Photo: Elio Motors
Paul Elio is an ambitious man. Seven years after he founded Elio Motors, Paul announces that he’s planning to sell 100 pre-production examples of his 3-wheel car. It was about time considering that Elio Motors has 50,900 reservations for the thing.
To be assembled in Louisiana at a former General Motors production facility, the Elio 3-wheeler pre-production prototypes will be sold at $6,800 a pop. The thing is, you can’t have one of those 100 cars.
“We now intend to sell the first 100 pre-production vehicles built to one or more fleet customers, rather than use them for internal purposes as previously disclosed in our offering statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,” declared Paul Elio. The head honcho explains that such a move will help Elio Motors generate revenue that will be used for two things.
First and foremost, Elio wants to evaluate the 3-wheeler under real-world driving conditions. Secondly, whatever will be left of the revenue ($680,000) will allow the company’s supplier team to refine the 3-wheeler’s design. Ambitious? Definitely. It remains to be seen if Elio will deliver more than just a promise.
Elio Motors has announced that it will continue to seek additional funding to bring the 3-wheel car to market sometime in 2017. To be based on the P5, the fifth-generation prototype, the pre-production car will be animated by a 0.9-liter powerplant. The 3-cylinder engine designed by IAV promises to return 84 mpg (2.8 l/100 km), which is a tall order. It remains to be seen how economical the 3-wheeler will be once those pre-production vehicles hit real-world traffic conditions. I won't hold my breath for miracles, to be honest.
In terms of acceleration, 9.6 seconds to 62 mph (100 km/h) will have to suffice, as will the 100 mph (160 km/h) top speed. For an ultra-low cost economy vehicle for the masses, that’s not too bad. If you wish to support Elio in its quest to bring the 3-wheeler to market in 2017, you can do so by making a reservation.
“We now intend to sell the first 100 pre-production vehicles built to one or more fleet customers, rather than use them for internal purposes as previously disclosed in our offering statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,” declared Paul Elio. The head honcho explains that such a move will help Elio Motors generate revenue that will be used for two things.
First and foremost, Elio wants to evaluate the 3-wheeler under real-world driving conditions. Secondly, whatever will be left of the revenue ($680,000) will allow the company’s supplier team to refine the 3-wheeler’s design. Ambitious? Definitely. It remains to be seen if Elio will deliver more than just a promise.
Elio Motors has announced that it will continue to seek additional funding to bring the 3-wheel car to market sometime in 2017. To be based on the P5, the fifth-generation prototype, the pre-production car will be animated by a 0.9-liter powerplant. The 3-cylinder engine designed by IAV promises to return 84 mpg (2.8 l/100 km), which is a tall order. It remains to be seen how economical the 3-wheeler will be once those pre-production vehicles hit real-world traffic conditions. I won't hold my breath for miracles, to be honest.
In terms of acceleration, 9.6 seconds to 62 mph (100 km/h) will have to suffice, as will the 100 mph (160 km/h) top speed. For an ultra-low cost economy vehicle for the masses, that’s not too bad. If you wish to support Elio in its quest to bring the 3-wheeler to market in 2017, you can do so by making a reservation.
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