That could be called the first three-wheeled minivan too. A V8 that got up to 30 mpg, though?—that’s a stretch.
The Elio’s more reminiscent (to me) of the old Messerschmitt bubble cars, especially the KR175 three-wheeler, even though the driving wheel on that one was the rear wheel and it just had a single-cylinder 9-horsepower motor with a top speed of somewhere above 50 mph.