What cost hundreds of millions? Can you point to where the money went?
Obviously they ran out of money. That's practically what I said.
World class automobiles cost that and more to develop but they crash test around a hundred of them and wind up with a world class design and a ready factory and supply chain. I doubt Elio exhaustively tested the few prototypes.
And, if they were running short of funds, why did they drop their low startup cost plan and redesign it to be a unibody?