I hope I’m not repeating what someone else might have already (recently) asked about this car, but in any case please feel free to checkout the link and then return and share your thoughts. Personally, I think it’s pretty cool for it costing so little while getting such great gas mileage. And if it proves to be reliable and with plenty of dealerships to support it, then it might turn out to be a big winner!
Behold the Elio: http://www.eliomotors.com/
That looks awesome, if it’s safe. As the Tesla demonstrated, just a few noticeable accidents can really drive down public interest in the vehicle (the Tesla price tag didn’t help much, either). I would love to have one of these as my daily driver, although I’d have to plan out my trips to Costco a little better (and probably make more of them). Even at 84 mpg, I’m curious as to how big the gas tank is. They say you’ll be passing gas (stations) (heh), but if it’s only got a 3-gallon tank, it’s not going to have much more range than a gas-powered car.
No crash testing has been done.
No engine size or vehicle weight.
No specs on the vehicle of any sort, only the cool options you can order.
It’s a trike, will it be classified as a car or motorcycle?
Damn, that thing is tiny! It looks like a collision with, well, any other vehicle, and they’ll be removing you from the car a piece at a time.
I hope they have a better business model than Tesla does. Tesla still isn’t profitable, and industry analysts expect they’ll need to raise more money by the end of the year. (To be fair, the last time I looked, not one single automaker manages to make any money on electric cars. Not Toyota, not Nissan, not General Motors…)
No crash testing has been done because it’s a motorcycle. It will be classified as a motorcycle in 50 states. Whether or not it will require a motorcycle endorsement and/or a helmet depends on your specific states’ laws. In my state, it will require an endorsement, but we have no helmet law.
Originally it was to be powered by refurbished 1.0L Geo Metro 3-cylinder engines. They’ve since decided to create a “new” engine using the Suzuki engine as a starting point. From the pictures I’ve seen, it’s basically still a Suzuki 3-banger with a reworked cylinder head and a fancy looking intake manifold. I think it’s supposed to be about 1000 lbs.
I’m not sure what info they have on their website, but I’ve been following it for a while. I’m surprised they’ve gotten this far, and I don’t think they’re going to make it. It seems like a really cool vehicle, but I think most people would rather hyper-mile a Prius than tolerate something so noisy and small. Even at their target price, it’s a tough sell economically over a used hybrid.
I think the only way people will buy a niche product like this is if you can get them to purchase with their hearts. You know, make it sleek and sexy. The Elio is tall and dorky.
From their Support section:
Um, no. That’s something the state gets to decide.
I like it, but I have a thing for quirky, frugal cars. Not everyone does - and this could be its downfall.
Agreed. For the money, you can buy a regular car that’s a few years old but is bigger, safer, more comfortable and more versatile. The only real draw is the mileage, but unless you’re doing a lot of miles then for most people it’s just not going to be worth the sacrifices. And if you are doing a lot of miles, would you want to do it in something like this?
I actually quite like it (I’ve got a bit of a thing for quirky cars), but I don’t think I’d ever buy one. If this survives the market at all, it’ll be as a very low volume, niche product. Don’t expect to see too many out on the roads.
I’ve seen trikes around, but they’re clearly motorcycles. If this guy is trying to exploit a (perceived) loophole in regulations, then good luck to him. He’ll need it.
I see this ending in one of two ways:
(1) The Feds catch on, and ammend the regulations so this thing will be classed as a car. Elio promplly goes out of business because it will cost way too much to make it crash-worthy.
(2) Elio “gets away with it,” until someone gets into an accident, and their the next-of-kin sues Elio out of existance, because why on Earth are they selling a car that doesn’t meet basic auto safety standards?
You can go buy a Polaris Slingshotright now; it’s basically the same thing except it doesn’t have a roof. I point that out because it’s the largest company selling a side-by-side road-legal 3-wheeler in the US, but there are plenty of others. See the Campagna T-Rex, Morgan 3-wheeler, Ace Cycle Car, etc.
The only real difference is that all of those are marketed as toys. The Elio, by comparison, is marketed as a commuter, but as far as I know motor vehicle laws are concerned with physical layout, not marketing. I could be wrong.
The ones I’ve seen are similar to the yellow thing about a third of the way down this page. Clearly a motorcycle with an extra wheel added to the front. I’m not a motorcycle enthusiast, so I’ve never cared enough to notice the brand name.
That’s a Can-Am Spyder, and I agree – clearly a motorcycle with an extra wheel. In fact, mechanically it’s just a sport bike with a rack and pinion. The Slingshot, OTOH, has the same drivetrain as a Pontiac Solstice. It’s basically a car with one wheel lopped off in order to skirt the law.
And I may have spoken too soon about 50 state legality for the Elio – apparently Texas recently blocked sales of the Slingshot on account of it having bucket seats. Presumably the Elio would have the same issue, so we’ll call it 49-state legal at most. Polaris is a big company so I’m sure they’ll be fighting the fight where appropriate. The Morgan, on the other hand, is a plaything of the rich and needs to be special ordered through a broker, so probably doesn’t attract too much attention from local governments.
Last I talked with these guys there were a few states that require a helmet for motorcycles and hadn’t exempted this vehicle. That was over a year ago. Many state legislatures meet so rarely that it can take a while to move something like this even when there is support. One was WV; I don’t recall the others.
IIRC their target is the two-car households where one car is only used to move one person to and from work. It wouldn’t work for me.
It’s surprisingly roomy inside.
So, you might need a motorcycle license, you might need to wear a helmet, and they might be death traps, but aside from that, it looks like a pretty good deal. I could easily see my motorcycle-riding friends wanting to buy one of these to replace their winter beater here in the Twin Cities.
I found this disturbing August 21, 2013 article that makes me wonder if this Paul Elio fellow and his cronies might one day make it on the TV program American Greed. I hope not.
http://gas2.org/2013/08/21/the-elio-motors-saga-if-it-looks-like-a-dale-and-quacks-like-a-dale/
Trikes are for people who can’t ride motorcycles. That’s what I think.
Actually, I was resisting the urge to call them tricycles 
I read a bunch of articles & reviews about the Elio yesterday, and they all followed the same, odd pattern…
That strikes me as a bit crass; granted, it turns out I was looking at car review sites, but there isn’t a motorcycle in the world that’s going to compare to a small car… it only seats 2, it has no cargo capacity, if you get into an accident with a truck you’re paste, you have to have a special license & wear a helmet, the emissions are crap…
This morning, I looked for reviews on motorcycle review sites.
I wasn’t able to find any.
That’s because it’s pretty obviously a car with one wheel chopped off.
Compair it to the Can-Am Spyder, which is pretty obviously a motorcycle with an extra wheel.