Well knock me down with a noodle; they are air bags:
The Elio Team posted: "More Progress and Many Thanks At Elio Motors, we begin every day with one goal in mind: do everything you can do today to alter the course of transportation. Some days, this progress is behind the scenes. On other days, the progress is more visible. Last"
An Elio Motors Progress Update
by
The Elio Team
More Progress and Many Thanks
At Elio Motors, we begin every day with one goal in mind: do everything you can do today to alter the course of transportation. Some days, this progress is behind the scenes. On other days, the progress is more visible. Last week, at the
Los Angeles Auto Show, we introduced to the public
<news conference> a tangible symbol of the progress we have made. The
E1c, one of our engineering series vehicles, has garnered quite a bit of attention, which has led to a series of great questions from our fans. Today, we will address some common questions regarding the E1c.
On our road from prototype to production,
we have made several significant improvements to the vehicle, many of which can be seen on the E1c. For one, the vehicle was assembled using more than 80 percent soft tooling. While the prototype vehicles were hand-built, the E1c was assembled using short-term, low-cost production tools, which demonstrates the manufacturability of
the Elio.
Some of the improvements on the E1c may be nearly invisible to the naked eye. For example, the E1c features a unibody frame and a modified suspension. The unibody frame improves the vehicle’s manufacturability, energy absorption, and safety tuning. The E1c’s modified suspension allows for improved aerodynamics, sharpened handling, and increased longevity.
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The E1c debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show
The
E1c also features some major safety improvements from previous prototypes.
For example, the E1c is the first vehicle to be equipped with airbags. The vehicle features two roof-rail side-curtain airbags, as well as the driver’s airbag located in the steering wheel. These components are essential to the Elio Motors Safety Management System.
While the vehicles from the prototype phase used plexiglass, the E1c is the first Elio Motors vehicle to use tempered automotive glass from our supplier,
Guardian. There are also more visible improvements to the E1c. Changes can be found to the vehicle’s radio, steering wheel, and driver’s seat. All of these changes show improvements to the vehicle that reflect the final production intent.
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Visible improvements have been made to the E1c's interior.
As we have moved from the prototype to the engineering phase, hundreds of improvements have been made to the vehicle. While some are more visible than others, each of these improvements is representative of our progress and will ultimately allow us to produce the best possible vehicle.
As tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we would be remiss if we did not offer our sincere thanks to everyone who has been instrumental in our progress. To all our Elio Motors team members, reservation holders, supplier partners, and supporters around the world, we offer our sincere thanks for everything that you do. Your support makes our progress possible, and for that, we are truly thankful.
The Elio Team | November 25, 2016 at 5:15 pm |
In the article they say "tomorrow is Thanksgiving" yet at the bottom they dated it the day after.
I wonder who proofs these.