The confusing but cute 3 wheel Solo EV is finally in production:
It's taken years, but it's finally happening: the Solo, the adorable three-wheeled electric vehicle from Electra Meccanica, is entering production.
As Electrive points out, news of the Solo first surfaced about four years ago, and deliveries were supposed to commence two years ago, but nothing happened — until now.
According to an announcement from Electra Meccanica, the company that designs and makes the Solo, the car is today entering production. It will be produced under contract by manufacturing partner and investor, Zongshen Industrial Group, in Chongqing, China.
[...] As you might expect given its name, the Solo is a one-person electric vehicle that's targeting itself hard at individual city commuters.
It has 100 miles (161 km) of range and a top speed of 80 mph (129 km/h), which is more than you'll ever need in the confines of a crowded city. It's all powered by a 17.3 kWh battery that feeds electricity to a 82 bhp motor that drives the single rear wheel.
[...] It's quirky, different, and it's way smaller than a car, which makes it great for use in cities where space is at a premium and conventional cars aren't getting any smaller. I'm not sure it really makes sense, but we'll get to that.
Electra Meccanica has said it wants to produce 75,000 of these, which seems ambitious, especially given that it didn't meet its previous delivery date.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @08:51AM (10 children)
For the same price you could get a Mazda 2 / Toyota Yaris (same thing) which is a real car that holds four people and is plenty compact enough for the city. Not electric, but not made in China either. Even the "Smart car" is more practical than this, and it was still too small.
This reminds me of the old Pulse motorcycle: https://www.autocycles.org/specs.html [autocycles.org]
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Wednesday September 02 2020, @10:03AM (3 children)
I had a Smart, It was not too small, other than that I was pushed of the road by some construction workers in a Nissan Navarra.
Small cars are not a new idea in Europe.
My parents had a Heinkel 125 (which is not a WW2 fighter jet), and our neigbours had an Isetta (car, not scooter). A schoolmate had a Messerschmitt - which had a tendency to attempt flying back to Germany if you went round corners too fast - probably pining for the Autobahns.
(You may or may not want to visit Google Images, depending on the value you put on your privacy).
The Solo's designers could have learned a lot by studying these vehicles before starting work.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @03:55AM (2 children)
Small cars are a necessaity, nothing desirable about them. Just like homes, if you buy it for the size you need at the time, it is usually too small the day after you buy it. But I'm sure you can tell me how you can fit yourself, your spouse, two kids, a niece, and in-laws in your Smart car.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Thursday September 03 2020, @03:04PM (1 child)
But I'm sure you can tell me how you can fit yourself, your spouse, two kids, a niece, and in-laws in your Smart car.
As an environmentally friendly family, we had two cars, the other being a Nissan X-trail.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Friday September 04 2020, @02:19PM
I bought the X-Trail for £3,000 with a faulty turbo, and replaced the turbo myself for £333. Took about two hours
most of which was spent cleaning the EGR.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @01:28PM (2 children)
Around here buying a Toyota ought to be grounds for losing your driver's license. In fact, just the intention ought to be enough. Toyota drivers are horrible horrible drivers. If we're serious about getting to zero traffic fatalities, part of the solution needs to be taking Toyotas, or worse Lexus, drivers off the road permanently.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ChrisMaple on Thursday September 03 2020, @05:03AM (1 child)
You misspelled BMW.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 03 2020, @10:32AM
I spell that "Dodge".
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by slinches on Wednesday September 02 2020, @06:19PM (1 child)
There was another company trying to make an affordable 3-wheel commuter/fleet car that seats 2 in tandem, Elio Motors. The idea is great, take a normal ICE coupe, cut the car in half long ways to reduce drag, minimize cost and still have a usable amount of passenger space for two. At $7500 and ~60mpg it would actually pay for itself in the gas savings compared to driving a larger vehicle. So people who would normally have to choose between a commuter car or an SUV/truck could get the SUV/Truck and an Elio and it would actually cost less overall while getting the utility of both vehicles.
Unfortunately, the start up costs were too high to jump straight into the scale needed to hit those cost targets and the market wouldn't support such a vehicle at $10k plus since that would put it too close in price with traditional compact cars.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday September 02 2020, @07:19PM
I saw the orange Elio demo car and I wanted one. The prototypes were really nice. I feel like they might have oversold the production-readiness of these vehicles though; IIRC the demo I saw was powered by the engine out of a Geo metro.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Thursday September 03 2020, @05:10AM
The Solo is not worth a Napoleon.