Elio Motors and the Three Wheeled Car - A Moonshot Project ($6800, 84 mpg)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3119736/posts
Yikes! Not a lot of weight for that king of speed.
I gotta admit, I’m intrigued. It looks like it could be a great little runabout for running errands or a weekend getaway. If it’s nimble enough, it might even pass the Neighbor’s Suburban Test*** I apply to all these new micro vehicles.
***I have a 93 year old neighbor who drives a 1987 Suburban. Great guy, bad driver. Before I’ll get behind the wheel of any vehicle, I ask myself “does this vehicle make me feel reasonably comfortable at the prospect of sharing the road with Jerry?”
(true story, though the names were changed to protect the innocent).
Last I read, Elio hadn’t produced the cash and signed on the line for the plant.
So no one is going to b!tch that Elio has applied for a $185 million dollar loan from the US Dept of Energy aka da gubmant to launch his company and actually get that former GM plant ?
Looks way overpriced. Is the plant unionized?
My Jetta diesel gets 41 combined. Plus, how are they touting this as a commuter car getting 84mpg? What a scam!
Ordered one last year. Hope they make it to market. Not sure if I’m giving it to my son for graduation from high school or if I’ll keep it for myself. He has two younger siblings which will get one if it is all it’s cracked up to be.
Try avoiding road kill in a three-wheeler.
This is a fantastic idea for a commuter vehicle. Why? Because it’s evonomical in the true sense.
It is cheap enough to add to the fleet as an additional car, meaning it doesn’t have to compromised and the buyer doesn’t have to compromise.
A 2 gallon a day delta more than pays for the cost of having it, and I can still have my F-150 when I need it.
People miss the fact that this Elio dude is BRILLIANTLY exploiting a gap in federal regulations. Specifically, being a motorcycle means it doesn’t help with fleet MPGs, so the big guys have nothing to gain by producing similar vehicles. The market is WIDE OPEN for these vehicles if people look at them as cars, which will be the case. Plug-in hybrids don’t have a chance against them, due to cost, complexity, and a pain in the neck to plug in. I suspect that BIG CAR will watch what happens, and then if successful, do what they always do, which is go to the Federal Government to shut them down in some way (probably by including vehicles like the Elio in MPGs, and thereby undercutting Elio on price, and BIG CAR can even lose money on them...as long as they provide the MPG offsets they need).
Tesla is trying to compete, pretty much head-on, with the big guys. You want a fast car, well I have one too. But trying to beat the BIG CAR at their own game is next to impossible, as Tesla is learning (thanks to the scathing Edmunds review, and now Consumer Reports also telling the truth), and many others learned earlier.
How does it handle in heavy snow?
It will look good under a dump truck.
We have not put in a reservation yet but we are seriously thinking about getting an Elio. Like I told Mr GG2 how bad can you get hurt for $6,800.00?