Has the Futre Arrived Part II

After reading the latest posts on the magnetic perpetual motion motor I decided to check out other impossible things like the latest on the $6800 Elio Automobile- Available in 2016. It turns out they are now SELLING reservations from $100 to $1000 . Obviously the more you pay the closer you are to the front of the line,

\Aren’t you all excited !!!

With gas here at $1.80, I wonder how many folks have lost interest in the Elio…

This is the car I want to see. Very promising technology.

When you’re done with the car…you melt it down and build a new one.

Elio will turn out to be a complete bust. Pay your money and you’ll never see a product nor your money back. The release date has always been “in a couple of years.” I don’t believe it!

Sounds too good to be true and it probably is.

@ Mike,interesting,but why not just buy an EZ-GO ?

I think the new 3D- Printed car is pretty interesting technology…Cost will come down…

EZ-GO is NOT a car…it’s actually classified as a motorcycle.

It’s a car. Gots four wheels.

It is a pipe dream I think.

Perhaps, but I like the idea.
Lots of the things we take for granted now were pipe dreams when I was a younger man. Printed cars just might be the future. Bruce Meyers created something in fiberglass in 1964 (the Meyers Manx) that was extremely simple, easy to manufacture, and became a true part of automotive history. Unfortunately, it was SO incredibly easy and inexpensive to manufacture that it was copied (usually with small deviations) by other fiberglass molders all over the country. Poor Bruce never really wasn’t able to make much money off of it. Maybe printed cars are this millennium’s version of the Meyers Manx! :sunglasses:

Taking reservations and manufacturing cars for sale are two different things. The Elio is still a virtual vehicle, not a real one. It may be available some day, just not yet.

He’s actually made a working prototype. It’s beyond virtual.

I mean virtual sales. People that buy now are buying future production, aren’t they?

I would buy a working prototype, they are going to be a future collectible like the Tucker or the Playboy neither of which went into production either.

This is the car I want to see. Very promising technology.

When you’re done with the car…you melt it down and build a new one.

This one has too many negatives, before it even gets started.

  1. $18000 and up price
  2. 25 MPH top speed
  3. Crash protection from 3D printed plastic?
  4. Not highway legal and probably never will be due to #2 and 3
  5. Electrics from Renault.

And that’s just off the top of my head.

Just a thought:

Some people as so enamored by new technology that they lose sight of things. I worked with a guy who had to have the latest electronic gismo’s. When they started putting this stuff in cars, he nearly had a meltdown.

Some Confusion.

The EZ-GO is a golf cart. Not made for city streets. The Elio is classified as a Motorcycle. It has 3 wheels,

The 3d Printed vehicle is a CAR. It has 4 wheels and can be driven on the street or even highway. Pure electric.

The 3d Printed vehicle is a CAR. It has 4 wheels and can be driven on the street or even highway. Pure electric.

I would put this one in the same category as a Golf Cart, albeit an expensive one.

You’re right Mike. It’s easy to confuse the two.

IMHO it’s a “city car”. It has the capability to keep up with traffic on all roads but highways. A golf cart can’t do that.The one currently in existence, the prototype, is really intended just to prove the possibility of creating a roadworthy vehicle with a printer. How this’ll pan out and how much of a vehicle can actually be made using printers remains to be seen. Perhaps it’ll follow the Meyers Manx model, where a company will print and sell bodies designed for the buyer to bolt on already available chassis and powertrain components. Time will tell. Personally, I’m optimistic.

I would put this one in the same category as a Golf Cart, albeit an expensive one.

A golf cart has a top end of 20mph…this has a top end of 70mph…much more stable…I’ve driven many golf cars…and there isn’t one I’d drive on city streets.