When people hear about the Elio [https://www.eliomotors.com] they immediately start looking for a catch. After all it’s a vehicle that costs less than US$7,000 brand new, offers more than 2.8 litres per 100 km, boasts a 46 litre tank, and replacement parts can be purchased with relative ease. It’s a little small, but it will still hold two passengers. There has to be a catch because that kind of offer is just too good to be true.
Is it the Elio’s safety features? Nope, in fact the Elio is engineered to the highest safety standards. The Elio boasts three internal air bags to cushion any impacts, and it has a reinforced roll-cage frame to make sure that the driver and passenger are safe in the event of a wreck. The Elio also comes with anti-lock brakes, and it has a predicted 5-star safety rating based on its engineering.
The Only Catch Is Space
The Elio was engineered to get drivers the maximum amount of distance for the lowest cost without any reduction in features. The only thing that drivers lose is the extraneous space that lots of people don’t use anyway, which is where the massive reduction in weight and a lot of the vehicle’s efficiency comes from. So while an Elio isn’t an ideal car for a long distance road trip with a bunch of friends and family, it is a vehicle that can get you around town for pennies. Not only that but because the Elio is so efficient it puts out fewer emissions. This means that it reduces dependency on foreign oil, it’s good for the planet, and on top of all of that it’s still a safe and effective vehicle that someone can purchase for a third (or less) than the cost of a brand new car.
With all of those benefits to owning and driving an Elio it’s no surprise there are people looking for the catch. But aside from the lack of more than one passenger seat and a small trunk the Elio is efficient, safe, and green.