Staying The Course

[AriLea]

I guess some people suffer from the attitude that "If it ain't a silver bullet, it ain't no bullet at all." Maybe that would be because ultimate and dramatic issues we face have always existed in some form or another, only morphing and never completely evaporating. Ultimate solutions don't exist in this dimension. Minor ones are abundant. We have to learn to accept the process of optimizing what we can with rational behavior rather than ranting with abandon on what we can't. The questions from our existence that come up are actually emotional ones, but resolve back down to some basics, "Do you trust living?" Or maybe, "Do you need a logical reason to play the game?", and similarly "You exist, life is, just enjoy, and engage, as best you can." (add more as you see fit..)

Did I just get existential here? Oops, my bad :-)

 

[zelio]

I guess some people suffer from the attitude that "If it ain't a silver bullet, it ain't no bullet at all." Maybe that would be because ultimate and dramatic issues we face have always existed in some form or another, only morphing and never completely evaporating. Ultimate solutions don't exist in this dimension. Minor ones are abundant. We have to learn to accept the process of optimizing what we can with rational behavior rather than ranting with abandon on what we can't. The questions from our existence that come up are actually emotional ones, but resolve back down to some basics, "Do you trust living?" Or maybe, "Do you need a logical reason to play the game?", and similarly "You exist, life is, just enjoy, and engage, as best you can." (add more as you see fit..)

Did I just get existential here? Oops, my bad

Wow, did you ever! I love it! Welcome to my world! Z

 

[AriLea]

Wow, did you ever! I love it! Welcome to my world! Z

I kind of thought that we were, given other things you have said. Shawmen of the same walking stick?

 

[zelio]

I kind of thought that we were, given other things you have said. Shawmen of the same walking stick?

Oh, yah. :-) Z

 

[Mike W]

At this point there is no "the answer" to the pickle we've gotten ourselves into, not yet anyway. At the turn of the 20th century the automobile was the solution to the problem of equine pollution (dead horses were thrown into rivers or left on the streets, all of America was knee deep in road apples, especially bad in major US cities). We aren't to the point where any technologies are all that promising, what to do? Appropriate existing technologies, with improvements, to fill the gaps and continue to search for solutions. The Elio isn't the answer but it's one of the smaller answers that will help fill the gap. And if it helps my pocket book and provides a little fun, all the better! I'm looking forward to see news about what is happening in the whole "Elio process" we are involved in. Sometimes it just takes time...

 

[JEBar]

After being on this forum for a few months I notice that a lot of folks have already come and gone. I suspect many are just quietly biding their time as they wait for their Elio but I wonder how many just lost interest and walked away.

to me it seems rather unique to have an Elio Owners Forum when, as of now, there is only one person who owns an Elio .... the same person also controls all of the info that is released about the development process .... that would be Paul Elio and so far as I know he's not a member of the forum .... consequently, its easy to see how some folks who are sincerely interested in the concept, join the forum, learn all they can, and in the absence of new info drift away .... as new promotions come and go, some folks they bring in stay, others drop away .... once the development process reaches the point to where major progress can be shown, some may come back and hopefully even more will join

Jim

 

[AriLea]

to me it seems rather unique to have an Elio Owners Forum when, as of now, there is only one person who owns an Elio .... the same person also controls all of the info that is released about the development process .... that would be Paul Elio and so far as I know he's not a member of the forum .... consequently, its easy to see how some folks who are sincerely interested in the concept, join the forum, learn all they can, and in the absence of new info drift away .... as new promotions come and go, some folks they bring in stay, others drop away .... once the development process reaches the point to where major progress can be shown, some may come back and hopefully even more will join
Jim

Yes, you can expect the mix of people to change. Right now we use this forum to share/support EM developments. When the car is out there, we'll use this more to share vehicle knowledge and social events. That's my expectation. Having said that, the first year should be very exciting, and the later years should be very rewarding socially if nothing else. Likely the various interests will break out into subgroups.

 

[AriLea]

After being on this forum for a few months I notice that a lot of folks have already come and gone.

You know, I've been heavily active online since 2002 dedicated to my subject of interest.
It seems exceptionally common for most people to just lurk. They like the info or the banter, but don't like to commit any input. Some percentage are also robots, just tolling for page updates etc. Sometimes it's a company doing market and product research. I actually got an email from Zapp once on that, then they faded back to lurk mode. Three wheelers are so very popular now, I doubt they will bother to contact anyone directly again.

Quite often someone will speak up as they join, but fade back to lurk status. For the bulk part of it, it's very hard to know who listens and why.
Once the Elio is out there, quite possibly I'll slip back into lurk mode more often than today.

 

[BillZ]

This is a very strange topic and one that I've spent way too much time thinking about because of my casual nature to become interested in a subject just to burn out on it and fade away, much like you believe many people have done. My wife has been very understanding and manages to not too critical of my fickle nature.

