The American Roadster™ by Eco-Fueler is now in production. Gary Bolling is in charge of plastics and fiberglass manufacturing and production. He has 30 years experience in plastics and fiberglass manufacturing and production. We have made Gary a part of our organization in the position of Director and Manager of Manufacturing.
Gary oversees the American Roadster™ body production for us; manage future plant acquisitions and the purchasing and stockpiling of inventory items needed for final assembly. He has already started the production line and is now producing Roadster bodies for delivery in fulfillment of the backlog of orders which we now have.
We have worked with plastics manufacturing experts and have found that we can create regional plastics, frame and final assembly plants in strategic locations that coincide with demand. This will cut down shipping costs for delivery and will allow the replication of the first plant in various locations throughout the United States as well as foreign countries where we find sufficient demand.
We have started a production line in Eugene, OR where have started producing Roadsters. As we get the production line working smoothly we expect to be able to move rapidly from 1 a week to 1 a day and rapidly on to 4–5 a day— a 100 Roadsters per month level.Our current plant is 19,000 square feet and 100 Roadsters per month is the maximum we can expect of a plant of that size.
We are currently looking at plant facilities in the 200,000 square foot level that will enable us to produce about 240,000 Roadsters per month. We are trying to plan our transition so that the larger plant will be available to transition into at about the same time the current plant reaches its capacity. The first 200,000 square foot plant will be the plant which we will then replicate into various areas, and we are seeking, in advance, investors to participate as joint venturers in this expansion plan.
Because of our prior business relationships with Gold Shield, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fleetwood Enterprises, the recreation vehicle company, Gold Shield has told us they can provide backup production in their Illinois plant, which can produce the body parts using robotic equipment.
As production requirements increase we will add additional facilities based upon our first 200,000 square foot size plant production model. Right now we are planning and preparing to shift to a system of closed molds with the injection of resin to complete the parts. The Resin Injection system is very efficient and will allow us to produce a much larger number of bodies per man hour of labor compared to the chopper gun technique that is currently being used in production. We are told that shifting to this method will enable us to increase production ten (10) fold in the same factory space with a small increase in labor. As we then outgrow our initial facility we will add the additional facilities with the closed mold process.