We're super interested in the idea--makes us think of our Crosleys in that the cars are affordable and with no nonsense inside BUT the tandem set up is what has held us up for further consideration. Will your company be thinking of different seating in the future and possibly when?
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Tandem Now But Side By Side Later?
- Thread starter nanookune
- Start date
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- Tags
- one behind? one in front
skychief
Elio Addict
Nope. If you want side-by-side seating, you would be better off choosing one of the bazillions of conventional cars on the market.
The whole idea behind the tandem seating arrangement is for fuel economy. You simply cant achieve 84 MPG in a vehicle with side-by-side seating.
P.S. Welcome to the forum!
The whole idea behind the tandem seating arrangement is for fuel economy. You simply cant achieve 84 MPG in a vehicle with side-by-side seating.
P.S. Welcome to the forum!
RUCRAYZE
Elio Addict
Hi and welcome- just for clarification this not Elio Motors website-
"Will your company be thinking of different seating in the future and possibly when?
We are, like yourself, future owners who have invest time and energy to keep us all informed. There are very skilled and knowledgeable folks who know cars and motorcycles with backgrounds in engineering, design, electronics, robotics, production insights, material engineers, and......and.. guys like me who just love to ride, and enjoy the banter of the technology!
There is at least one member who worked in the factory when Chevy was building Hummers- Heck we have "spies" who watch the factory parking lot, to track the action.
Neal
Elio Addict
Hi and welcome. Like it's been said, this site is not affiliate with Elio Motors, just a bunch of enthusiast. I would doubt very much that they will do side by side seating. Tandem seating was chosen to help make the vehicle more streamline and aerodynamic and thus helping achieve one of the "must haves" of high MPG. Side by side would create much more drag and cause the MPG to go way down.
floydv
Elio Addict
And tandem seating makes the Elio unique, which is a selling point.
Sethodine
Elio Addict
Since it's technically a motorcycle in most jurisdictions, I suppose you could bolt a sidecar onto it
Ekh
Elio Addict
Short answer: no.
TCBronson
Elio Addict
Who knows? Maybe some day they could come out with an additional model after they have become profitable that has side by side seating and gets 60 MPG or so.
floydv
Elio Addict
Maybe when EM gets big enough and begins to expand its lineup, it can introduce a three seater Elio 3.0 with McLaren-style 1+2 seating, and a four seater Elio 4.0 with 1+2+1 seating arrangement. That would be cool. Ah, to dream...
Ekh
Elio Addict
Force of wind exerted on a surface varies as the square of the velocity. This gets too complicated for me, but you can learn about it here: http://hpwizard.com/index.html
As a sailor, I know that a 12 mph breeze is wonderful sailing, but a 24 mph breeze is 4 times rougher, not twice as brisk. When you double the speed, you quadruple the force acting against you.
This is grossly simplified, but it's why at highway speeds aerodynamics are vital, more important than rolling resistance (tire friction) and all the other stuff. Sailors reduce the amount of sail area in order to stay upright and in control. Elio's reduce the square footage of the car to do the same thing.
At slow speeds, aerodynamic are unimportant, and if you want efficiency, you go for light weight. But over about 45 miles per hour aerodynamic drag is the villain, and as Paul says, half the width is have the wind resistance working against you.
So your side by side Elio is NEVER going to get good gas mileage at highway speeds, while your tandem is 80 mpg plus.
Hope this helps answer THAT question.