Quote:
Originally Posted by logan5
It's looks different, and it's only a 2 seater (which is fine 99.9% of the time). Other than that, what is the major sacrifice here?
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I would say crash protection? Not sure where the regulations are now, but 3-wheeled vehicles used to be classified as motorcycles and thus didn't have to adhere to the same crash protection standards as 4-wheeled vehicles. I recall that there was some movement to separate closed-in car-like 3-wheelers from those with a motorcycle configuration (i.e. motorcycle with a side car, etc.), but I'm not sure if it came to fruition. That said, I wouldn't want to be involved in a side crash situation in one of these as it doesn't appear to be protected very well.
Another caveat for me would be snow performance. I can imagine it would be quite a handful in slippery snow, slush, or ice conditions.
Also, I wouldn't want to accidentally hit a curb or large pothole with the flimsy-ish front suspension - maybe it's just how it looks to me, but it appears that it would be easy to bend one of the suspension members and throw its alignment out of whack. Maybe they've taken that into consideration, but it looks more like a California vehicle than a midwest/rustbelt/Canadian market vehicle.
That said, I agree with Nouvellecosse in that it's refreshing to see an EV that has targeted efficiency through light weight and aerodynamics. I'm hoping that future EVs will try to venture in that direction vs just being and EV version of current ICE vehicles (while maintaining safety standards, of course).