Electra Meccanica (three Wheel Electric) Email-11/2/15

[Stephen Workman]

OK - I know this is an old thread - but
100,000 miles and $3600 on premium gas? The Smart is EPA rated at 39 MPG - and no one gets EPA gas mileage, but let's just accept that. 100,000/39 = 2564 gallons. Where are you buying premium gas for $1.40 per gallon?

Anyone willing to make a gentleman's wager?
I'll bet I have 5K miles on my SOLO before the 1st reserved Elio leaves the Shreveport factory.

 

[wizard of ahs]

From Jerry Kroll's facebook page:
"Electrameccanica Vehicles Solo prepared and ready for shipping to Federal Compliance certification testing.
Note the added "centre headlight" for US motorcycle regs. Gives Solo a 1970's Ford Torino look!
Testing results will be published as completed."

View attachment 11696

https://www.facebook.com/jerry.kroll.9?fref=ts

U.S. motorcycle reg ?????
Did I miss something????
I never heard of having to have 3 headlights.....
None of my bikes had 3 and I didn't see 3 on the Elio...
What's up with that ????

 

[Elio Amazed]

U.S. motorcycle reg ?????
Did I miss something????
I never heard of having to have 3 headlights.....
None of my bikes had 3 and I didn't see 3 on the Elio...
What's up with that ????

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.108

Scroll down and read the entire S10.17 section.

The Slingshot and the modern Morgans also have two lights "in the middle" to meet this requirement.

EM's work with the various states autocycle legislation does not change the fact that US three-wheeled vehicles (save for one) still have to meet these federal standards to be compliance certified and therefore road legal nationwide.

Some here have said that EM has reached an agreement with the federal authorities waiving this requirement. Not unlike the unofficial agreement that Tanom Motors reached with those authorities for their Invader series. However, the Tanom Invader is 83.75" wide whereas the Solo is 47.6" wide and the Elio is 66.8" wide. It is believed that Tanom Motors was given that unofficial pass on those regulations because the Invader is much wider than the other two vehicles. To my knowledge, the Invader is the only three-wheeled vehicle to be compliance certified without meeting this federal requirement. I have searched and not seen even an application filed by Elio for an official Exemption from the regulation. I honestly suspect that EM has not even addressed this issue yet and has tabled it for later attention.

 

[Stephen Workman]

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.108

Scroll down and read the entire S10.17 section

WOW!
That's a lot of gobbeldygook! Where is the ESL translation?

 

[wizard of ahs]

Thanks...now it makes sense....
It DOES look cool, though

 

[Elio Amazed]

Head Lamp requirements: Apparently the Solo's 2 headlamps don't meet the not less than nor more than measurement requirements and needed the added center headlamp to insure the requirements are met. 3 should make for excellent night ime driving visibility.

View attachment 11714

That's not an accurate representation of S10.17 That's just an incomplete abbreviated table.

On most three-wheelers with wide headlamp configurations the height is not the issue.
You've got to read S10.17 to see the additional requirements that are relevant on these vehicles.

 

[Hog]

Probably not a critical item for Elio at the moment, as the center headlight could easily be added later without any issues. However this look may be part of the final Elio configuration. Since Elio is mostly 'selling' at this point, the association with an automobile is important to public perception. The Solo is not even bothering to work the autocycle angle right now, they are just charging ahead using the motorcycle requirements. Smart move letting Elio do all the work I think.

 

[Rickb]

Probably not a critical item for Elio at the moment, as the center headlight could easily be added later without any issues. However this look may be part of the final Elio configuration. Since Elio is mostly 'selling' at this point, the association with an automobile is important to public perception. The Solo is not even bothering to work the autocycle angle right now, they are just charging ahead using the motorcycle requirements. Smart move letting Elio do all the work I think.

I think It's a three wheel motorcycle, leave it alone on the Federal level or it will come back to bite everybody on the butt (registration, licensing, and insurance rates). People complain about government involvement and EM is promoting Federal Legislation to create a new vehicle classification to regulate. EM's strategy is to regulate any future competition, but I don't get it. Consumers know what the vehicle is and will buy it, providing it has a margin of safety. Electra Meccanica has spent their limited $2-3 Million of private R&D funding on building the Solo. The Solo is marketed as "the smartest car on the planet." A smart new startup business strategy. Start small and scale.

EM may be letting ElectraM do all the work. The Solo is likely to test the market to see if a three wheeler EV commuter will be well received by the USA market and/or worldwide market.

 

[Elio Amazed]

The helmets and MC endorsements/licenses were Elios prime concern and are not effected by the federal regulations. There's only one state left to fall on the adult helmet requirement and only a handful left on the age specific helmet requirements And there's legislation pending in that one last adult stipulation state. I don't think EM is going to get an autocycle subcategory at the federal level. It's hard to move granite and marble unless there's a compelling reason (from the feds point of view) to do so. I don't think Elio Motors could give a hoot about what Electra Meccanica does or does not do. At this point in the game, I'm not so sure Elio Motors really wants the Elio to be designated as being in it's own federal autocycle category anyway. Because of the material and design changes and the cost of the added compliance certification regulations involved in that designation, they may have changed course on those efforts. But you have to give them a lot of credit for achieving what they did on the state level. I sure do.

 

[Rob Croson]

EM's strategy is to regulate any future competition, but I don't get it.

Elio's strategy is to gain universal acceptance for their product, thus enabling high volume sales. That's very hard to do (impossible?) when every state has their own specific guidelines on what your product is, and most of them require a motorcycle endorsement to drive.

Electra Meccanica and Arcimoto are piggy-backing on EM's initiative to gain that universal acceptance for three wheeled vehicles. Without EM's efforts, both Electra Meccanica and Arcimoto would be relegated to niche products due to issues such as:

• Motorcycle endorsements (I maintain that any vehicle requiring a motorcycle endorsement will achieve only marginal market penetration)
• Helmet laws
• Handle/steering bar vs. steering wheel
• Seat belts
• Air bags

EM's business model, and low price that we all love, won't happen without the ability for anyone, anywhere, who has a valid driver's license, to walk in to a store, buy one, and drive out just like they could with any four-wheeled vehicle, and with no more thought required. You can sell several thousand luxury toys (the Slingshot) to people that are willing to jump through the hoops for the prestige/fun, or to people who already love and drive motorcycles but for some reason want that third wheel (the Can -Am Spyder). But EM needs to sell them by the hundred-thousand to regular people who only know cars. That requires a whole different approach.