Elio Motors, Inc. has announced it plans to sell 100 pre-production vehicles before full scale production.

Vehicles are Key Step To Refining Final Consumer Production Projected to Begin in 2017

Elio Motors, Inc. (OTCQX: ELIO), the startup vehicle manufacturer planning to launch a three-wheeled vehicle that will get up to 84 MPG with a targeted base price of $6,800, today announced it plans to sell 100 pre-production vehicles built at its Shreveport, Louisiana, production facility fourth quarter of 2016.

"Elio Motors is ecstatic to announce that we are taking a major step forward in our development of the Elio," said Elio Motors founder and CEO Paul Elio. "We now intend to sell the first 100 pre-production vehicles built to one or more fleet customers, rather than use them for internal purposes as previously disclosed in our offering statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will help us generate additional revenue, it will allow us to evaluate vehicles under real-world driving conditions and it will allow our supplier team to refine our design." 

This limited run of pre-production vehicles will be a major step forward for Elio Motors as it works toward mass production. The pre-production vehicles will allow Roush, which was named lead engineering partner earlier this week, to provide a quieter, smoother vehicle with refined driving characteristics. Ultimately, this will raise customer satisfaction with the final production vehicle.  

"We are chomping at the bit to get started on these 100 vehicles, as it's an important step in our evolution,"said Gino Raffin, vice president of manufacturing for Elio Motors. "The work we do on these vehicles will provide important insight that will make for a smooth transition when we begin hiring production workers for the consumer vehicle launch. We're getting closer every day and we are moving forward with relentless passion to get this done."

Although the fleet vehicle build is a step in the right direction for the end consumer driving experience, the bulk of the consumer launch will have to be moved into 2017 at a date to be determined, as the company continues to seek additional funding.

"As we have stated in the past, building an ultra-low cost, high efficient vehicle for the masses is not an easy task. It takes solid engineering and supplier partnerships, which we have, and substantial funding, on which we continue to make progress," Elio said. "We recently had a successful stock offering, which showed there is investment interest and enthusiasm for this project. We raised significant funds, moving us even closer. Our team will keep fighting to get this done. The key is to not quit, and to continue to move forward toward our goal. We have a number of other financial strategies that we are pursuing relentlessly to help get us to our consumer production launch."

In addition to bringing Roush on board and announcing the pre-production-vehicle build, Elio Motors has been aggressive in pushing toward production of its Elio vehicle in other areas:

• In November 2015, the company introduced the P5, its fifth generation prototype, featuring a 0.9 liter, 3-cylinder engine designed by IAV specifically for Elio Motors.
• On Jan. 12, Elio Motors announced it will begin building its E-Series of prototype vehicles for testing and engineering purposes.
• On Feb. 12, Elio Motors reached 50,000 reservations for a place in line to buy the vehicle. 
• On Feb. 19, Elio Motors became the first organization to raise capital using Regulation A+ and then have its shares publicly traded on the OTCQX Best Market (OTCQX:ELIO). 

Elio Motors is using nearly 1 million square feet of a nearly 4 million square-foot former General Motors production facility. When Elio Motors reaches full production, it estimates that the Shreveport facility will have nearly 1,500 workers.