At first look, Solo Electric cars can be mistaken for a real car - complete with hood, grille, and headlights. But take a look the second time, and you will see that the vehicle only has three wheels!
For many decades, the best-selling vehicles in the United States have always been the hulking, gas-powered pick-up trucks from Ford, Ram, and Chevy. That has not changed for so long, and it seems that they have a tight grip on that market that looks unbreakable.
But there will always be companies who will try to upend the status quo with their idealistic thinking - and ideally deep pockets, as well. One such company will try to launch its single-seat, tiny three-wheeled electric car known as Solo. The manufacturer, Electra Meccanica, said that it would be available in Los Angeles at the end of the year.
So, is it a Car or a Motorcycle?
According to the Census Bureau, almost 90% of Americans who commute by car, truck van, or motorcycle drive alone. Since Solo takes up about a quarter of the space of a typical SUV, it is the right alternative to hauling around all the excess automotive tonnage.
Its appearance at the front looks like a car with the usual hood, grille, and headlights. But take a look from behind, and you will see that it only has one wheel.
Though Solo is fully enclosed and drives like a car with a steering wheel and foot pedals, it is technically a motorcycle. It contains only one seat, but it is accessible with doors on both sides. Like a typical car, it also has a trunk, Bluetooth stereo, air conditioning, and a backup camera.
Since it only has three wheels, Solo is not subjected to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's crash-testing usually required to four-wheeled vehicles. But it does have a seatbelt and an integrated roll bar.
Not the First Three-Wheeled Car in the Market
Though it looks unique, Solo is not the first of its kind. An Angular British three-wheeler in pumpkin orange, known as the Bond Bug, was released in 1970 but went out of production four years later. Another one is the Carver from the Netherlands that has been making different iterations of its leaning-three-wheeled "man-wide" vehicles since the 1990s.
Corbin Sparrow, with its striking resemblance to Mother Hubbard's shoe, also tried to enter the market but failed to take off in any meaningful way after its production in 1999.
Karl Brauer, the executive publisher of Kelley Blue Book, said that there had been so many of them already. Now that the world is fighting a pandemic crisis, a lot of people want to solve the problem of clean, space-efficient, inexpensive personal transportation.
Coronavirus has transformed transportation because people are required to practice social distancing, and suddenly cars are unaffordable as many people have lost their jobs. Plus, the threat of climate change remains very real.
So, maybe the Solo has a chance to successfully make it to the market, which only costs $18,500 or half as much as the current average sales price of a new passenger vehicle. Additionally, it has zero emissions, which allows the rider to use it for 100 miles of travel per hour at a top speed of 80 miles per hour.
