America finally gets a 1-passenger commute
 

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The Canadian, Electra Mechanica' SOLO is on the market in California.
An enclosed,3-wheel,100-mile range, EV,for a little over $15,000.
It has a Cd 0.24 body,a little better than Ford and VWs offerings as concepts in the 1980s,but SOLO is 'real',unlike Aptera,Edison VLC-2,and others.
California allows SOLO to use the H.O.V. lanes.It has a full roll-cage.
I'll have mine with a full-tadpole trailer,thank you very much!:thumbup:

https://electrameccanica.com/solo/


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As dumb as it may seem half my trips (especially longer ones) have a passenger

I had hoped an elio like 2 inline seater would have come out

Ah well too bad so sad but an interesting single passenger.

If I had lots of room to have a heard of cars I might add one for fun

Too bad the tax credit is only $1500

Seats half as many people as my motorcycle and costs 1.5x more. Then there’s the fact that a person could buy a used Spark EV for $9k and a Leaf for even less.

Maybe they’ll sell 100.

You’ve gotta admire its efficiency though

But you always want more, different strokes for different folks

My sister got a 2015 Spark EV with 6000 miles for just over $10K. Heck of a deal compared to anything else comparable.

Wait a few years and you'll be able to buy one of these for $5k used. Apples and oranges comparing anything used to the price of something new.

I don't buy new.

Just the vehicle for TrigglyPuff.

Are they classified as a motorcycle or as a passenger vehicle down there in cali? Fingers crossed they dont classify them as motorcycles up here...whats the point of a commuter car for the masses if the masses need to go get a motorcycle license to drive one?

The styling is unfortunate but otherwise it's a good thing.

In Texas, they are motorcycles. Getting a motorcycle license just needs you to show you can ride, or drive, one. Should be able to take the test in a SOLO.

In Indiana it would be a car, or the very least an "autocycle". Because it has a seat belt and a steering wheel with pedals for controls.

They make us jump through hoops, and pay through the nose for testing, paperwork, etc.

Come down to WA state and get licensed there. Probably only costs $125 or so. A German exchange student got licensed in the States because he said it was $1000 in Germany.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...now-34160.html

Now the important stuff

How many WTHRs per mile?
Graph?
At what speed?

The Torfino is $50K but the eRoadster is $124K? For a fiberglass 356 with a UQM motor and Lithium-ion batteries? Air-conditioning is optional? :confused:

http://members.modernvespa.net/kam/uploads/pav_282.gif
http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic26278

Or the even more important stuff, will it drift?
I'd like to see someone test the "fun factor" of that thing.

RWD in a reverse trike is going to make for some exciting accidents for people coming from front wheel drive sedans.

I'm just imagining someone on a sharp curve (exit ramp?) in wet conditions touching the accelerator and the back end coming totally loose. I guarantee this little guy has no ESC.

It REALLY needs front wheel drive for mass market acceptance.

Traction control would be super easy to implement. You only need wheel RPM to be measured independently, and if the rear is spinning faster than the front, reduce power.

Often, a reverse trike will have a double wide rear tire to give both ends the same grip. Front wheel drive is better, but more complex and expensive.

You may be able to implement traction control on a single drive wheel, but with front-wheel drive there is an opportunity for torque vectoring. The SOLO's competitor has that.

There is also the Twin Tire option. Twice the shoulder grip in turns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp2XM_Yocug

Is there another full bodied single seat electric commuter trike?

You could still skid which would mean no brakes on the rear and 1 brake on the front side in the direction of the skid, not sure how well it works though.

I'd probably not even build brakes on the rear wheel. As others have pointed out, you can engineer the traction such that the rear has approximately the same traction as the front in neutral corners (not accelerating or braking).

I've said it before though; I don't see a point in building trikes because the small savings is not worth the lower utility, lower safety, and worse handling characteristics. Having a tire in the center of the car intrudes into the interior volume, and presents a 3rd line of travel on the road which is not kept clear of debris from other vehicles like the other 2 lines of travel.

I think the Solo's looks and aerodynamics are better thought out than earlier competitors.

They have higher aspirations too.

March 2017
Electra Meccanica Tofino promises electric twist on the classic roadster
https://newatlas.com/electra-meccani...-solo-r/48672/
https://electrek.co/2017/03/28/elect...tric-roadster/
https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-con...trip=all&ssl=1

Other views of the Solo.......................

https://inhabitat.com/meet-solo-an-a...o-single-seat/
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https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blo...nt-889x592.jpg

2016
Electra Meccanica Solo, Canadian 3-Wheeled Car, Could Be Game-Changer
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/0..._11980210.html
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Autocycle?

