used to be September of 2015 which gave me hope for driving one to work next winter. At this point the odds of me actually having work next winter look a bit thin so the availability of the vehicle may be pretty problematic anyway. Additionally I'd probably have to wait for the 40K folks in front of me to get theirs anyway.

I may well be stuck with the Pretentious British Car for a while longer.