Arcimoto Going Public

[DiscjockeyDale]

https://www.arcimoto.com/invest/?utm_sou...gn=3994282

[Rickb]

I found the Financial Statements and specifically the compensation for Arcimoto's Directors and Executive Officers to send a positive message regarding the new startup's business model.

President       $65,000
CFO               $54,439.93
Directors (3).  $0

[SparkE]

No stock options or grants?

[KenK]

This is truly terrible news. If anyone is following the Elio progress, you will know that once they come under the thumb of the SEC, you will cease to get any meaningful updates from the company. You will get the obligatory fluff pieces about the colors it will come in and the softness of the rich, Corinthian leather seats, but you will get jack squat about any of their production dates or funding sources. Their lips will be tighter than a clam with lockjaw (and for obvious reasons).

I believe Elio was only able to squeeze out about $17mil from their Reg A+ venture. I fear that the Arcimoto will do much worse. Limited range, high base price (compared to Elio), open cabin, etc... I doubt they have near the 65,000 "orders" that Elio has. The Arcimoto brochure said they needed $100mil* to get to production? No way they get it all from Reg A+. I hope they have rich friends.

I'm not here to poop on the Arcimoto. I have a deposit on one. I also have a deposit on the Elio, a SIL, and USED to have 400 shares that I sold for about 50% what I paid for them. Do not fool yourself. There is RISK here. That said, I wish them luck. I would like to see mine.

*CORRECTION: Not $100mil, $28mil to get to having a factory built

[DiscjockeyDale]

This is truly terrible news. If anyone is following the Elio progress, you will know that once they come under the thumb of the SEC, you will cease to get any meaningful updates from the company.  You will get the obligatory fluff pieces about the colors it will come in and the softness of the rich, Corinthian leather seats, but you will get jack squat about any of their production dates or funding sources. Their lips will be tighter than a clam with lockjaw (and for obvious reasons).

I believe Elio was only able to squeeze out about $17mil from their Reg A+ venture. I fear that the Arcimoto will do much worse.  Limited range, high base price (compared to Elio), open cabin, etc... I doubt they have near the 65,000 "orders" that Elio has. The Arcimoto brochure said they needed $100mil to get to production? No way they get it all from Reg A+. I hope they have rich friends.

I'm not here to poop on the Arcimoto. I have a deposit on one. I also have a deposit on the Elio, a SIL, and USED to have 400 shares that I sold for about 50% what I paid for them. Do not fool yourself. There is RISK here. That said, I wish them luck. I would like to see mine.

Welcome Ken!

Thoughtful overview. Thanks!

[Kepesk]

A photo of the local newspaper article:

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This is truly terrible news. If anyone is following the Elio progress, you will know that once they come under the thumb of the SEC, you will cease to get any meaningful updates from the company.  You will get the obligatory fluff pieces about the colors it will come in and the softness of the rich, Corinthian leather seats, but you will get jack squat about any of their production dates or funding sources. Their lips will be tighter than a clam with lockjaw (and for obvious reasons).

I believe Elio was only able to squeeze out about $17mil from their Reg A+ venture. I fear that the Arcimoto will do much worse.  Limited range, high base price (compared to Elio), open cabin, etc... I doubt they have near the 65,000 "orders" that Elio has. The Arcimoto brochure said they needed $100mil to get to production? No way they get it all from Reg A+. I hope they have rich friends.

I'm not here to poop on the Arcimoto. I have a deposit on one. I also have a deposit on the Elio, a SIL, and USED to have 400 shares that I sold for about 50% what I paid for them. Do not fool yourself. There is RISK here. That said, I wish them luck. I would like to see mine.

Hey Ken, that's an interesting take, but three things:

1. Where are you getting the $100 million number?  The circular pretty clearly states that they're only looking for $10 million from this offering and then describes how they'll spend it for production and R&D.

