is this car the BIGGEST SCAM of the Century? 

Too bad, I really wanted one of these

The modern story like a Tucker. It was killed by the big 5.

elio is one of those companies ive checked up on every 6 months or so to see where the scam is at, over the course of my adult life. hilarious vaporware.

I almost put my money down on this years ago. Almost. Whew!

Even sadder is that major car manufacturers are not selling affordable sub-compact/compact cars in the USA anymore! So those on a budget (millions of us) are screwed if we want an affordable new car. Just fairly recently, we could purchase a new Honda Fit, Mazda 2, Toyota Yaris or Scion, Mitsubishi Mirage, Ford Fiesta or Focus, VW Golf, Kia Rio, etc. for under 20K new! These were quality small cars that could last a decade or more, and go well over 100K miles with minimal maintenance! It's maddening to see oversized pickup trucks and SUV's that cost a small fortune now, and next to no choices for affordable small cars!

Same scam from the 70s. I knew that as soon as I saw this car. Pay $7,000 for a car that hasn't started manufacturing yet?

Such a shame for it to just be a scam. I was a believer after I saw it in 2013/14. It made sense, looked cool, and could've been a great commuter.

I really wanted this vehicle. Too bad it never happened, but at least I didn't put down any money on one.

Loved the concept but knew it wouldn't work out. In the 90s, I sold Personal Watercraft for the newest manufacturer. When the industry switched from 2 stroke to 4 stroke motors, the company didn't have the resources to retool, so they went bankrupt. I was left with customers that needed warranty work and no available parts. Think about it. If these cars were a great idea, wouldn't the existing manufacturers produce their own design and thus have put this company out of business? I guess what has me baffled is why won't any of the big manufacturers produce something similar? If i can get into something new for $15,000 or less, I am ready. If not, I am sticking to used cars.

I wish someone would buy them up and make this car. Even at 12K it would have been a success. Tesla should make it their Model 1.

Why Elio don't cooperate with Tesla to produce a cheapest and affordable car ? If you lack money , you can join with other car companies to make your dream come true !

Paul Elio is probably living off the grid somewhere under the name Liz Carmichael...

i wanted one too but was smart enough not to trust them with my money until they had a product already on the market for a while

Trying to develop his own engine a major mistake. Sucked the life out of his company. Most investors got a tee shirt of they were lucky. Or was he just a crook?

I put down $100. was willing to loose that at least in hopes it would get made. Tried to sell my reservation to the faithful who supported Paul Elio. In exchange for my $100 reservation I would actually buy their Elio produced vehicle for them. But no one would take me up on my offer. Even the faithful did’nt believe it would happen. Madoff should have hired Paul Elio and he would have stayed out of jail.

Well, I do know little about the Elio scam; however, the thing about three-wheel vehicles, in general, the only successful three-wheel car that we have nowadays is the Polaris Slingshot family of three-wheel vehicles; the three-wheel car set-up itself is still considered as a niche a car to afford nowadays even if it's under $7,000 or less, it is still a challenge for the manufacturer nowadays to sell vehicles under that kind of price and under that style of platform. There are a couple of issues with the three-wheeler car. It's still considered a motorcycle similar to an ATC but in reverse. The problem is that three-wheel vehicles are still considered unsafe to drive on Modern roads; despite what kind of Technology they put in, they still need safe cars. And I don't see the point of three-wheel vehicles changing the automotive landscape. Besides, the concept of three-wheel vehicles has been around for a long time, so it's a dated setup. But I would love to have a three-wheeler, a car just as a city commuter, not as a city-to-city or state-to-state road-going vehicle.

I do think there is a market for this type of vehicle in the United States, I know mazda, toyota, honda, have vehicles that are compact enough that could sell well in the United States but I think some of those could be tweaked and brought to America and maybe even built in the United States or in North America... I think they would sell well if the price was under $18k, maybe the base model starting around $15,000

Should of made it a kit car. Would make more sense and could of stayed within reason at 8,500.

I met Paul Elio about 10-12 years ago and my senses told me right there he was someone to stay away from. Too bad, because the concept is good especially for an EV.

I followed the Elio saga with keen interest from first announcements in '09 or so, to the recent, complete demise of the company. I would definitely have bought one had it ever been offered without a non-refundable deposit. However, I am now convinced that, if it wasn't a scam, it was so close as to be completely indiscernible from one.

Well, I was one of the thousand dollar reservation holders. I think I was in the top 2000 now all I got to show for it is $1000 T-shirt very sad this didn’t work out. Wish there was more info on it.

I gave them $1000 I really wanted the car and the water bottle still sits on my toolbox. I'm an adult with a functional brain I was fully aware that the likelihood of the car panning out was slim. Its a shame both our environment and our economy would benefit from some back to basics cottage industry stuff like this

Bad as this is, at least they didn't buy a Fisker Ocean EV..

Want to produce this car! Maybe it can be bought and we could put it into production!

