Peak Oil News and Message Boards

Posted: **Fri 18 Apr 2014, 18:09:57**

A new lightweight car made in the US will get 84 mpg and cost only $7000

new ICE car gets 84 mpg

Its a two-seater, with the passenger sitting behind the driver. The manufacturing plant will be in Louisiana.

THey are taking orders now for delivery next fall. Over 14,000 have been ordered so far.

Vroooooooom!

Posted: **Fri 18 Apr 2014, 18:45:41**

That’s when a car enthusiast, a visionary, a man with a dream named Paul Elio got an idea. A simple, brilliant idea. To create a vehicle for today’s generation of drivers that addressed their transportation needs and the world’s new realities.
Vroooooooom!

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 01:04:06**

If they actually produce them, I may get one.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 07:15:47**

Reminds me of one of my favorite all time movies.....The Party with Peter Sellers.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 07:47:50**

LOL, that's not a car, it's a scooter with a big faring.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 11:32:25**

Pops - That's what it is actually. Called the Spyder 3 wheel motor cycle. http://can-am.brp.com/spyder/ They appear to be just putting a shell on it. Not sure but given the have the exact same mpg rating I think they just using Spyders as the base. In either case it isn't a "car"... just a motor cycle with limited visibility. I've seen a few Spiders on the road in Houston. Very cool. And very little survivability even against a small SUV let alone a pickup truck IMHO.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 12:05:42**

ROCKMAN wrote:Pops - That's what it is actually. Called the Spyder 3 wheel motor cycle. http://can-am.brp.com/spyder/ They appear to be just putting a shell on it. Not sure but given the have the exact same mpg rating I think they just using Spyders as the base. In either case it isn't a "car"... just a motor cycle with limited visibility. I've seen a few Spiders on the road in Houston. Very cool. And very little survivability even against a small SUV let alone a pickup truck IMHO.

http://youtu.be/ZFAb_iEK2Pk

Crash frame design.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 12:26:30**

Sub - Yes indeed. The Elio did an excellent job up against those digital vehicles in the simulated crash tests. Can't wait to see the film of when they run it into those structures used by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety to quantify vehicle crashworthiness. Can't wait to see how that cockpit handles a pickup truck bumper. Gotta be safer that the open Spyder. No doubt you wouldn't be nearly as dead in the Elio. LOL. I don't know where you live but I see pics of dead bodies pulled from full size SUV's in Houston every month.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 12:30:14**

ROCKMAN wrote:Pops - That's what it is actually. Called the Spyder 3 wheel motor cycle. http://can-am.brp.com/spyder/ They appear to be just putting a shell on it. Not sure but given the have the exact same mpg rating I think they just using Spyders as the base.

That would be amazing considering the manufacturer suggested retail price for a Can-Am Spyder starts at $16,699.00 MSRP and a Can-Am Spyder only gets about 30 mpg. How do you suppose the Elio people ADD things onto a Spyder like air-conditioning and air bags, but then make it get 84 mpg and also manage to sell their car for $10,000 less then the Spyder?

------------------------

The way to get high mileage in an ICE vehicle is shrink and redesign the engine to maximize mileage while cutting the overall weight of the car to an absolute minimum. Electric cars and hybrids are actually heavy beasts because of the weight of the batteries and the regenerative braking and other extra equipment. ICE cars can be stripped and shrunk down more than is possible for EVs or PHEVs and such offerring similar performance. The Elio will go 600 miles on a tank of gas---can you imagine how many batteries you'd have to pack in an EV to make it go a similar distance?

This little ICE car is a new design, built from the ground up to improve mileage. Its not just a faring dropped on top of a scooter or a can-am. This car is built very small and designed at every level to be light to maximize mileage. Three wheels work great and weigh less---the two wheels in front provide "normal" car-like steering and one wheel in back will do the job of pushing the little thing along.

84 mpg is damn good---for comparison, my 50 cc Honda Ruckus off-road motorcycle gets about 90-100 mpg, while my 400 cc motorcycle gets about 80 mpg.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 13:24:06**

The ad I found show the base model with 84 mpg and a price of $6900. But their were hoped up versions listing for $24000 . Just a guess but if they are buying whole sale and just getting the frame and motor the front end would be low enough. I also noticed they were looking for folks to sign up for preproduction contracts. Might be concerned about building inventory they can't well fast enough. Texas is very big on motor cycles and I see very few Spiders on the road here.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 14:08:50**

Micro cars are OK in the city where owning a car is optional and using a car can be more of a pain than a help due to tight quarters and parking. We have a lot of Mercedes Smartcars around here. The Smartcar goes for around 12K and only get about 40mpg but it looks more like a car (has four wheels for example).

