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Elio Motors and the Three Wheeled Car - A Moonshot Project ($6800, 84 mpg)
Engineering ^ | February 5, 2014 | Tom Spendlove

Posted on 02/05/2014 6:06:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Paul Elio wanted to bring affordable transportation to drivers and create jobs for American workers. The company is planning to release vehicles for sale in the first quarter of 2015. The car is planned to use 95% American parts and American labor, vitally important to Paul.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

The company says that the vehicle will cost $6800, achieve an 84 miles per gallon fuel economy, and they anticipate a five star NHTSA safety rating. The eight gallon tank will theoretically allow a driver to go 672 miles on a tank of gas. Top speed of the Elio is said to be over 100 miles per hour.

http://www.eliomotors.com

Vehicles will be built in the abandoned Shreveport Louisiana assembly plant. Elio will sell the vehicles themselves at specialized retail centers in the top sixty markets across the United States. Eight different colors are all hip, now and named things like Licorice, Sour Apple and Rocket Silver.

Elios come with standard equipment - a reinforced roll cage and airbags for safety, radio, air conditioning and power windows for comfort. Most of the components of the Elio are already in production, allowing the vehicle to keep a low cost and hopefully low insurance premiums. Because most of the components can be purchased at a corner auto parts store the carmaker is expecting low maintenance costs.

The small front mounted engine in the Elio is 70 horsepower, 1.0 litre, three cylinder device that resembles a Geo Metro more than a standard Chevrolet or Ford offering. Two seats are available in tandem configuration, or the driver can go solo and stow gear on the fold-down second seat.

The Elio is incredible because of its massive ambition. It's hard to think of another automaker starting out like this on such a large scale with such a radical product. Massive marketing campaigns aren't hitting venues like the Superbowl but the vehicle was featured last month at the Consumer Electronics Show, the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, and the Sundance Film Festival.

Even with heavy funding in place, a location secured to build the product, and suppliers on board for production there is a heavy question in the air of whether or not the Elio can become a fully realized product. Obtaining a five star crash rating will go a long way toward winning consumer confidence and once production begins it will be exciting to see how popular the vehicle is with American consumers.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: automobiles; automotive; comau; eliomotors; louisiana; shreveport; transportation
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To: cripplecreek

that episode was hilarious.

hopefully the Dems won’t send Elio to Cuber.


21 posted on 02/05/2014 6:26:43 PM PST by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad and lived with his parents .)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Death. Trap.


22 posted on 02/05/2014 6:28:19 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

23 posted on 02/05/2014 6:28:45 PM PST by Dallas59 (Obama: The first "White Black" President.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Today I saw an Isetta 300 with BMW badging.

That car saved the BMW company, and matched demand in the post war German market of the time.

Good luck to this car company.


24 posted on 02/05/2014 6:30:54 PM PST by truth_seeker (Nissan)
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To: deoetdoctrinae

And I thought I was the only one that admitted they had one. But mine was piss yellow!


25 posted on 02/05/2014 6:31:51 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
they anticipate a five star NHTSA safety rating

So they have word this will get such a rating. Wonder how much of a bribe they paid.
26 posted on 02/05/2014 6:32:20 PM PST by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Dallas59

$hit-vette?


27 posted on 02/05/2014 6:32:39 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: Red in Blue PA

There’s NOT ONE SMIDGEN of corruption at the NHTSA!!


28 posted on 02/05/2014 6:34:01 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yep, oil leaking power house....downhill...


29 posted on 02/05/2014 6:35:35 PM PST by Dallas59 (Obama: The first "White Black" President.)
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To: Dallas59

nothin says “shove it” like chevette.


30 posted on 02/05/2014 6:38:45 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: madprof98

The kids will like it and they will be able to afford it. I’d buy one in a heartbeat.

Can Am has a similar type vehicle. We saw one parked outside the gun store a few mos ago. We talked to the young guy who owned it. It was hot. It was also about $60,000 I think.


31 posted on 02/05/2014 6:38:52 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Love it, may even buy one. The Elio would handle about 90% of my transportation needs. And it is COOL as hell.

It’s long past time to drop the traditional “one-size-fits-all” vehicle paradigm. Not every car trip requires a vehicle that is capable of hauling 4+ people across the country but that’s the only choice we are given in passenger cars. An Elio plus a pickup truck would be a great combination.


32 posted on 02/05/2014 6:40:05 PM PST by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

road-coffins


33 posted on 02/05/2014 6:40:14 PM PST by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: Dallas59

Imagine driving into the Kwikarr to change the oil. The third wheel goes down into the hole in the floor.


34 posted on 02/05/2014 6:41:36 PM PST by batterycommander (a little more rubble, a lot less trouble)
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To: sten

What part of “three airbags, integral rollcage, restraint system, ABS, and 5 star safety rating” did you not understand?


35 posted on 02/05/2014 6:43:01 PM PST by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

36 posted on 02/05/2014 6:43:57 PM PST by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’d buy one! Live out in the country where it’s 5 miles to anything (makes for exhaust systems lasting forever), and I can save the miles on my Cayman S and my ‘96 F-150..........


37 posted on 02/05/2014 6:44:03 PM PST by Arlis
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I could use one to get to work. But it’s gotta do 100 easily.


38 posted on 02/05/2014 6:45:03 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: cripplecreek
Then you got a REALLY small car. I love how Clarkson sticks it to the PC crowd:

Peel P50

39 posted on 02/05/2014 6:47:03 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: deoetdoctrinae

Wouldn’t mind having that pinto.


40 posted on 02/05/2014 6:47:31 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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