Production

[DanCooper]

OK, I am still concerned about production schedule.  Somebody posted that there are 1100 reservations.  How long might it take to work through that?  My personal decision is that if I expect to wait longer than a year, I will stay on the list, but I will look at an interim solution to renewable-energy local travel, such as an e-bike or an e-car.

The transition from R&D to production is one of the most dangerous times for a start-up business.  There is a tendency to gild the lily, to keep improving the product while postponing production.  The hard decision must be made, how good is good enough for a production startup.

Then there is the question of the target production rate.  A very low production rate, like 1 a week for this type of product, could likely be done in house.  Beyond that it requires the resources of a much larger business, either by farming out production or by a large investment in a manufacturing facility.  Either approach is risky.  A much larger business may not care much about the needs of a small client.  Negotiation and liaison are necessary and difficult.  A new manufacturing facility requires management, financial, and engineering skills very different from those found in a small prototype business.

I hope somebody at Arcimoto is on top of these issues.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good" - Voltaire

[Kepesk]

I temember them saying a couple months back that they plan to get through the preorders in the first few months of production. But there were fewer preorders back then, and predicting output of a new facility making a new product is tricky business.

[DiscjockeyDale]

I temember them saying a couple months back that they plan to get through the preorders in the first few months of production.  But there were fewer preorders back then, and predicting output of a new facility making a new product is tricky business.

What are their plans as far as a new facility? I remember reading about it a while ago, but it would take me a while to find it again.

[DanCooper]

It would be nice to know their production plans. Of course it is hard to predict actual results, but a plan is a start. It would help me plan what I am going to do (wait or do something in the interim), and it would probably make investors more comfortable (maybe they already know the plans). Some companies want to keep everything close to their chest, to not help the competition or to not piss people off when they don't meet targets. I don't think there is any plausible competition here, and reasonable people (like me) will be understanding if there are difficulties meeting a target.

[DiscjockeyDale]

From the blog Dated 09-13-2016...

"We started building our first short run of production-level vehicles we call the Signature Series. These limited edition, hand-built vehicles will embody both a wide swath of SRK production-intent components and assemblies, as well as some exclusive features appropriate for collector’s machines.

In addition to being the first Arcimoto products delivered to real customers, the Signature Series vehicles will give us important data and feedback prior to the launch of the consumer version.The Signature SRKs harness the knowledge and improvements gained through the alpha prototypes engineering refinement phase executed over the last eight months."

Check out the rest of that blog entry that details the various improvements that the signature series will have over the existing Alpha models HERE.

From the Arcimoto Faq...

"We will begin production end of 2016."

From One of The Older Internet News Articles About The SRK...

"Sales will be direct from Arcimoto, with service provided by local partners (probably similar to Elio’s deal with Pep Boys). There are no plans to set up a dealer network, though the company is looking into standalone company owned stores or mall kiosks, similar to Tesla’s current setup."

I'm still looking for information regarding the plans to open a suitable production facility. Like I said, I know that I've read about it.

[DiscjockeyDale]

Dan,  I gave them an email yell tonight.

[DiscjockeyDale]

Hi Dan. This came from Mark Frohnmayer...

"Hey Dale, thanks for checking in.
 We have three candidate sites currently for phase 1 production.
 We are estimating about a year out for folks who are preordering now,
 and we'll be posting a more detailed timeline of the go-to-production process on the web site soon."

[Rickb]

The term timeline sounds so eliosrkesque after following both concepts through 8-9 years of timelines. A timeline is meaningless unless it includes a confirmed delivery date.  Perhaps it will. The current time line included summer testing of the Signature Series SRK'S  with reservationist's vehicle deliveries starting late 2016-early 2017.  A month ago they posted a still on target comment with no completed ETC or start of Signature Series builds.  Road testing the Signature Series will have to move way out.  It now sounds like we can anticipate the new timeline to production to be much closer to the end of 2017.

[paravil]

They haven´t even shown us a prototype with DOORS!

[DiscjockeyDale]

The term timeline sounds so eliosrkesque after following both concepts through 8-9 years of timelines. A timeline is meaningless unless it includes a confirmed delivery date.  Perhaps it will. The current time line included summer testing of the Signature Series SRK'S  with reservationist's vehicle deliveries starting late 2016-early 2017.  A month ago they posted a still on target comment with no completed ETC or start of Signature Series builds.  Road testing the Signature Series will have to move way out.  It now sounds like we can anticipate the new timeline to production to be much closer to the end of 2017.

Rick, I specifically asked, "A guy who preordered yesterday wanted to know if you'd have any rough estimate on when he could look forward to getting his production SRK."
And to that Mark answered, "We are estimating about a year out for folks who are preordering now."

To me, that means that Dan's Wednesday reservation @ #1100+ is estimated to be delivered about a year from now.
To me that also suggests that for this to happen, production will have to start quite a while before that.
I personally see no reason at this point to question that answer.

The signature series is a very limited edition, hand-built run for investors only, so I think it's a very small number of units.
I've read a news article that came out in mid September in which Arcimoto supposedly said that they've begun building the signature series.

The website's FAQ still says, "We will begin production end of 2016."
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what "detailed timeline of the go-to-production process" they post to the website.