It’s very difficult and expensive to start a new car manufacturer business. Ask Musk. But had the BILLIONS of personal income to get things started. Even then it had problems.
It’s a regulatory fiddle. As said before, 3-wheelers are “officially” motorcycles, and don’t have to comply with the myriad of emissions, safety, et. al. regulations that drive up the price, weight, and thus fuel consumption and cost of a vehicle.
Interesting concept. But it’s gots four wheels 
. That means it’d have to pass all the requirements that cars have to. I don’t think it would pass the crash tests.
It does? Where did you read that?
The outriggers did not both count as wheels for the purposes of registration because only one of the two outriggers touched the ground at any one time. It was one of those regulatory sleights of hand that probably shouldn’t have worked, but did.
Commuter vehicle? I thought our 1960 Ford Falcon was a pretty cheap commuter car, and that 64 Lark, and even the Pinto. Hard to beat that 530K Rivera that got 27 mpg as a commuter car though. Everyone says they want a cheap, no frills, high mpg commuter car, but when you start driving 100 miles a day, what you want is a little more back support and comfort and are willing to give up a couple mpg.
I dunno, what I think a lot of us want is a single multi-purpose vehicle that can haul people, haul merchandise, pull a boat once in a while or ice fishing equipment, reasonable comfort on the road, safety, reasonable mpg, etc. Compact SUV or station wagon anyone? Having to buy a separate vehicle for each need seems a little silly for most people.
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I agree concerning the upscale cars for commuting. I see a lot of full size pickups, even 4WD models, used for commuting. There are a lot of full size and midsize SUVs used for commuting too. It’s mighty dark in the morning, but I’ll bet that there is only one person in the vehicle.
I looked at the images. You didn’t see the forth wheel in the rear?
No…and I looked at the pics again…and still don’t see a 4th wheel. They even call it a 3-wheel car.
Here’s a better pic.
Mike, those are images of the Elio. My post was a response to Shadow’s Owosso Pulse/Lifestar.
Oh…That I missed. You are right.
It had 2 wheels which permanently touched the ground. The vehicle was based on a stretched Goldwing, and the front and back wheels on the motorcycle were the permanently-touching ones.
It then had 2 outrigger wheels, but the outriggers were lifted so that only one would ever be in contact with the ground at any one time. Because of that, for licensing purposes it was considered a 3-wheeled motorcycle because only 3 of the 4 wheels would be functioning as wheels at any given time.
Sounds nutty. But, than, I’ve seen nuttier! 
Thanks for the explanation everyone about the motivation for designing a 3 wheel vehicle vs 4. hmmm … rather than a 3 wheel motorcyle, for a frugal new car purchase, I think I’d prefer a more conventional 4 wheel car (fully enclosed, but 2 seats would be ok rather than 4) but w/out all the safety features and gadgets you can’t seem to refuse. I’d be just fine w/a Yugo or Fit sized 4 wheel front wheel drive 1.6 L 115 HP 4 banger efi, 87 octane, conventional distributor, 5 speed manual, no air bags, no abs, no tpm, no tach, am/fm radio only, manual windows and door locks, normal key’d ignition, $5 ea 9001 headlight bulbs, $2.5 ea copper core spark plugs, & cat for emissions. But since that will probably never be available again, I’ll have to live with what they got to sell obviously, but a 3 wheel motorcycle, I don’t think so.
If I want a motorcycle I’d prefer a regular 2 wheel version. Maybe 125 cc for about town driving, with a basket for carrying groceries. .
The Polaris Slingshot is a 3-wheel roadster currently available, I see these on the street when the weather is favorable. The starting price is $22,000, these are driven or used for the “sport” of driving, not for fuel economy.
The Elio may have sounded like the solution 8 years ago to those driving 4-door pick-up trucks but a 50 MPG car is available today, driving a ridiculous looking vehicle will only save about $4 per week.
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But the initial cost is suppose to be significantly less. Under $10k.
If the Elio ever gets built (BIG if), I think it’ll have the same problem the Tata Nano had in India. Folks didn’t buy nearly as many as expected, partly because they didn’t want to be known as having to buy the cheapest car available. If I had the money for an Elio, I’d rather buy a 2-3 year old Kia, Hyundai, etc.
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I’ve seen these Polaris things. IMHO they’re nothing but very expensive play toys for wired up immature brats. They’re absolutely ridiculous. One man’s opinion, of course.
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That’s my opinion, also.
My SIL has a relative on her side of the family who–in my opinion–has more money than brains.
He bought one of these Can-Am three-wheelers–supposedly–for commuting purposes.
His commute is about 50 miles each way, and–of course–he cannot use this contraption on a rainy day, or during the winter.
IMHO, he would have been much better-off buying an inexpensive compact car, but I think that he just wanted a toy.
Ahh 3 wheeled motorcycles… All of the exposure of 2 wheel motorcycles with none of the fun!
At least the Elio proposes a fix for that! But so did the Corbin Sparrow and the Aptera in electric form. The Sparrow got built and a few were sold, the Aptera never did.
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