I believe his real dream was to defraud thousands of people, take the money and run.......

I was so excited when I heard about this 7ish years ago. I almost put down a reservation but went "Wait, let's wait for full release or wave 2 to make sure the bugs are ironed out." and seeing this just made me go oof. I remember thinking it was a year or two out because why would they take orders so soon, but now I see it was a never was. :c

The more grand the tale of a product, the more likely it is false. Cheers

I sat in an Elio in Cross County Shopping Center in 2013 I had high hopes, but not high enough to put any money down. Thank God!

I followed them for a few years. Never gave them any money. After awhile, and not seeing any progress, I gave up on them. I think he was living off the money.

Scam is harsh. I also followed him and there was no way the automakers were going to allow this.

This is an example of how three wheelers are a play toy. Paul had the grand plans of selling 250K per year. Plus he needed around $600M to get this done. Then he was struggling for money and doubled down. After that it just ran it's course. Run the company until it's broke and walk away. Also, none of his claims were tested by a third party. For some reason, people just believed a stranger with grandiose claims and gave him money for that. It's almost like that there's a sucker born every minute.

I told y'all 14 years ago it was a scam. Lol

Elio motors pisses me off!

I remember being excited about this product over a decade ago. I almost put money down for vehicle previously in 2012.

Aptera now following the same pattern

I'm 6' tall and could not sit in the back seat

I watched Elio Motors from the very beginning and saw immediate tell tale signs that it would never come to be. First was the insanely low promised price...which NEVER happens unless you are tooled up for automated mass production. You do enjoy economy of scale...but getting to scale is VERY expensive and the numbers Elio was talking about in the first year of production...250,000 is just crazy if you know anything about auto production. What they could have done is hand build and begin selling them at whatever price they could get. For sure it would have been over $8000 but I'm sure there would have been plenty of people willing to pony up double that or more just to have the 'newest toy' on the block. Then as time goes on you improve the production methods and if it turns into a big hit...you might end up making a bunch of them, but trying for the Home Run production before you build a single one for sale....never happens. Having frittered away all the initial investment making prototypes leaves you nothing left for actual production...looking at YOU Aptera! Just ask Delorean about how that goes...and is why you can still buy 99% of his car NOS because he convinced all his suppliers that they were going to build 250,000 the first year and everyone geared up for it....but then they went bust and left everyone holding the bag with warehouses full of parts but no production to use them. I've worked on several Delorean's over the years and knowing that story the Elio gave off the exact same vibe to me. Only difference was John Z was selling coke to stay afloat while Elio took deposits and has run out of money now and never got close to the capital investment needed to gear up for mass production. GM will spend billions on a new car...but then sell them by the millions. Well...they used to anyhow.

1:45 "it's not a small car right it's a full-size vehicle cut in half so from Crush Zone's perspective it's not small um we have three airbags two seat belts antilock brakes electronic stability control so we're we're designing the highest Automotive uh safety standards." This is the scam. Three wheels means it has to meet motorcycle safety standards, not car standards. If it meets the high automotive safety standards, then put a fourth wheel on it. Not a chance it would meet regulatory compliance. I had a convertible car and a motorcycle in California. I was required to wear a helmet on my motorcycle but forbidden to wear a helmet in my convertible (racing paraphernalia). Let's road test it against a Can Am Spyder.

Scam of the century. Ahh Aptera is taking up that challenge. Hold their beer. The century is still young.

Eventually, the mules or prototypes Elio made will be collector items.

The Elio was a great concept, but it was poorly executed. Just because a new innovative product fails does not mean it was a scam. Elio was targeted, similar to Tucker. Doomed to fail because it threatened the mainstream. I would buy one or make one (if i could) with a few differences. What really hurt Elio is that these were not cars. Under most states rules, these are considered motorcycles. However vehicles like these are still far better than an EV.

Ok, so how do those who were scammed go to get their deposits back?

It's not a scam. Paul was simply unable to raise enough money to actually build the thing. One major mistake made was they wanted to design their own engine from scratch and use that, which is a very expensive thing to do. They should have used an existing engine for much less money. That would have given them more of a chance to actually build the cars, sell them, and have some profit.. In time, when cash was less of a problem, they could have designed and built their own engine.

So many startup EV companies following this path lots of people gonna loose money.

Saw this at Detroit auto show in 2018 and thought it was neat but alas

I think Paul Elio had a vision and worked his way through the plan. Not enough capital will kill any new venture and that was Elio's problem. Elio wasn't a scam. There was no intention from the start to take people's money and not deliver. The funding just wasn't there to follow through with a marketable product.

Where's the beef?

Sorry, Bud but I had to give this video a thumbs down. Only because of miss information, this is not a small car, this is a motorbike.

It'll be a fun car to drive. Patience is the key.

He should be in jail. But according to Tucker, even if he just TRIES to manufacture a car, it's not illegal.