Where Did 84 Mpg Come From?

[Elio Amazed]

Motorcycle engines are notoriously inefficient. My 650 weighs 540lb. and averages in the mid 50 mpg range. My 250 weighs around 320 and will get 74 city/90 highway with a reasonable amount of trying on my part. On the other hand, some subcompact cages out there weigh in @ 2400lbs (well over quadruple the weight of the 650) and are getting 42+ highway. No-one has been trying real hard to make MC and scooter engines more efficient. They don't have to. A lot of people are downright amazed that anything will get 90mpg. And 50+mpg on a bigger bike has been perfectly acceptable as "good enough" for a hundred years. No-one is going to change that general perception anytime soon. Not even the Elio.

 

[goofyone]

not be negative but how does this car get 84mpg when a 350 pound scooter only gets 90 mpg
but im very interested of course in getting one

Welcome to the ElioOwners.com forum from Atlanta, GA!

Glad you have joined us here and are interested in this unique vehicle. As others have mentioned the keys to the Elio's low fuel consumption is a combination of aerodynamics, light weight for a car, and an engine designed specifically for moving this vehicle as efficiently as possible. Being a narrow vehicle with much better aerodynamics than most other cars and much lighter weight than other cars are fairly self explanatory along with understanding that motorcycles and scooters are actually fairly inefficient aerodynamically. In addition the engine is being designed like a car engine instead of a motorcycle or scooter engine which as others mentioned are actually fairly inefficient for what they are.

You have joined a very diverse group of people from all over the country who really enjoy discussing everything there is to know about this interesting vehicle. I hope you enjoy your time here reading about and/or discussing all there is to know about Elio Motors.

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[elio now]

produce first yes, there will be changes for several yrs
my 2010 prius get 60+ in town if i try, 55 if i speed. ha
having worked in the auto industry, im thinking that 60mpg will be realistic at first
they should seek out tony stewart for money,, he is finished in racing and has 70 mil+ dollars

 

[AriLea]

MY! This IS an interesting thread. It goes though all kinds of issues from the Pogue carburetor http://blog.hasslberger.com/img/Pogue_Carb_design.jpg
to what is the possible mpg in the trike platform, to what can the government fund. The whole business model for the Elio seems up for debate here.
We have engineers, autotechies and people just trying to just live, all putting in their two cents. And I'm kind of in the middle between engineering and an end user. And just like everyone else I got my two cents. I think what I can do is quantify up all the points made here into an FAQ and see if there is a solid conclusion that can be made. I'd say the result would be worth about 1 year of tech school in an automotive major.
Unfortunately my work day is beginning so it will have to wait for tonight, and may take a few days to sum-up. But frankly, I've been at this very intellectual point confronting these exact subjects a number of times before.
Moderator, can we consider putting the result into an accessible FAQ? (do we already have one?) I would say put it in the Welcome to section, and maybe lock each question/answer pair to the top of the list, allowing only vetted content in the locked-pair. Open discussions of potential Q/A's would trail down in the list. JAS(Just a Suggestion)

 

[aknaten]

Here's a link to the patent the discussion is about http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=4177779.PN.&OS=PN/4177779&RS=PN/4177779

Grandson of the man who invented the 100 mpg carb. invents a 1,000 (!) mpg fuel injection system and them disappears. Crazy world we live in.

http://bangshift.com/general-news/g...uel-injection-disappears-foul-play-suspected/

 

[aknaten]

Grandson of the man who invented the 100 mpg carb. invents a 1,000 (!) mpg fuel injection system and them disappears. Crazy world we live in.

http://bangshift.com/general-news/g...uel-injection-disappears-foul-play-suspected/

Here is more information about the original invention and the man behind it, Tom Ogle.

http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?page_id=787

 

[Jambe]

not be negative but how does this car get 84mpg when a 350 pound scooter only gets 90 mpg
but im very interested of course in getting one

I thought about how motorcycles are smaller, lighter and have less frontal area compared to the Elio and doubted the 84 mpg claims.

Then I thought about my Dodge Caravan. I can get 30 mpg with it and it has an engine of 3.3 liters which is more than three times as much as the Elio engine which is only .9 liters. It weighs more than 3 times as much as the Elio and the frontal area is at least three times as much as the Elio. With these "triple-triple advantages" of the Elio I don't see any reason why the Elio couldn't get 84 mpg, or three times what I get with my Caravan.

No doubt it's not really that simple, but it works for me.

 

[AriLea]

Here is more information about the original invention and the man behind it, Tom Ogle.

http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?page_id=787

Well, OK, taking the article at face value, and imagining it's real, it's reasonably easy to figure out what the device is as claimed by the article.
Pretty much it's a concept like the Pogue Carburetor, and possibly like Fuel Vapor Systems, except he's also doing manifold injection. The only way IMHO such a system could be more efficient is by fully utilizing the wasted heat to expand un-oxidized air, the air not reacting with the fuel at stoichiometric rates. This could be arranged by carefully configuring the injector ports to..... (bang!) man down! :-)

 

[elio now]

im curious if the car will have direct fuel injection, that would be a plus for power and mileage

 

[Snick]

Elio has shown and said in tech articles that it will have port injection. There's not much gain to be had by direct injection for this relatively low compression, low performance engine. Combustion chamber optimization and improvements to volumetric efficiency is where they seem to be focusing most of their engine design efforts.