However, I believe that we are seeing a natural evolution of all forums as well as the dynamics of a society that is demanding as the ultimate consumerism takes hold forming the "I want it now" mentality. Of the other forums that I've frequented, I've noticed that the user groups are composed of those most active online because they are just beginning their research into a given subject, supported by the self-professed experts on that subject, in a symbiotic relationship that serves both users. However, it is very clear that the new users quickly attain a level of proficiency that leads them into higher level of knowledge and they "graduate" to being a support status or they exit the forum having maxed their usefulness to or from the forum.

This relationship is likely to be reach here much earlier because there is so little actual experience or knowledge of the Elio that forum members become bored quickly and become lurkers or they fade away, as previously mentioned. Interestingly enough is the idea that this forum will expand the knowledge base as the news is promulgated and as the Elio is released and the user group will explode with new interest to match the new consumer/driver.

I have noted that there are many on here that have been holding on a lot longer than my usual length of attention span would afford. Only time will tell, and encouraged by news and experience, but I hope to be around here for a long time to remain an active and helpful voice joining with so many of you that have already provided both optimism as well as information that is difficult to glean from the many sources of the internet.

Waiting...

 

[BilgeRat]

It's funny to me that so many are focusing on as-yet unproven or immature technologies for which an infrastructure for delivery is as yet unavailable. The US has massive deposits of fossil fuels, yet some would burn these in central power stations and distribute the resulting electricity for miles - sometimes hundreds of them - taking the electrical losses along the way. This isn't the way to efficiency.

Right now you can "fuel" your electric car for very little money, and that's great - if you are going 20 or 25 miles in a typical day. But you have to think about what you do for contingencies. Your daughter's school calls and she's in the nurse's office with a nosebleed - your company's best customer calls a meeting and you have to drive an additional 18 miles to show up on their doorstep - maybe you need to do some shopping but what you need is at another store across town . . . how will you handle the schedule changes that occur almost weekly with an electric car with limited range? What do you do when extreme temperatures cut your range even further, particularly in cold weather? Can you afford to spend several hours in a coffee shop trying to do business with your tablet and cell phone while your car re-charges?

But in time those who seek to put their hands in your pockets in Washington and your state legislature figure out you aren't paying your fair share of "road taxes" and slap you with another "mileage tax" due at registration. That 50¢ per gallon (plus or minus, depending on your state) you're paying now starts to look a lot better. So now that super techie electric car is beginning to lose some of its attractive qualities in the face of real-world application.

Elio, as currently represented, is using mature technologies, a proven infrastructure for fuel delivery, and a little outside-the-box engineering to achieve viable savings. Tandem seating best suits a commuter, a 1+1 if you will, for getting back and forth in the daily slog with just enough technology to be interesting without being overly expensive. It probably won't haul 4' X 8' sheets of drywall, it won't accommodate three kids and the dog on vacation, and it's probably not what you want to drive in a hurricane or blizzard. That's what that other 1.3 cars in the American driveway are for. Here's an idea: throw a small pad of paper on the console and mark down all of the trips you make in a month that could be easily handled in your Elio. Mark others with a notation as to why you need the extra space. Keep records of mileage of each trip if you're going to be picky with this, and at the end of 60-90 days look over your record. Would a "$6,800 car" offering fantastic gas mileage and a new car warranty be a good idea for at least ONE of the cars in your driveway?

Thought so.

Well said. I know damn well that I'm the only one in the car the vast majority of the time. Running errands around town, out to lunch with friends on days off, rail photography expeditions, etc. are the type of things my wife has no interest in going along on. I also make the occasional run from home to the company offices (I sorta work "remotely") for training and such, and that's a 410 mile trip one way. I would sure like the option of doing that round trip for approximately ten gallons of gas instead of the twenty six or so my Honda Fit currently requires. (I recently had to drive my relief's Chevy Z71 pickup to the office over a distance of about 350 miles, and I ended up putting over $100 of gas into it! Yikes!)

In this job, very few of us live near the office; almost everyone is driving anywhere from an hour to as much as ten hours or more to get to the office, and then we board crew vans that take us to where we need to go. ALL of us are doing this with just ourselves in the car or pickup. I have brought the Elio up with both of my helpers and a couple of the other guys that are doing long distance hauls, and they're very intrigued with the idea of something that would cut the cost of their drive to and from the office, and would be so inexpensive to buy. I can see the idea of this catching on with at least some of us once the car is in production, and one or two start showing up in the company parking lot.

I purely hate spending more on gasoline than I absolutely have to. Being able to cut way back on what I spend on gas and still being able to get where I need and want to be appeals to me immensely, and to be able to do it at that price is just the icing on the cake. I can guarantee that when any of us gets our credit card statement, we will never say, "Gee, I wish I'd spent more money on gasoline last month."