Quote:
Originally Posted by Arragonis
Agreed but...worldwide car makers make small cars. They make small car engines. They tune them for a compromise between power, flexibility and economy. Which means you have a worldwide wharehouse of such engines to choose from all with up to the minute technology and design.
In that case why in the name of Jeebus on a skateboard would you choose to spend a seven figure amount of your investors' money on making an engine with all the technology that existed in 1989 ?
What is this, the original Gameboy of cars ? It's 2014 not 1989.
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While the engines may be out there, do you think a car company is going to be willing to sell them to a potential competitor? Typically when deals like that are made between car makers its because one wants access to technology or patents that the other holds. What does Elio have to offer these other automakers? What benifit is the survival of Elio to other car companies or engine makers? Also, there may be quite a few 3rd party engine makers, but they are often working with customer patented designs, customer tooling, etc. So just because Brilliant makes engines for Mitsubishi it doesn't mean they can also sell it to Yamaha.
All that said, this trike seems like an obvious choice for a UTV engine. Side by sides are a huge market right now, and everyone and their brother is building them and building drivetrains for them. Seems finding a 40-50 hp engine that would propel this thing along would be decently easy. I suppose the larger issue would be if laws change and emissions step up it would be much harder clean up a lawn and garden or 4 wheeler based engine.