Elio Motors, The Next Big Thing?!!...

[Hersbird]

Then why aren't things like airbags, backup cameras, tire pressure monitors, side impact protection, etc, etc, optional instead of mandatory? Elio themselves will be on the hook legally at the first death when the family shows they marketed it as a car when they knew it was a motorcycle. McDonald's can't sell hot coffee because it apparently burns you when you spill it on yourself.
I don't agree with any of this but it's not my dream, just the reality of the USA.

[stiletto2]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Then why aren't things like airbags, backup cameras, tire pressure monitors, side impact protection, etc, etc, optional instead of mandatory? Elio themselves will be on the hook legally at the first death when the family shows they marketed it as a car when they knew it was a motorcycle. McDonald's can't sell hot coffee because it apparently burns you when you spill it on yourself.
I don't agree with any of this but it's not my dream, just the reality of the USA.

Where and how is it marketed as a car? At most they are trying to get it classified as an "autocycle" which is an enclosed 3 wheel motorcycle. And they are doing that for the purpose of getting around existing helmet laws.

What they do is draw comparisons to cars in ways like weather and crash protection. Not selling it as a 3 wheel car, but rather a 3 wheeled motorcycle with some of the benefits and features that cars have. Their efforts with a crash safety rating is one of the efforts in that direction to convince the traditional car buying populace to consider their vehicle.

Why are 2 wheel motorcycles even sold without legal issues when fatal crashes with them are pretty common? By that metric, an enclosed motorcycle with airbags, roll-over protection, 3 wheel stability, weather protection and possibly ABS brakes would be markedly safer. yer just blowin smoke.

However, all that is going to be moot if Elio doesn't get off his a$$ and get this thing into production... and soon. Like somebody else said... something to the effect of If Elio doesn't build it, the Chinese will... And they will get the foothold on it. In marketing with things like this, timing is everything.

Elio needs to look at the clock and stop with the stupid gushing about how pretty and neato cool this thing is going to be...some day.
tick... tick... tick....... CLANG!!! CLANG!!! time's up!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Elio is setting up to be flattered and flattened severely.

Anybody wagering on who will be first with significant production?

[Frank Lee]

I don't know. You'd think with all the excitement Aptera generated back in the day that someone would have copied that in some way, shape, or form by now. Gas must be too cheap.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by stiletto2

Where and how is it marketed as a car? At most they are trying to get it classified as an "autocycle" which is an enclosed 3 wheel motorcycle. And they are doing that for the purpose of getting around existing helmet laws.

What they do is draw comparisons to cars in ways like weather and crash protection. Not selling it as a 3 wheel car, but rather a 3 wheeled motorcycle with some of the benefits and features that cars have. Their efforts with a crash safety rating is one of the efforts in that direction to convince the traditional car buying populace to consider their vehicle.

Why are 2 wheel motorcycles even sold without legal issues when fatal crashes with them are pretty common? By that metric, an enclosed motorcycle with airbags, roll-over protection, 3 wheel stability, weather protection and possibly ABS brakes would be markedly safer. yer just blowin smoke.

However, all that is going to be moot if Elio doesn't get off his a$$ and get this thing into production... and soon. Like somebody else said... something to the effect of If Elio doesn't build it, the Chinese will... And they will get the foothold on it. In marketing with things like this, timing is everything.

Elio needs to look at the clock and stop with the stupid gushing about how pretty and neato cool this thing is going to be...some day.
tick... tick... tick....... CLANG!!! CLANG!!! time's up!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Elio is setting up to be flattered and flattened severely.

Anybody wagering on who will be first with significant production?

Go look at their website, look at the videos they put out. Nowhere does it say motorcycle, often it says things like, "be a part of automotive history" talks about driving not riding, uses language like automobile and vehicle, never motorcycle or cycle. So they don't want to change the law so a 3 Wheeler is a car but they do want to get rid of the laws that do add to motorcycle safety like helmets and special endorsements. Your right, nobody is going to sue then when the inevitable happens.

[nimblemotors]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I don't know. You'd think with all the excitement Aptera generated back in the day that someone would have copied that in some way, shape, or form by now. Gas must be too cheap.

hmmm. someone might have.

The bottom line is the Elio can't be made for anything close to $6,800.
If you lose money on every sale, you can't make it up in volume.
If they raised the price to low-volume cost of $25,000, interest would evaporate. So the only option is to keep talking game and dragging it on.

The Chinese already build motorcycles for sale in the US.
Nobody is buying them as far as I can tell.
Their scooters were proven to be disposable junk.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

hmmm. someone might have.

The bottom line is the Elio can't be made for anything close to $6,800.

The Chinese already build motorcycles for sale in the US.
Nobody is buying them as far as I can tell.
Their scooters were proven to be disposable junk.

I don't think you are quite on track, the elio can certainly be sold for $6800 even at low volumes but then how much is "chinese junk" and what is the likelyhood of its continued sales success?

[Christopher Jordan]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

Their scooters were proven to be disposable junk.

Disposable junk, but my Chinese scoot has been dependable disposable junk so far- about 4 years. Problem is- people think they are disposable junk so they are hard to sell.

Elio is taking so long that I would not feel guilty at all buying another Chinese scoot. Seems like a 2007 Tucker project .

[NeilBlanchard]

Elio Motors has hit their $25 Million crowd funding goal:

Elio reaches $25M crowdfunding target

[user removed]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Friends of mine are already talking about plopping down $1,000 for one.
I can't wait till a year from now when they should be doing road tests and preparing to release the first few.

2.5 years ago.

regards
mech

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

The bottom line is the Elio can't be made for anything close to $6,800.

I'd be interested in seeing the numbers behind that. I think you are right but a deeper analysis would be interesting.