Elf microcars, from Organic Transit Web site
The photo above is of ELF microcars from the US company Organic Transit.
The ELF is marketed as a velocar — an enclosed, pedal-powered vehicle — but in reality, it is an electrically-powered microcar designed to meet the legal definition of an electrically-assisted bicycle (or tricycle) — like a moped, by having vestigial pedals — and so to be street legal without meeting the requirements for equipment, registration and driver licensing with a motor vehicle. The microcar is a viable concept, but whether microcars will succeed in the USA, or this one will succeed, is open to question. I do expect that the diversity of vehicle types will increase with time, as I’ve stated in an earlier post on this blog.
Most of the ELF’s power is from the electric motor. It can carry two or three people, or one person an a substantial amount of baggage, but only the one person in front has pedals. There is only a 3-speed geared hub for the pedaler, though a vehicle this heavy needs wide-range gearing if pedal-powered — so, again, the pedaling is secondary to the electric power.
The ELF can charge its battery from the power grid, or more slowly from sunlight, if there is sunlight. Claim is that the ELF travels as fast as most city traffic, but the top speed (limited by proposed electric-bicycle laws) is 20 mph. Legal to use on bike lanes or bike paths? Subject to mandatory bike lane laws? Open to question but it wouldn’t fit them very well — there are problems with microcars for disabled people on Amsterdam bikeways, as illustrated in a previous post. This type of vehicle gets used on bikeways, whether it is legal or not.
Claim “is much safer than a bicycle” is unsubstantiated, as the ELF hasn’t been around long enough to establish a safety record. Three-wheel vehicles, unless very low-slung, are tippy, and the people in the promo pictures are wearing neither seat belts nor helmets.
Beautiful vehicles!!! The future of the bikes!!!
“Three-wheel vehicles, unless very low-slung, are tippy…”
Surely no more so than a two-wheel vehicle.
Scott Harriman, this is a comparison of apples and oranges. Unless the center of gravity is low enough and track width is wide enough that a tricycle skids first, it will remain upright until the side force becomes great enough that it abruptly falls to the outside of the turn (“high-sides”) A bicycle, motorcycle or any single-track vehicle, on the other hand, leans into turns and if it skids out, will fall to the inside of the turn, not a fall from as great a height. A single-track vehicle also may high-side but only if an obstacle sweeps the wheels out from under it. Also, a tricycle, with only one wheel at one end, is tippier than a four-wheel vehicle with the same track width. It’s generally better for the single wheel to be at the rear, as vehicles can brake harder than they accelerate: braking while turning on a “delta” tricycle (with a single wheel at the front) can easily result in a crash — example.