Metal...body?

[Sethodine]

Steel it is.

 

[W. WIllie]

Steel means "Common cents".

 

[Darrellh]

i will probably still purchase an Elio since I'm all in, but am very disappointed that it is going to be steel. I believe Elio is right in it being cheaper, and easier to make and more recyclable, but not as ecological as I probably won't keep it as long because in the rust belt it's appearance won't hold up as well. Will probably treat it as a cheap DISPOSABLE car and not buy as many options for it.

 

[Darrellh]

I t doesn't make sense to me to make the test prototypes with SMC if you want representative results for many of the tests, though I realize they are already set up for SMC, so would probably be quicker To produce.

 

[Ty]

I haven't had any rust problems in any of my vehicles since the 1965 Mustang. If you see any Saturn Vue's or Saturn Ski's on the road, look at all the space between panels. Apparently, the plastic expands and contracts more than its steel equivalent so bigger spaces are necessary. Steel panels should help make the Elio look more like a "Real" car. I'm happy to see they are going with steel. It'll mean for cheaper dent repair if needed!

 

[pistonboy]

I was looking forward to SMC for the body panels. I believe it would vibrate less thus making the vehicle less noisy. Perhaps undercoating helps reduce noise, but it is difficult to undercoat every inch of the body.

Before I wondered by Paul Elio refered to the steel structural members as "unibody" when that term usually means both steel structural members and steel body panels. Now I know why. It is going to be a traditional unibody structure with both structural members and body panels made of steel. He was using this term several weeks ago meaning this decision was made several seeks ago.

 

[pistonboy]

Perhaps the early E series will have composite body panels, but the later ones used for safety crashing will have steel body panels. Otherwise, it is testing one thing but selling us something else.

 

[BlioKart]

The change doesn't bother me. It sort of makes sense they probably want to utilize more of the stamping equipment at the Shreveport plant

 

[Ty]

The change doesn't bother me. It sort of makes sense they probably want to utilize more of the stamping equipment at the Shreveport plant

Not to mention you can stamp several panels per minute with a single press but you can't do the same with composite material which means more stations would be required. To me, this will bring the Elio to production must faster than relying on developing some composite process. So, yay, team Elio!

 

[ecdriver711]

Steel, makes a body strong.