Elf Velomobile by Organic Transit
 

I saw this a few days ago, and it is great to see this sort of vehicle coming onto the market. It is a reverse trike model called the Elf and it is built by Organic Transit:

[youtube]pVKrR68RFZw#![/youtube]

They also have a larger fully enclosed utility trike model called the TruckIt. They have an active Kickstarter campaign to raise $100K to help them increase their production. It looks like they will make their goal with lots of time to spare.

http://c276521.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com/w...rganic-elf.jpg

They are pretty serious on the production methods!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQogddZNIHY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtW_MWFMZ7w

I think velomobiles are interesting. Just did some research, there's a lot of them. On velomobileusa.com, they show a whole bunch of them. They're all pretty expensive though($7000), best one seems like the Elf, since its about 4000 estimated. Also of the velomobiles I've seen so far the Elf is the one that has the best visibility, with a cab.

That press/mold really brought costs down. Mine was done "airplane style" with molds and a huge 400 degree oven. The fairing outlasted the Lexan windshield, and the trike under it needed a rebuild in 2010. But it was not for the masses That Elf pressing allows mass producing. Neat! Thanks for sharing Neil. Too bad they are not building in CA.

Their Kickstarter fund drive is specifically intended to expend their production to other cities. They know that running multiple smaller production facilities is better than one bigger one - they spread out the jobs, and give each local market a stake in the sales of their vehicles.

Good on Organic Transit! We need more companies like them.

Organic Transit is now shipping the Elf, which is great! They ended up raising over $223,000 which is way over their target. Here are some new concept computer models of future Elf's, including a tandem 2 seat design:

http://astounde.com/wp-content/uploa...1x.Em_.156.jpghttps://si0.twimg.com/profile_images...s_NoTrunk1.jpg

Here is an article that shows (what I think is) the production Elf:

ELF: Hybrid Solar / Pedal Vehicle by Organic Transit | Ubergizmo

ELF-Organic-Transit-01photo fromELF: Hybrid Solar / Pedal Vehicle by Organic Transit - Ubergizmo

That is very good news. Ever since the Zap slowed down 3-wheelers seem to be disappearing. 3 years ago I was going to rebuild mine, but I lost interest. It makes more sense to me to buy one instead of having 3 years doing without a living room as I use it as a workshop!

Very interesting. I drive a tiny little car, but it seems like these things might be hard to get used to on the open road.

This is a new video about the Organic Transit ELF:

AOL.com Video - Funded: ELF

Rob Cotter mentions that he collaborated with (C.) Michael Lewis on the design of the ELF. Michael is the fellow who had the record setting Electrathon vehicle at the 2010 event in Watkins Glen:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post173941

It's a small world after all!

Below are photos of the Elio- one in about 2007, one in 2012, and the only one I know of to exist is doing as US tour today. I sure wish 3-wheelers would hurry up a little getting to the market. (I am just too lazy to rebuild my velomobile- rather buy than build :-D )