2. The circular also states that they have 1500 preorders.  That's fine because they're starting off small and scaling up, 1000 was their initial goal.  One of Elio's mistakes was taking tens of thousand of preorders and then looking for the money to start with a gargantuan production plan right out of the gate.

3. I get that they need to be tight-lipped about certain things when offering stock, but they also have to report a lot too.  And considering this circular is the most information that has ever been released about the company at one time, I'm not too concerned.

[Rickb]

This is truly terrible news. If anyone is following the Elio progress, you will know that once they come under the thumb of the SEC, you will cease to get any meaningful updates from the company.  You will get the obligatory fluff pieces about the colors it will come in and the softness of the rich, Corinthian leather seats, but you will get jack squat about any of their production dates or funding sources. Their lips will be tighter than a clam with lockjaw (and for obvious reasons).

I believe Elio was only able to squeeze out about $17mil from their Reg A+ venture. I fear that the Arcimoto will do much worse.  Limited range, high base price (compared to Elio), open cabin, etc... I doubt they have near the 65,000 "orders" that Elio has. The Arcimoto brochure said they needed $100mil to get to production? No way they get it all from Reg A+. I hope they have rich friends.

I'm not here to poop on the Arcimoto. I have a deposit on one. I also have a deposit on the Elio, a SIL, and USED to have 400 shares that I sold for about 50% what I paid for them. Do not fool yourself. There is RISK here. That said, I wish them luck. I would like to see mine.

Welcome Ken.  I feel the Reg A+ offering is good news indeed!  It provides Arcimoto the necessary funds needed to help scale production after delivery of the Signature Series SRKs and the 50 pilot SRKs.  Heck, I may invest, as the king of low to no risk investors, because I like the A Team's business model, the SRK concept, the tangible progress, and planned future/vision of their company.    

When Elio Motors announced their Reg A+ offering they didn't have a driveable proof of concept, E Builds, or Testing, let alone a Production Model Elio. The very things the $15M of Reg A+ funding was earmaked to accomplish and obviously didn't.

Arcimoto's policy over the 10 years I've followed them is that all of their 'quarterly' newsletter updates included tangible news regarding progress.  SEC doesn't prevent that, but rather encourages it in their required filings that are designed to provide investors with a real picture of where the company is and where they are going financially to help investors make wise buy/sell market decisions to minimize risk.   

Arcimoto has a rich 'Angel Investor' friend that has helped Mark Frohnmyer to privately fund his startup venture since 2007.  Arcimoto has only asked for simple 'no risk' $100 refundable reservations to indicate interest in the SRK.  Test drives and news articles have been 100% positive.  Imagine where Arcimoto would be with the $141 Million Elio Motors has recycled, much of it very high risk all-in reservationist and Reg A+ investor funded.   

Two very different business models that both carry Reg A+ investment risk, but less risk if 'betting' on Arcimoto generating an actual product to sell since the SRK production is imminent.  IMO

The biggest risk for me as an Arcimoto investor is market acceptance of a three wheeler commuter.

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I thought this graph comparison of $ spent to get to the proof of concept point was interesting as it shows and verifies how fiscally responsible Arcimoto has been with their private capital funding.

[KenK]

Well hello! I was afraid no one was here because most of the thread dates were pretty old.

Admittedly, the SRK is NOT the Elio and Arcimoto is NOT Paul Elio. I am just seeing a lot of parallels with the Elio roll out and it has me shaking my head.

The $100 Million was my misinterpretation of a slide I saw on the video. Disregard that, I was wrong. Even so, your snippet says they need $28mil to get the factory up and running. Where is that other $18mil coming from? This could be the key difference from Elio, if they have someone that will front them more than Elio (or event Arcimoto hope to) raised from Reg A+.

As for company news, they are not yet under the SEC thumb, so that circular kind of re-enforces my point. Elio is currently under the scrutiny of the SEC and we get a stream of nonsense from them. The only sense of whats going on comes from reactions of people who sign NDA's and get briefings behind closed doors. I maintain you will not see the likes of that brochure again once they file Reg A+ paperwork. Even though I think they would love to share more, they can't.

