Eli Zero Comes Back To Life

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Eli Zero NEV

We covered the cute, fun, little tiny Eli ZERO electric concept car in 2017 and 2018. It is not looking to upend the traditional global auto market like the Tesla Model 3 or Tesla Model Y, but it is a cool, attractive-looking little electric vehicle that could sell in decent portions to vehicle-sharing fleets, tourism transportation systems, college campuses, retirement villages, etc.

Unfortunately, after a while, Eli dropped off the radar. Did another one bite the dust? Did the ZERO get run over by a wayward Tesla Cybertruck?

Apparently not. The Eli team just shared this update:

“Last year we made a strategic decision to pause marketing of the Eli ZERO to focus on some upgrading and supply chain efforts, and we are happy to share our progress:

    • We spent the last year upgrading the Eli ZERO and adjusting our supply chain and are now preparing to finally start production soon!
    • The Eli ZERO has gone through a number of upgrades, including a brand new interior and features such as power assisted steering and brakes.
    • Our upgrades allow Eli ZERO to be street legal in both US and EU.

Eli plans to start producing and selling in limited volumes in both the US and the EU in the 4th quarter of 2020.

This vehicle class has never done particularly well in the US or even Europe, but it continues to have a strong appeal to certain portions of the population. Since I think the Eli Zero looks particularly cool, I hope to see Eli get manufacturing off the ground and find a decent niche market to sell to. That said, anyone expecting a revolution from a vehicle in a class that just doesn’t appeal to the mass market should look into the landscape of neighborhood electric vehicles that have come and gone over the years.

For now, here are a couple of pics from the update:


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7317 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan