I believe people are overlooking the fact that the Elio chassis is a fully boxed steel roll cage instead of the stamped steel unibody structure found in nearly all cars today. This type of structure is similar to a race cars chassis and is incredibly strong. This chassis also really shows its strength in side impact and rollover accidents especially with only one door opening which makes the complete chassis even stronger. I wouldn't expect any difference in side impacts using this chassis and a well designed door versus any other car on the road as we have to remember that the only thing protecting just about every other car on the road in a side impact is a well designed chassis, door, and door frame.
Until you see it in person you fail to realize the fact that this vehicle is 13.5 feet long which is about the same length as many compact four door hatchbacks on the road today and the Elio has similar, and in some cases longer, crumple zones.
There are also some interesting safety advantages to the fact that this is a very lightweight three wheel vehicle with narrow tires. Being lightweight the vehicle will tend to dissipate energy by being pushed more and this is actually helped by only having three relatively narrow tires which will provide reduced resistance to being pushed verses a normal four wheel car. There is also an interesting tendency for wheel three wheeled vehicles to spin or twirl away from many accidents, especially side impacts. Unlike a four wheel vehicle where the forces resisting movement are fairly balanced so the vehicle will tend to stay put and absorb more energy, on the Elio both the mass of the vehicle and the resistance to movement from the tires will be concentrated at the front so the vehicle will have a natural tendency to spin around its front end, like a spinning top.
I believe there are going to be a lot of shocked people out when Elio does pass those crash tests with flying colors as most people really do not understand what Elio has come up with in terms of occupant safety for minimum cost.
Until you see it in person you fail to realize the fact that this vehicle is 13.5 feet long which is about the same length as many compact four door hatchbacks on the road today and the Elio has similar, and in some cases longer, crumple zones.
There are also some interesting safety advantages to the fact that this is a very lightweight three wheel vehicle with narrow tires. Being lightweight the vehicle will tend to dissipate energy by being pushed more and this is actually helped by only having three relatively narrow tires which will provide reduced resistance to being pushed verses a normal four wheel car. There is also an interesting tendency for wheel three wheeled vehicles to spin or twirl away from many accidents, especially side impacts. Unlike a four wheel vehicle where the forces resisting movement are fairly balanced so the vehicle will tend to stay put and absorb more energy, on the Elio both the mass of the vehicle and the resistance to movement from the tires will be concentrated at the front so the vehicle will have a natural tendency to spin around its front end, like a spinning top.
I believe there are going to be a lot of shocked people out when Elio does pass those crash tests with flying colors as most people really do not understand what Elio has come up with in terms of occupant safety for minimum cost.
Last edited: