Flight Service wrote:
Cotton wrote:
irish44j wrote:
DWNSHFT wrote:
How many of these new car companies exist only because of government subsidies, grants, loans, and loan guarantees?
David
Hmm...let me think of a few:
- General Motors
- Chrysler
- Ford
did I miss any?
Toyota, BMW
Nissan, Mazda (at one time actually owned by the Japanese Government), Mercedes, Volvo, Saab....oh wait
The question was about new companies.
And while many of the OEM's do rely on government funding, the pay off tends to be good- loans may be unsecured, but they are paid back. And long term employment also means that there's a long term source of economy- income tax, property tax, people buying milk, people building homes. Too many of the high profile new companies come in, take loans, pretend to do something with the money, talk, try to build some cars, and then go bankrupt.
For this car, I have no doubt that there IS a market for 3 wheel cars. The question is- is the market big enough to make money? If the answer is "yes" then- how big is the market, and how much of that can I capture to make money? For sure, a $6800 three wheeler will do a lot better than a $30k one. But enough? dunno.
How many times do we need to say "the average communter only needs X" before we understand that the number of people who buy just X is so small that it's really hard to make money in that tiny market.
Is there room for a new car maker? No doubt.
But THE marekt is for Fusion/Camry/Accord sized cars or full size trucks. Smaller than that and you need to sell at a premium to cover your costs, bigger than that you sell at a premium to cover costs.
It's a whole lot more straight forward to start with a high end car and move down than a low and car and move up. Tesla has a much better chance than Corbin, as Fisker has a better chance than Elio does.
100 year ago, it was the same equation. What changed was when someone had enough to put it into mass production.
Anyway, that's my opinion.