Arcimoto say they plan to build 50 Beta vehicles this year and start production next year. Sounds a lot like Elio's E-series build plan. That didn't turn out well even with $17mil to fund it.

At least Arcimoto are not getting distracted by a brand new ICE design and build, another key difference.

So I am not saying don't invest, I obviously did it for Elio. I'm just saying, prepare to lose it all because this is absolutely not a sure thing. I was full of hope once. Everything made sense and seemed like a logical conclusion. Now I realize how big these projects are and how many moving parts are involved.

My concerns come from my own experience with Elio. Maybe not an apples to apples comparison, but certainly there are a lot of similarities.

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Honestly, if I DID learn anything from Elio, it would be to invest in Arcimoto initially to get the sweet introductory stock price, sit on it for a month or two while the euphoria builds, then once the stock hits 190% of the opening value, sell! sell! sell!

The only question is if that pattern will repeat for Arcimoto. Right now, I don't think they have the same buzz built up that Elio had. This is much more niche.

I may take my Elio leftovers and do just that.

[Rickb]

Can't debate personal experience.  I do respect your opinions along with all others.  It makes for good conversation.  Keep in mind that Arcimoto has built, bench tested component parts, and road tested three SRKs logging on thousands of miles.  They made multiple engineering changes on the Signature Series SRK Builds as a result of that testing to be delivered soon with the 50 Betas to follow late summer/fall.  Arcimoto has a solid reputation for doing what they report to be doing.  If it doesn't happen According to the current 2017 production timeline which appears to be on schedule, I will whole heartedly agree with your comparison of the two startups.  

The info we get from a companies required SEC filings comes directly from the company.  After following the Elio since 2008, I found to get more actual documented information after Reg A+ approval on both tangible production progress news (or lack of it) and more importantly their financial statements which are the indicator of their ability to keep moving forward.  

The only comparison and similarities between the two startups that I've experienced after following them both since 2007-08 (refundable reservations on both with Elio since refunded)...............is a three wheel commuter concept.

[KenK]

I thought this graph comparison of $ spent to get to the proof of concept point was interesting as it shows and verifies how fiscally responsible Arcimoto has been with their private capital funding.

Yeah, but what are we getting? Again, comparisons need perspective. Elio is a fully enclosed, mass production, airbag equipped, high mpg ICE vehicle. Arcimoto is essentially a stylized golf cart. The funding has to be proportional to the scope of the project. That graph actually impressed me more about Elio than Arcimoto. Fisker... jesus christ... 

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Can't debate personal experience.  I do respect your opinions along with all others.  It makes for good conversation.  Keep in mind that Arcimoto has built, bench tested component parts, and road tested three SRKs logging on thousands of miles.  They made multiple engineering changes on the Signature Series SRK Builds as a result of that testing to be delivered soon with the 50 Betas to follow late summer/fall.  Arcimoto has a solid reputation for doing what they report to be doing.  If it doesn't happen According to the current 2017 production timeline which appears to be on schedule, I will whole heartedly agree with your comparison of the two startups.  

The info we get from a companies required SEC filings comes directly from the company.  After following the Elio since 2008, I found to get more actual documented information after Reg A+ approval on both tangible production progress news (or lack of it) and more importantly their financial statements which are the indicator of their ability to keep moving forward.  

The only comparison and similarities between the two startups that I've experienced after following them both since 2007-08 (refundable reservations on both with Elio since refunded)...............is a three wheel commuter concept.

I am just here for the blathering. I make no promise that I am not both wrong and/or an idiot about anything. 

I don't attribute a reputation value on a company until they produce something for sale, so Arcimoto and Elio are both undetermined in my book.

The SEC reports bring us up to date on the company's current status, but obviously tie their hands on future speculation. So I guess thats not all bad.

Not only 3 wheels, but 2 passengers!