I understand why but its still amazing that my first car, a 1978 Mazda GLC Sport got 45 mpg (and it really did) and has plenty of power and was very fun to drive. It had a manual choke, no AC no power windows but I thought it was a very useable vehicle, 5 passenger and hatch for lumber etc. Just a simple, small displacement ICE and pretty lightweight.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 17:33:11**

Yair. . . I can't find the link but I see it has been proposed that separate road systems be developed for light low speed golf cart style vehicles, bicycles and such . . . basically an upgrade of the bikeway system extended town to town.

I can see the merits of this as such pavements would be relatively inexpensive and, in the transition period, light efficient vehicles wouldn't have to mix it with the dinosaurs and trucks.

I think it would be bloody marvellous whizzing along at thirty miles an hour in an open electric buggy taking in the sounds and the smells and the view . . . the need for speed is very over rated.

Cheers.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 18:02:48**

My wife has expressed a lot of interest in getting an Elio as her commuter vehicle but we both agree we want a test drive before we get on the waiting list. If it is half as good as claimed it would make a fine commuter car and save a lot on fuel.

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 18:48:40**

Scrub Puller wrote:Yair. . . I can't find the link but I see it has been proposed that separate road systems be developed for light low speed golf cart style vehicles....I think it would be bloody marvellous whizzing along at thirty miles an hour in an open electric buggy taking in the sounds and the smells and the view . . . the need for speed is very over rated.

If thats what you are looking for then you'd better not get the 84 mpg Elio.

Their web site says the top speed of this car is 100 mph.

Vroooooooom!

Posted: **Sat 19 Apr 2014, 22:17:18**

The Elio is like a motorcycle with a steering wheel. Or half a Beetle.

Posted: **Sun 20 Apr 2014, 02:33:38**

Yair . . . Plantagenet

If thats what you are looking for then you'd better not get the 84 mpg Elio.

Their web site says the top speed of this car is 100 mph.

That is exactly the point I make, this vehicle is made to mix it with conventional vehicles at conventional speeds . . . is it going to hack it?

I would be much more comfortable on an alternative roadway at modest speed and cost.

Cheers.

Posted: **Sun 20 Apr 2014, 07:25:36**

Scrub Puller wrote:Yair . . . Plantagenet

If thats what you are looking for then you'd better not get the 84 mpg Elio.

Their web site says the top speed of this car is 100 mph.

That is exactly the point I make, this vehicle is made to mix it with conventional vehicles at conventional speeds . . . is it going to hack it?

I would be much more comfortable on an alternative roadway at modest speed and cost.

Cheers.

Sorry but in America we are so broke we are not even maintaining tertiary roads and bridges on our main network, there is no practical way we can create an alternate network for low speed traffic. Even the rail to trails bike path program has been nothing but a feel good political system in Ohio, it has no real world application as a traffic network.

The Elio meets the needs, if not hecultural desires, of a large fraction of commuters. It is exactly the kind of adaptation to high prices I had hoped the large auto manufacturers would offer but their legacy costs keep them tied in to the SUV model of production.

Posted: **Sun 20 Apr 2014, 09:32:49**

"...separate road systems be developed for light low speed golf cart style vehicles". As pointed out those monies won't ever be sent for separate low speed commuter lanes. But we already have them in Houston but you do at least 50 mph or get run over by a city bus. LOL. But you eventually get back to street level. Which is where the vast majority of vehicle to vehicle accidents happen in Houston at speeds under 40 mph. Easy to see that there's little chance of surviving in Eliot that's t-boned at an intersection.

So don't be a wuss...just get a Hog. LOL.

Posted: **Sun 20 Apr 2014, 12:38:22**

Scrub Puller wrote:Yair . . . Plantagenet

If thats what you are looking for then you'd better not get the 84 mpg Elio.

Their web site says the top speed of this car is 100 mph.

That is exactly the point I make, this vehicle is made to mix it with conventional vehicles at conventional speeds . . . is it going to hack it?

I would be much more comfortable on an alternative roadway at modest speed and cost.

Cheers.

Yair . . . Scrub Puller

Motorcycles "hack it" all the time on roads with conventional vehicles at conventional speeds, and the Elio is safer than a motorcycle.

If you're only comfortable driving golf carts in special lanes, then of course you shouldn't buy an Elio. Nonetheless, other folks may find the idea of a US-made $7000 car that gets 84 mpg and goes 100 mph more appealing then you do.

Cheers!

The Elio isn't for everyone.

Posted: **Sun 20 Apr 2014, 12:57:27**

What was the sporty little Honda sedan that used to get 55 mpg back in the mid 1980s? I want to say CRX, but the one I'm thinking of was sportier.

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Elio Motors gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

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Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000

Re: New US-made car gets 84 mpg, costs $7000