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Elio To Launch by Mid-2016 With 41,000 Reservations And Counting
huge article....even info @ the link below...
The ongoing saga of Elio Motors’ push toward production now projected by mid 2016 took a new step last week with the aspiring automaker’s first-time presence and press conference at the New York International Auto Show.
With 41,000 reservation holders having shelled out $100-$1,000 for the American startup’s economical three-wheeled, front-wheel-drive vehicle, Elio has been likened to an “anti-Tesla” and has many supporters as well as detractors willing to offer opinions on its prospects.
In New York, founder and namesake Paul Elio gave a brief talk April 2 for the media and fielded questions.
Elio Motors has said production deadline for the tandem two-seater – which has been pushed back – as well as funding goals, and mpg estimates are not hard-and-fast, but general ranges.
At the same time it does continue to tout eye-catching statistics like 49 mpg city, 84 mpg highway for $6,800 but these targets the company concedes are not do or die, but they remain, and it will at least be very close if not on the money.
“I wanted it to be high mileage, and I think our initial target was 75, and then we realized we could do better,” said Paul Elio in January to Jalopnik in a lengthy phone interview. “84 was a stretch target if you will, and we’re very close to hitting it. Right now, I think we’re about 81.4, but we’re continuing to work on the design. So I don’t know that we’ll hit 84, but let’s face it, if we go into production at 81, did we fail? I want to hit it because I said I would. But from a social impact and product value, anywhere in that neighborhood is going to be dandy and I know we’re there.”
Paul Elio has his talking points down, and to his supporters, he’s been called a visionary with a more-practical mission than Tesla chief Elon Musk.
Whatever is the case, while there’s been some ambiguity on how to classify the vehicle, it is officially a motorcycle, he says, or rather, an “autocycle.”
This term was explained by Vice President of Sales Jerome Vassallo in an interview with HybridCars.com April 1 at Elio’s modest presentation in the basement of the Javits Center, and Vassallo says proposed legislation would classify the Elio uniquely.
An autocycle is a sub-class of motorcycle that includes three wheels, automotive airbags, automotive controls, and a roll cage – i.e., the reinforced cabin.
Additionally, Vassallo said insurance should be motorcycle cheap while the company strives for maximum safety. Given that the Elio should be safer than a motorcycle, Vassallo said Elio could argue insurance premiums ought to be even less, but it will be content if underwriters at least keep it lower cost than an automobile.
Highest Safety Standards
If you have read reports saying Elio will be granted a “5-star safety rating” from the federal government, Vassallo said Elio has never said exactly that, nor could it because the federal government does not crash test motorcycles. Rather he says it will meet the “highest safety standards.”
Whether the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration chooses to anonymously purchase and crash test the Elio after it’s in production is still up in the air though the request has been made.
This is potentially even a “political” question, Vasallo said. If NHTSA decides not to crash test the Elio, it will nonetheless be engineered for occupant protection with its automotive-length crumple zone, three airbags – front and side curtain – and if needed, Elio will contract a private firm to crash test the autocycle and provide data.
What safety “standards” it might meet is unclear given that it’s not classified as a car, and there are no crash test standards for a motorcycle, but the gist is the autocycle will be safe, potentially even counter-intuitively so.
The Anti-Tesla?
Paul Elio says the Elio story began after he could take it no more hearing of U.S. trade deficit, money going offshore to feed the oil habit, environmental and related issues, and decided to take matters into his own hands.
It’s been said in ways his bargain-basement priced solution could not be more different than the technologically avante garde approach Tesla is taking with its $75,000-$140,000 Model S and other creations pending.
That its objective is at least similar to Tesla Motors is clear however, and both companies contemplate overlapping goals with very different thinking.
Where Elio is different includes, but is not limited to it caters to “poor” people – or those on a budget. Its demographic is those who want a cheap commuter, not an ultimate long-range, gas-eschewing large electric sedan capable of competing with all comers, even in P85D form against a Lamborghini Aventador in stoplight drag races.
Tesla aims to go down market too, but one $35,000-$50,000 Model 3 could buy at least five Elios so Elio is aiming to sell them in bunches like bananas. Tesla’s “gas savings” touted for a Model S is $10,000 over five years.
Vassallo said a buyer would be hard pressed to equip an Elio from its a la carte menu options above $10,000.
The Elio is also a motorcycle, not a car, and it is a low-tech internal combustion-powered vehicle. Elio is developing its own 900cc naturally aspirated three-cylinder engine modeled on the Suzuki/Geo Metro developed engine used in prototypes. German engineering firm IAV which makes engines for Mercedes, others, and “did the Veyron” engine for Bugatti is doing the work, but this will be produced in-house in Elio’s Shreveport plant.
Tesla by contrast constructs proprietary electric drive systems and to date has sold technology to Toyota for its RAV4 EV and Mercedes-Benz for its Smart Electric Drive and B-Class Electric.
Like Tesla, Elio occupies a formerly GM-affiliated facility, in the U.S., and pro-USA Elio says this will create 1,500 jobs and be 95 percent U.S. content. Last week, Elio said the U.S. originated engine from a U.S. startup automaker was recently fired up. This was the first time in 60 years a U.S. automaker had done this, he said.
Unlike Tesla, Elio does use gasoline, just less of it, and the company does tout this benefit potentially from an energy security and environmental standpoint.
“At up to 84 mpg you’ll be passing gas pumps in your Elio all day long. Which also means you’ll be putting far less pollutants in the air than even the most environmentally-friendly cars,” says Elio on its website. “Multiply that times the number of Elios projected to be sold, and America could save almost 5 billion gallons of fuel per year, while reducing harmful CO2 emissions by more than 90 billion pounds.”
before all the talk about 'death trap' blah blah blah....remember, it's classified as an 'autocycle'.
An autocycle is a sub-class of motorcycle that includes three wheels, automotive airbags, automotive controls, and a roll cage – i.e., the reinforced cabin.
Perhaps. But thankfully, safety is a universal virtue. Whoever their target customer is, they dont deserve to be excluded from that.
what you say makes no sense. thousands of people here in FL love riding their motorcycles legally without helmets here. does it make any sense in your 'universal virtue' sense? absolutely not.
people should be free to take the risks they choose or have to.
otherwise sure, we should all drive tanks like bagwell says.
04-10-15, 08:29 AM
Elio To Launch by Mid-2016 With 41,000 Reservations And Counting
