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According to Henry’s newsletter just sent out, they will no longer be building internal combustion engined speedsters or roadsters.  IM is going all electric in future builds.

So glad I have the car I have...

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I see from the link Stan shared that it has a 50 kwh battery pack. That should be very comfortable in terms of range. We have a 24 kwh Leaf that has a 100 mile range and is a much bigger car than Henry's. If you've ever floored an electric car you know how nice the torque is. Should be fun. That being said, I'm glad mine has a manual transmission and a gas engine. For me that's more fun and we'll still have the Leaf.

hbkmat posted:

So do the used IM cars with IC engines go up or down in price? These cars were built for nostalgia so not sure going all electric is the way. 

Well the good ones should go up.  After delivery, most of these cars are serviced and maintained away from the manufacturer anyway (unless you live near Vancouver).   I think the fact that he still building 356’s is the most important thing here.  Getting parts will be the crapshoot.  Time will tell.

It might be disappointing if you own an IM, but IM will do whatever it needs to do in the E world to survive.  IM is betting the full house and barn on E tech.  I wish them luck.  

There is no question that any IM should appreciate as the Italia did and continues to increase with age and none of these cars will simply rust away unless majorly neglected after all they are glass.  

As to replacement parts it might be fun in the future to get some of the rarer items but then classic cars do have that problem as well.  

hbkmat posted:

Sounds like Henry is taking that China money

The misconception here is that Meccanica, the parent company of Intermeccanica and Electrameccanica is Chinese owned. It is not. It is a Canadian company.

The company is publicly traded (SOLO on the Nasdaq) and Henry Reisner is not the CEO (a man named Jerry Kroll is). The IPO was in Sept., 2017. SOLO's share price has been as high as $14.90 (shortly after the IPO) and had dropped as low as $1.06, just before the first of this year. As of yesterday's close, Meccanica closed at $2.61 and the company has a market cap of about $96M. Intermecccanica was/is a subsidiary of Meccanica, and was rolled under the umbrella some time during the past couple of years. All of the eggs are in the Meccanica basket, and have been for some time.

The China connection is that Electrameccanica's 3-wheeled, single seat electric commuter (the Solo) will be mass produced at the Zongshen production facility in Chongqing, China. Electrameccanica has received 64,000 pre-orders for future product (Solos and Tofinos), and took delivery of 20 Solos currently being used as demos at it's LA dealership on April 1, 2019. Intermeccanica has built just about 600 cars out of it's Vancouver shop in 25 years. China is a factory, Vancouver is a shop.

I've made my feelings regarding electric cars well known, and I'm not interested in rehashing them here. What's important is that Intermeccanica as a builder of IC engined replicas is the piece of this whole puzzle that didn't fit. Henry and his company are full-bore into an electric future, and have been since the IPO. Henry said in his newsletter that, "I also realize that this process has taken its toll on current Intermeccanica customers whose projects were delayed by my heavy travel schedule."

So this is the brave new world. I don't have to like it or agree with it, but it's very consistent with the trajectory of Meccanica, and I understand that if one is in for the penny, one is in for the pound. I wish the Reisner family nothing but success as they cater to the kind of folks who are laying out $125K for a Tesla S. Those are not my kind of people. It is entirely possible that I am the past, and they are the future-- I have my doubts about that, but my company is not worth $96M.

Regardless, and as I see it-- this latest development leaves Special Edition/Beck with a great opportunity as they move their product upscale and bring new and better cars to market. Filling Intermeccanica's enormous shoes in this space will be a huge challenge, but also a huge opportunity. The IC engine has long legs, and more than a few tricks left in the bag.

I believe that Carey and his team are up to the task.

Last edited by Stan Galat
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