Elio (it's a car) has its fanatic fans and outraged detractors

Quick - name a brand new car that isn't quite in production yet, but promises huge energy savings.

I'd bet that most of you thought of a car whose name rhymes with "dressla."

I'd bet that most of you didn't think of a car that rhymes with "elio."

Or, correction - a car whose name is Elio.

If you ask the National Motorists Association (DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A FAN OF THE NATIONAL MOTORISTS ASSOCIATION), the reason that you didn't think about Elio is because the press is bigoted and enthralled with another car:

You’d think the media would be chomping at the bit to let the public know that there is a car on the verge of production (with 41,000 of them already spoken for via cash-down reservations) that — according to Paul Elio — will cost well under $10,000 (under $8,000 is the target) and go well over 80 miles on a gallon of gasoline.

Ah, but it’s not electric — and so the Elio gets no love (much less coverage) from the media.

Electric cars (and other such cars) do because they lack the thing the media finds abhorrent — an internal combustion engine.

And after I read all of these wonderful things about the Elio, I ran across another article that had a slightly different take on the car.

Since the company doesn’t want to narrow their market down, by their own criteria, I’ve taken it upon myself to write a description of the person who would likely buy one. This person:

·Has another car
·Has a motorcycle license and helmet
·Has no desire to drive other people/has no friends
·Has no family
·Has a maximum of one child, NO BABIES.
·Doesn’t care about performance
·Doesn’t care about refinement/noise level
·Doesn’t care about ride quality/comfort
·Doesn’t know the difference between emissions and fuel consumption
·Desperately needs attention/female companionship
·Has the disposable income to donate thousands to vaporware on a second car, but cheap enough that they can’t afford to buy anything else
·Has AAA, because there’s no spare

That’s an awfully small window.

Actually this wide divergence of opinion on the Elio is a good thing - at least this indicates that people care about the product.

If you're interested, here's the Elio Motors website.