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

[botsapper]

At least the design of the 'tricycle' is done by a home-grown American company, Home Page.

- Elio Trike

- Elio Motors Design

[NeilBlanchard]

No they do not autoplay. You mush have a Flash Player issue on your system?

By the way, the second video is identical to the first.

I hope they have done their homework on engineering the Cg. I believe the 5-star rating is "an estimate" based on computer modeling. They would have to have built a lot of these for actually NHSA crash testing.

[doclees]

I feel a bit more hopeful now. So what would you folks do to improve it? I would add magnets. OK just one big one on a pole. So small and lite you could run right up behind those trailers, lock on and they would never know you were there. Now that's Hypermiling.

[freebeard]

I see the original semi-exposed rear wheel is now covered. Probably the lawyers.

The mpg performance compares to the Messerschmitt KR200: Wild bubble car gets 87 m.p.g.: Messerschmitt micro (with video) - National Classic Autos | Examiner.com

It had 10hp, 750cc and 56mph top speed. With 1000cc you could carry the airbags and stereo.

The last few hours I'm starting to really like the Kabinenroller. I think I'll start a new thread on it.

Edit:

No they do not autoplay. You mush have a Flash Player issue on your system?

By the way, the second video is identical to the first.

Thanks. Fixed and tested. I don't have a Flash™ Player issue because I don't let it anywhere near my browser. I do have a version of Chrome for 'emergencies', but normally it's Seamonkey with NoScript and Adblock Plus.

I can see lot of videos, including the ones I post that the forum software, vBulletin 3.8.7, fails on. I figure if someone needs to use Flash™ to simply dump video into a viewport (a DIV in HTML terms), they are probably spying on me.

2nd Edit: What's even stranger is, if I go to boingboing.net I can view embedded videos there; but if I go to YouTube to use full screen, they fail with a plug-in message.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Since it qualifies for a motorcycle licensing, it might be actually also exempt from crash-tests. I believe the crash ratings were computer-predicted.

[order99]

I don't think it's required by law to crash-test either. But of the company insists on a 'predicted 5-star rating' then they made need to ruin a few dozen just to back up the claim. On the other hand they could just advertise as 'One of the safest motorcycles you will ever drive' and be home free on claims..

I'd love to see one up close and find out how they compare to the kits.

[doclees]

I'm guessing it looks like a FWD front engine beast. One of the videos said they didn't think you would want to drive it in snow. Why not? Do better than most FWD cars. Lite cars stay on top of snow and handle fine. Best snow car was my 63 midget. Floated like a tobaggan.

[niky]

The car I was thinking of... yeah... I remembered there was a FWD Chinese three-wheeler... turned out to be electric, so similar, but no cigar.



And the engine, without seeing it, sounds more like the Suzuki/Maruti 1.0. Which is a fantastically economical motor in its own right (I've done over 55 mpg in mixed traffic in a Maruti Alto) and relatively clean. The Alto can already do 60 mpg on the highway, so 65-70 mpg with a more streamlined body should be no sweat.

It's a cheap motor (built in India), and better than anything you can get from China for the same money.

Still, until there's a running production unit, it's all just talk...

[freebeard]

One of the videos said they didn't think you would want to drive it in snow. Why not?

I believe that was the MPGomatic video. He's speculating that it's rear-wheel drive. I agree that it has the proportions of a front engined car (compare the old and New Beetle). A picture of the chassis would be instructive. I'm more interested in that than the engine.

Here are two illustrations from the Genesis website.


Something changed along the way; the cowl height was raised 3—4". I suspect it was to improve ingress and egress. The VW 1-liter car turned into a door-slammer too, I think I'd prefer a gullwing door on a tandem; if nothing else, the side impact protection could be improved.

[niky]

Maybe they were counting on a lower, smaller engine. If the engine is indeed a Suzuki K10B, then that's a DOHC motor that sits tall in the bay. I've done measurements on the motor before, on a lark for a project, and it would likely fit in something that narrow, with transmission... it's about a meter across with the tranny. All that would be needed would be to shorten one of the axles. There isn't even an intermediate driveshaft to the far-side axle, so it's a pretty simple operation.