Quote:
Originally Posted by Grant-53
According to DMV laws in most states a trike is a motorcycle not a car. Who makes a 1.0 liter motorcycle for less than $10,000?
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Not a motorcycle, but the Suzuki Alto K10. Starts at around $5,300 in India.
The engine is used in Europe... so with added hardware, it should meet US emissions.
Or keep the Elio certified as a tricycle to skip the more stringent regulations.
Front wheel drive, narrow track... a proven 70 mpg engine. In the more aerodynamic Elio, with better gearing, 80+ mpg should be possible.
The only problem left is how to keep the cost of manufacturing down. The first cars, without mass-produced stamped bodies, will cost extra. You could bring things down under $10k with Chinese bodies... and maybe even Chinese engines. The Chery 1.0 (which is, not coincidentally, based on a Daewoo 1.0, which is based on an older Suzuki) is sold in the US for use in UTVs, so EPA certification is certainly possible without a lot of trouble.
Do this for the first batch, and promise to bring production Stateside AFTER you have started moving products, rather than promising this and that, aiming for the stars and getting contracts with State governments for factories and more support and more money...
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The Elio was possible. Is still possible. Can be built and sold.
Or could be if they were serious about selling it. Instead, going for those extra "stretch goals" (as kickstarter would call them) overextended the company and allowed them to continue on forever
without putting a single product in the hands of a paying customer.
The Chinese, in the meantime, have developed and built dozens of different three-wheel "car alternatives" that cost peanuts. Fulu still sells the same three wheeler I tested over a decade ago... still at around $3,000 wholesale.
Granted, you'd never want to be in one in a crash, but building one that's crashworthy and EPA compliant for twice the price should not be an issue.
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If you actually wanted to build it.