Federally speaking, in the US, 3 or less wheels is a motorcycle. Motorcycle crash standards, motorcycle emissions standards, etc. Stepping up to car standards isn't a small task.

That's the platform that Arcimoto abandoned for handlebar steering. It saved hundreds of pounds and inches of wheelbase.

https://www.arcimoto.com/faq

Thanks for bringing this up. That must explain the allure of engineering a 3-wheeler then. I'd do the same thing because finding loopholes in absurd laws is my pleasure. For instance, it's crazy that I'll get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt in a car, but it's perfectly legal for me to sit on the exterior of my vehicle (motorcycle) with no restraints.

They need "X" amount of organ donors. :D

Or for our children to ride to school in a 45 passenger tin can with no seatbelts.

Not saying it is right, but you need to come along to help buckle up the schoolbus load of firstgraders to fully understand. By the next stop 1/2 of them are unbuckled. And NO my district WOULDN'T give me an assistant, I cannot complain to the authorities or parents and the €©&£% camera is useless. Heck, I couldn't get college students to use them.

Some districts run them.

I fully understand, but if Big Brother let's them ride without seatbelts, won't he let us (at least the adults) ride without them?

Sure on public transit or schoolbusses they are apparently optional. Then again those don't crash much. Roll overs otoh....... come to think of it: railway crossings also.

Yeah, busses are very near to the safest form of transportation. Diminishing returns.

School buses and seatbelts
 

Hello all,

School bus safety re: no seatbelts as brought up by Angel And The Wolf and Piotrsko in response to redpoint5

From here: https://www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/school-bus-safety
"NHTSA decided the best way to provide crash protection to passengers of large school buses is through a concept called “compartmentalization.” This requires that the interior of large buses protect children without them needing to buckle up. Through compartmentalization, children are protected from crashes by strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs."

That's those tall ugly grey vinyl seats. The basic idea is that the small kids are safer on average this way, considering other potential scenarios that require rapid bus evacuation, etc. The risk of a highly regulated driver of a highly regulated/visible vehicle crashing in such a way that the compartmentalization is insufficient to prevent X number of deaths/serious injury was judged to be less than the risk of kids being stuck in a burning bus/bus stuck on a train track/other because they're all belted in and panicking and can't undo them fast enough. At least, that's how it has been explained to me in the past, and the research to date seems to back it up.

The NTSB seems to now be recommending seatbelts (see here: https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-co...ry?id=55367225) in new buses, though, after a few recent crashes. Trouble is, that seems a knee-jerk "fix the equipment" solution to an actual "fix the system" problem - negligent (cellphone, excessive speed by driver with documented negligence history)/impaired(seizure in driver with known seizure disorder) drivers allowed to keep driving due to poor oversight. (see here: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-rele...R20180522.aspx) The NHTSA is apparently going to study the issue, but I can't find the relevant link.

I've been rabbit-holing - trolling the NHTSA.gov crash test results database - lately on crash safety in cars, both airbag and non-airbag. A 1984 4-cylinder Jeep CJ-7 surprisingly does better in a 35mph frontal crash than my 2000 Ford Explorer or 1999 Chevy Prizm. Lower HIC's, lower chest G's, similar femur loadings. A Fiero does even better. So there are some viable alternatives to airbags present in older designs. It would be nice if automakers were allowed to sell crash safety systems that work without electronic systems like airbags, though the electronic part seems moot if we're talking EV's.

Seatbelts, though - wear them. Other than in non-motorcycle vehicles like school buses with the rest of the safety systems surrounding the non-belted seats, your 3-point seatbelt, properly worn, is the best piece of safety equipment you have if a crash occurs. Add proper crumple zones, a collapsing steering column, and appropriate dash padding, and one can fare quite well.

This Solo looks an awful lot like a Corbin Sparrow, with a bit more refinement. I need 4 seats with belts in whatever I drive, though I could plausibly get by with 3 (myself and 2 kids) considering we take the wife's car if we're all going somewhere.

classified
 

They referred to it as an enclosed motorcycle.They never mentioned license requirements.Such a fundamental question,it probably just blew over them.
Funny!

Of course wear your seatbelt. It's just absurd that law requires individuals to do so.

I can legally juggle chainsaws as a complete novice, yet I have no say in the matter of wearing a seatbelt. I can fly an ultralight aircraft with no experience and no seatbelt legally, but cannot choose not to wear a seatbelt in a vehicle.

Still, I see the argument for enforcing safety, and am thankful for the lives it has saved. I'm torn between protecting stupid people from themselves, and maximizing choice (freedom).

Concerning bus safety, it's orders of magnitude safer than passenger vehicles. I feel no need to wear a seatbelt, as the risk is sufficiently low.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/pbox....ias&t=20170517

It always surprises me that buses are safer than trains.