Elio Raises Price For 3-Wheel Car, It Is Still Affordable

As those that are familiar with the topic have already noticed, the MSRP sticker price is higher than what company representatives used to quote, $6,800. However, there are several things to be considered apart a $500 price hike.

First of all, customers can get a $300 rebate if they agree to buy the car, but they will have to pay the $7,000 in the first place. The payment will be non-refundable, so there is a risk that the promised vehicle will only be delivered in a few years.

If things go incredibly wrong with Elio, customers might not get a car at all, and there is a chance that they will not get a refund, as they will have to sign an agreement that declares that they understand that there is no definite date for production or delivery.

In other words, customers that want the $300 deduction for a base model Elio 3-Wheeler, without destination/delivery charges, taxes, registration, title, installation, and other options and fees, risk not getting the car in the foreseeable future if the company tanks.

Before the price increase, Elio Motors used to request a deposit between $400 and $900, and customers could have made refundable or non-refundable deposits. The latter was limited to $900, not the $7,000 requested after this shift in strategy.

Elio Motors did not raise the price of its 3-Wheeler just because, but the company had to ask for a loan from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing plan operated by the Department of Energy.

Among the conditions for the DOE-loan is to demonstrate that the product has “market acceptance,” which refers to a base of customers that will buy the resulting product.

As Jalopnik notes, Elio Motors has a little over 56,000 reservations, out of which 85% are “non-refundable,” but none of these have a binding contract to buy the vehicle when it enters production.

The conditions involved in the Department of Energy loan request will require Elio Motors convincing customers to buy their car when it comes to market, thus the $7,000 price for the base model without a refund possibility.

Refundable reservations are still available, but customers that expect a refund would have to pay $7,300 for the same base model. According to Elio Motors representatives, the pricing scheme described above will only be valid until the company reaches 65,000 reservations.

Acknowledging the details presented above it's unclear whether the obligation to buy the vehicle will exist for those that place a reservation after Elio Motors attains the number of orders specified above, or if the price will increase even further.

Regardless, we wish Elio Motors all the best, as they have promised a lot and we would not want to see another insolvency make people lose the money they invested in exchange for the promise of an exciting product (think Kickstarter projects here).