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Phximiev said:
I wouldn't hold my breath. Here's a brief video from the Vancouver Sun website:
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/High+hopes+made+electric/11167323/story.html
I think this was news to most of us on the Sparrow forum.

Two of my Sparrows were daily drivers for my wife and myself until the i-MiEV, and I continued driving the Sparrow daily (except when it rained) until our second i-MiEV. Nowadays, I take the Sparrow out if I want an EV-acceleration adrenaline rush. I take issue with their description of the Sparrow's handling characteristics, but I admit to not altering the suspension after I removed 450# when I converted to Lithium. ;)

Wish them well.

ThreeSparrows.jpg


Edited once.
 
The new Sparrow?

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/08/electra-meccanica-solo-ev/?utm_content=buffer67234&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
 
"With a lot of used plug-in vehicles now on the market as their leases expire, a used Nissan Leaf EV, for example, can be had for as little as $8,000 in some locations. That's just over half the cost of a new Solo, and it seats five."

. . . . and therein lies the problem - Buy two lightly used 'real' cars' with A/C, heat and power steering, or one three wheeled motorcycle, which is how three wheeled vehicles are classified. Hard to make a profitable go at building something against those odds

Don
 
Looked at this: http://electrameccanica.com

This ( http://electrameccanica.com/category/blog/ ) says they have over 20,000 commercial orders.

At $20k apiece (Canadian? Estimated price?), per their reservation link, the venture may be a success??

Perhaps one of our Vancouver members would be interested in a test drive?
 
I haven't been following them. Glad to see they're redesigning it completely rather than upgrading the existing Sparrow. Wish them well, but am surprised by the "20,000 orders".

IIRC, Elon Musk had said that Tesla in the end would have been better off designing their own Roadster instead of adapting the Lotus.
 
The number of orders is surprising.

On a separate note, I wrote an email tonight to Mr. Kroll and received a very quick response. He must have been having a late night!

My questions:
_______

When will all testing be complete?

When will production start?

When will the car be available in the US?

What will be the price?

_____
Mr. Kroll, in response to the above emailed questions, wrote:

The testing is NEVER complete!! It goes on and on forever.

If you put in your $250 refundable reservation now, you'll be looking at delivery around March 2017. Many others are ahead of you already.

$19,888.00 is the anticipated price.

Thanks for your email!

Jerry Kroll, CEO
Electra Meccanica

[email protected]
604-687-3088

_______

With that price and that number of orders, its an EV worth watching.
 
Demo of the Sparrow and the new EM car in North Vancouver: https://electrameccanica.com/event/electrameccanica-coming-lonsdale-quay-market/
 
Spy Videos Per YouTube:

https://youtu.be/zkQUATEaXXk

https://youtu.be/qCsEmlZ48YI

https://youtu.be/ruraW0g-ugc
 
Vehicle design videos:

https://youtu.be/fhjBfgfNjgU

https://youtu.be/zHZ8JxypfiQ

https://youtu.be/p6gKYLYfe6A
 
More on the vehicle:

https://youtu.be/0CQKkTIU3rI

https://youtu.be/kMVpKdpywGU

https://youtu.be/sc9uGDIY06A

https://youtu.be/O1kJkZK7RjA

I like the battery case design.
 
I'm glad to see them taking a serious engineering approach to this vehicle, with their brief on-topic videos being a nice modern approach to describing their product. Significant improvement over the original Corbin Sparrow (note that I changed the thread title)! Although he did discuss "no maintenance" (except there are brake and windshield washer fluid and tire pressures to check), I hope they take design for maintainability and manufacturability seriously (that's one of the areas that sunk the original Corbin Sparrow).

My wife and I each had a Sparrow as our local daily driver until we got the i-MiEV - after all, it was the only freeway-legal 'production' vehicle you could buy in that timeframe. Considering that, by far, the majority of cars out there have only one person in them, the small all-electric single-seater makes eminent sense.

In a culture presently obsessed with 'safety', I'm interested in seeing how they address that specific issue, as that is still the second-most-asked question by curious bystanders when I take the Sparrow into town.

The other thing is body styling - whereas the Sparrow is 'cute' (women, especially teenage girls, think it's adorable) it does not engender seriousness and thus a more-aggressive stance may allow the Elektra Meccanica to cater to a wider demographic.

After all is said and done, I'll be surprised if they can sell it for under $20K.
 
I'll be surprised if they can sell enough of them to make enough profit to stay in business. I sure don't see them being a big seller at $20K. Used, very low mileage iMiEV's are selling for less than half of that and you're getting a way more practical vehicle for much less money. Even comparing the price to a brand new iMiEV leaves me wondering who would opt to buy the three wheeler

As to styling - The video link showing the front of them reminds me of a Chrysler product and that can't be good for sales. I think getting back to 'cute' like the original Sparrow was would do more for sales than their current styling efforts

Don
 
One other feature (I may have missed in the discussion) that is significant for BEVs is regeneration. The original Sparrow has a series dc motor and thus has no regen (would need a SepEx dc motor for that) which I find very painful as I hate using the brakes in either the i-MiEV or Tesla. In talking with the people involved with the original Sparrow design, an ac motor with regen was unsatisfactory as any heavier regen would break the rear wheel loose.
Edit: Because of this, I was very happy when the three-wheel Aptera made the design change to switch over to front wheel drive.

As it is, the Sparrow has two externally adjustable brake pressure equalizers and is very sensitive to fore-aft braking distribution. This is especially noticeable after a rain or on a loose surface. You can imagine what has happened now that I removed 450# from the Sparrow by converting to Lithiums - yes, it's a slingshot on steroids :eek: , but is quite a handling handful and is the primary reason I've simply given up driving it in the rain. :cry:

Hmm, I wonder if they'll have one or two doors on the SOLO? The Sparrow has a 'safety' feature that disables the system 12vdc when the vehicle turns over (on its side). On the Sparrow, the single door is (very logically) on the right side, but that means if the car flips over onto its right side you can't open the electric windows to get out! :shock: For that reason I usually drive with the left window open... :roll:
 
Per their newsletter (between the lines):

_____

You’ve seen it in articles and Spy Videos, but now is your chance to watch the Electra Meccanica SOLO chassis live and in motion! This Saturday, August 6th, the SOLO will be at Mission Raceway Park to participate in the BCMA’s Time Attack event. From 5 P.M. to 8 P.M., cars of all make and class, including our B.C.-made SOLO, will be taking to the track to see which machine can master Mission’s most exciting raceway.

River’s Edge Road Course offers participants every challenge a driver could ask for: tight hairpin turns, lengthy straightaways, and more than 2kms of asphalt to tear up with each lap. Admission and parking are free, so be sure to snap plenty of photos from the grandstands when our SOLO takes off!

______

For those interested in visiting the raceway! Take some videos...
 
An InsideEvs article: http://insideevs.com/electra-meccanica-solo-electric-three-wheeler-priced-at-15240-usd-september-launch/
 
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