Elio Type Vehicle Resurection --- AKA the BEX

[JEBar]

even though there website is still active, few (if any) still believe Elio Motors will ever be able to manufacture an Elio type vehicle ===> https://www.eliomotors.com/ .... its too soon to tell for sure but what appears to be a major step forward in bringing an enclosed trike, Elio type vehicle to market is occurring .... below is a copy of the first post in a rapidly growing thread over on the Elio Owner's Forum :

"Mark here. I am an Australian who lives permanently in China with my own businesses there as in mine, not Chinese, not Joint Venture, but my own. I run and control everything myself.

I have a long car building history, from self-designing and scratchbuilding, to repairing and modifying race and rally cars.

There's no need for me to repeat the Elio story, you all know it, but I see numbers of people who are keen to get their Elio or something similar in concept, so I have decided to take up the challenge.

There is no $1000 deposit being sought, there's no stock market shares on offer, I'm not offering T-shirts or bumper stickers, I'm just building the prototype right now, then looking to manufacturer and sell them. No money until they are real and available, it's that simple. Many of you have been bitten once, I understand.

I'm not that good with photoshop, but the car might look a little like this, and will have 2 doors, not one, a driver's door on the left, the rear pax door on the right, I call it the 'Odd Door'.

I am using as many 'off the shelf parts' as possible to keep costs down, and later repair costs down and parts obtainable.

I will post/update here if acceptable to all(?), and I am running a Facebook group where you are welcome if you are polite and friendly, and enjoy a bit of humour
https://www.facebook.com/groups/329191161401401"


[b][size=150][color=#4000FF]https://www ... /size][/b]

.... in the thread he is posting pictures and comments as he is building his first model .... he is making some very nice improvements in his design .... he seems to be credible and I'm enjoying following his progress

[Headhog]

Interesting vehicle. Very reminiscent of the Isetta which was produced in the 50's and early 60's. It was an Italian design that was produced by different manufacturers in several countries. I believe BMW produced the most which were sold in Europe.

Polaris has the Slingshot and another company, Vanderhall produces a trike, but neither are enclosed. So not much fun to ride on fowl weather.

Paul

[JEBar]

we've followed the concept since its earliest days .... over 65,000 people have paid from $100 to $1,000 to reserve one when it comes to production .... it is a reverse trike with a fully enclosed passenger compartment including heat and AC .... it was engineered to be reliable, everyday transportation that is cheap to operate and fun to drive .... it had a large following among former and current motorcycle enthusiast .... another somewhat unexpected market was proved to be RV'ers who were interested in towing it behind their motorhomes

[markiver54]

Very interesting!...we still need fossil fuels! Go for it!

[JEBar]

the trike discussed in the opening post is many moons from becoming a reality .... it could easily fail .... it is a concept we like and are enjoying watching

[Vaquero]

The electric isn't really a feasible item now or anytime soon for that matter.
Just look at the latest fiasco down in Texas, just think about it if even half those affected had been trying to charge one.
Wish I could find a write up I saw a day or so ago by an engineer. Pretty good.
I'll keep looking, I thought I had save it but not.

RP

[Hatchdog]

The electric isn't really a feasible item now or anytime soon for that matter.
Just look at the latest fiasco down in Texas, just think about it if even half those affected had been trying to charge one.
Wish I could find a write up I saw a day or so ago by an engineer. Pretty good.
I'll keep looking, I thought I had save it but not.

RP

I read something yesterday (so I’m already forgetting the details ) but I believe that it was stated that to operate an electric car when figuring in the cost of electricity to charge the car it was three times more expensive per mile to operate than an internal combustion car. I’m no way anti electric car and for many the application would be fine. I particularly like the idea of having something along the line above to use with an RV. What I do get a bit concerned with is GM’s declaration that they will be all electric by 2035. How are people going to tow RV’s and other heavy loads?

[markiver54]

As far as electric goes, look at how much ALL types of batteries cost right now. I have had a couple cordless drills over the years that the batteries went bad on, and it was more practical, given the cost of batteries, to just buy a new drill. Charging ports and charging time are another huge issue. IMO, this whole concept will never take over.
Besides, I thought the Elio has a gasoline engine. I thought I read in this thread that it gets about 80 mpg?

[JEBar]

the original Elio was designed to burn gasoline and to get around 80 mpg .... since the project totally stalled before they could test it, who knows .... the fellow in the opening post who is building the reverse trike similar to the Elio plans to use one of a number of existing, well proven 1.0 L engines .... the ones he's considering are getting around 60 mpg in 4 wheel cars so one would expect them to get something better than that in his vehicle .... he says he's considering an electric version for the European and Asian markets .... for most folks an enclosed, reverse trike will be what's sometimes termed an "AND" vehicle .... while for some it will no doubt be their only vehicle, just like some only own a motorcycle .... for us it would be fun transportation .... I could see us making day trips or even overnight'ers .... the limits would be determined by the quality of its ride

[Shakey Jake]

Sorta looks like the Stallion except the Stallion was an open concept and burned gas.

[Vaquero]

Here's that article I was talking about the other day.

Wake up Americans. Some facts about the great Electric Car. Or at least one of them.
Shared from my friend Jack Bains.

THE PINEHURST PRESS NEWS & VIEWS

Interesting Take on Electric Cars

As an engineer I love the electric vehicle technology However, I have been troubled for a longtime by the fact that the electrical energy to keep the batteries charged has to come from the grid and that means more power generation and a huge increase in the distribution infrastructure. Whether generated from coal, gas, oil, wind or sun, installed generation capacity is limited.

IF ELECTRIC CARS DO NOT USE GASOLINE, THEY WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN PAYING A GASOLINE TAX ON EVERY GALLON THAT IS SOLD FOR AUTOMOBILES, WHICH WAS ENACTED SOME YEARS AGO TO HELP TO MAINTAIN OUR ROADS AND BRIDGES. THEY WILL USE THE ROADS, BUT WILL NOT PAY FOR THEIR MAINTENANCE!

In case you were thinking of buying hybrid or an electric car:
Since the advent of electric cars, the REAL cost per mile of those things has never been discussed.
All you ever heard was the mpg in terms of gasoline, with nary a mention of the cost of electricity to run it. This is the first article I've ever seen.

Electricity has to be one of the least efficient ways to power things yet they're being encouraged, even pushed. Glad somebody finally put engineering and math to paper.

A BC Hydro Executive: asked how that renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious.

If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, you had to face certain realities. For example: a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service.
The average house is equipped with 100 amp service.
On our small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla, each.
For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded.

This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles. Our residential infrastructure cannot bear the load.
So as our elected officials promote this, not only are we being urged to buy these things and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with expensive, new windmills and solar cells, but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system.

Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors and he writes, "For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.

"Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9-gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.

The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned, so I looked up what I pay for electricity.

I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 Mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car costs about $25,000 while the Volt costs $46,000 plus. So the Canadian Government wants loyal Canadians not to do the math, but simply pay twice as much for a car, that costs more than seven times as much to run, and takes three times longer to drive across the country.

And, OBTW, the lithium for the batteries comes mostly from China.

Follow the money!

WAKE UP!!

RP

[dave77]

I'm not an advocate for electric cars (no current plans to get one, my Miata and my Ranger will probably both outlast me) and he makes some valid points about road maintenance costs.

Don't know about about the ability of the electric grid to handle large increases of electric cars being charged but around here most houses, even my single wide mobile home have a 200 amp service.
Here's another article showing that the grid can handle a gradual increase of electric cars if done properly .

https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-car ... -the-grid/

Also seems his math is a little off as he states:
"I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery."

The average cost per kWh in the US is 10¢. No one in the US is paying anywhere near $1.16 per kWh, even Hawaii averages under 30¢ per kWh..

https://www.energybot.com/electricity-r ... state.html

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/how-much-d ... rge-an-ev/

[JEBar]

the screen name for the fellow from Australia is Mark BEX .... the guys over on the Elio forum have named his vehicle the BEX .... he reports today that he's bought a used car with a Toyota 1.0 KR1 engine and 5 speed for $400 .... his plan is to remove it from the car and install it in the reverse trike he's building .... the more I follow his efforts, the stronger I believe that he might just pull it off

[markiver54]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

[JEBar]

I just want to point out that the Elio and now the BEX are both to be powered by gasoline motors .... the only mention of having an electric motor in a BEX deals with one he might eventually try to produce for the European market .... I've had one street legal electric vehicle and unless some major things take place, I have no interest in every owning another ....

[Vaquero]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

Also what to do with the old batteries?
Do you know where most of that lithium comes from?

RP

[markiver54]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

Also what to do with the old batteries?
Do you know where most of that lithium comes from?

RP
[/quote

Exactly!

[markiver54]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

Also what to do with the old batteries?
Do you know where most of that lithium comes from?

RP
[/quote

Exactly!

[RanchRoper]

Badger says he won't ride in a trailer pulled by that. He likes diesel smoke.

[JEBar]

Badger says he won't ride in a trailer pulled by that. He likes diesel smoke.

.... if someone tried to do that, while it wouldn't be diesel, I suspect everyone in the area would quickly be smelling smoke