http://www.eliomotors.com/



Ugly looking cars but they're supposed to get 84mpg, they're only $6,800 and they are built in the US.

 

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. I like the way it looks - or, at least it doesn't offend me outright. For that price with that fuel economy they are going to sell a million of them and good for them. I'm gonna ago out on a limb and say either their side-impact crash head-safety ratings are terrible, or there are a LOT of airbags in the car. Wear a helmet!



If I didn't have the occasional need to haul the 5 people I can shoehorn into the Elantra, and I were in the market for a car, I would totally consider an Elio.

 

I looked into them before buying my Leaf. I have a strong suspicion they'll never go on sale. I went to their website and signed up for more info. What I got was a daily email telling me to place a $500 non-refundable deposit to secure my place in line. I then went to the site and requested removal from their mailing list. Kept getting emails daily. I ended up having to block them. I'm gonna go with my gut and say once they raise a bunch of non-refundable deposits, they'll declare bankruptcy and retire to some tropical island.

 

I assume they managed to sidestep all the important safety red tape because it's a trike

 

Supposedly it is expected to get a 5 star crash safety rating. SUPPOSEDLY.



If this comes to market, and that's a big if, I'm interested for a daily driver/economical road trip vehicle.

 

The 'car' is vaporware for now but they are claiming they will make it in full production NEXT year. Give them three years of not going out of business and then I'd say they were a good risk for spending the money on a new car.

 

If they are legit, the US Govt will find a way to make their lives a living hell and sales impossible. The same thing that happened to Aptera and Loremo.

No point in even pretending this is going to happen, especially not at that price.

 

Aptera couldn't line up the private investment money needed to land the federal investment money. This was in no small part because they came along before their first product could legally get the government money and then turned to a different model before the first model was produced. And the car is going to be made maybe in China where the wheels are greased a little easier. Plus the car looked stupid and un-car-like, unlike the Elio prototypes.



Loremo also could not secure funding or a factory location, but at least it looked like a car.



Elio has a lot of their funding and a facility to build the cars. If they fail, it seems more likely they will be victims of bad management or *ahem* optimistic sales and cost projections. The federal money has not been flat turned down like Aptera was the first time they applied. If (IF) they can manage to get the line going to get one car made, the car might turn into a $10000/unit deal but I bet they can still move them at that price, if not nearly as many. Problem is they need to sell a LOT of cars to stay afloat.