The three-wheeler's time is nigh

The United States Congress has passed a new bill that dispenses with previous Department dictates limiting funding to four-wheeled vehicles only. Applicant vehicles can now have three wheels, as long as they're fully enclosed, able to carry at least two adults and average a minimum 75 mpg (3.2L/100km).

That's good news for trike specialists like California's Aptera (pictured) and Arizona based Elio, for whom it potentially opens the purse.

The bill is still waiting on ratification from president Obama, but White House spokespeople have said that's not likely to be a problem.

Aptera says its 2e PHEV will be good for about 160 km on a single battery charge. The company is looking to the Department for a US$75 million kick-start loan for mass production, scheduled for mid 2011.

Elio, meanwhile, has an 83 mpg (2.8L/100km) petrol-engined three-wheeler in development, which it plans to bring to market in Q2 2011 for less than US$7500.

The bill has met with predictable opposition from General Motors.

With grant applications totalling US$10 billion in the offing, GM has questioned the appropriateness of giving start-ups and niche outfits access to the Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program, arguing the money was earmarked to help large manufacturers diversify their line-ups and get alternative-powered models to market quickly.

It's all part of a radical rethink of the way our cars make contact with the ground. With rolling resistance coming under scrutiny for its imposition on fuel economy, automakers have looked in several different directions to reduce it.

The most conventional has been to redesign tyres with stiffer side-walls to reduce flattening under weight, a method that's become commonplace.
The other two are more radical.

One has been resort to skinnier wheels. That's an idea whose time might come with drastic weight reductions in mainstream models. The other has been to cut the number of wheels to three.

This has always attracted scepticism, mainly on the grounds of safety. Anyone who ever took a spin on one of those fat-wheeled little 1970s ag-trikes that preceded the quad-bike might understand why. With no weight up front and the rider sitting directly over the rear axle, they flipped when they hit a bottle top.
But that was then and this is now.

Some big names are pouring lots of money into new and doubtless much safer takes on the trike concept. Only this month BMW was touting two of its own, the Simple and the Clever.