Oddly, Almost Positive Article From Thetruthaboutcars

[AriLea]

First, the article link;

There seems to be additional and surprising information about production methods, according to the article; straight from Jerome's mouth.

The biggest one being the use of stamped steel exterior panels. Although, knowing how poorly that magazine hears things, Jerome may have meant stamped steel in the chassis frame, and maybe the author translated that to the body panels.

 

[Rob Croson]

It's a good article. Lots of information. That steel body panel one looks a bit wonky, though.

 

[Sethodine]

First, the article link;

There seems to be additional and surprising information about production methods, according to the article; straight from Jerome's mouth.

The biggest one being the use of stamped steel exterior panels. Although, knowing how poorly that magazine hears things, Jerome may have meant stamped steel in the chassis frame, and maybe the author translated that to the body panels.

Did the hyperlink break? It's not working for me.

 

[WilliamH]

Try it this way ---> http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/tag/elio-motors/ <---.

 

[AriLea]

From Commenter under the article Makoto..

Lets get a few things straight. First the article stated “While the E prototypes will have composite exterior body panels, the production Elios will use steel. Elio plans on building 250,000 trikes a year and it’s easier to build with steel than fiberglass in those quantities.” Which is totally wrong. The production Elios will have SMC composite panels which is the same material used for the current Corvette. Not sure why the author things the production elios will be steel panels. The prototype Elios all had fiberglass panels.
Now I have read the many comments and see that some are here due to genuine interest. Others are here to find fault and reading their comments shows that they have not done their homework. Still others miss the big picture totally. The Elio is to be built to meet four must haves. It is to be at least 90% American made parts and assembled in the U.S.A. in Shreveport, La at the old GM plant that built hummers and large pick ups. It is to target $6800 base price, but will probable be a few hundred dollars over that. It is targeting 84MPG highway. The last stats that were mentioned was that they were at 81.6 MPG. Changes have been made to improve that. There is much more I could say but those that want to know will research the subject. The others will not pay any attention to it since they have made up their minds. Lastly I want to say this…. Elio is the first startup car company to design their own engine. They had planned to use an available engine. Test showed it would not be able to do 84MPG or over 100MPH and be able to do 0 to 60 in 9.6 seconds. Also reliance on outside engine suppliers could be a big problem due to not being able to control availability or price. Elio had IAV design the engine to the specs they want. IAV designs engines for many of the European car companies including Bugatti and other better known premium brands.

 

[BiloxiGeek]

Ok, I already made this point in another thread but I'm gonna repeat it here anyway.

Using composite body panels on the E-series, and then switching to steel on the production units seems like an unworkable plan. Crash testing with one product and then building a different product would invalidate most all of the crash testing. That article has to have it wrong.

 

[AriLea]

Yes, good point. The magazine totally got that part wrong. Which makes one wonder about the rest. Confirmation is advised.

 

[Maurtis]

With a name like theirs, you would think they would fact check better

 

[Richad]

I just picked up a Smart car and all the panels are composite. To buy all the panels for the whole car in whatever color you want it costs $800.00 I bought this used but looks like it just rolled out of the factory. My intentions were I put 35000 miles a year and I wanted to not put it all on my 2016 Mazda CX-3 But now that I got the Smart I'm liking it so much except for not great pickup in the auto mode I don't want to rack the miles on that either.

 

[Jeff Porter]

From Commenter under the article Makoto..

Thanks AriLea.

Yes, that comment is correct based on what I know and remember, except the parts are to be 90% North American content, so some will be from outside the U.S.A.