The province of Saskatchewan now allows for three-wheeled vehicles to be operated on its streets and highways. It’s not a big deal, the market for the products is going to be very niche, whether someone is picking out a deliberately primitive Morgan or the state-of-the-art Polaris Slingshot it’s clearly a kind of leisure vehicle. It’s also not exactly a wide open market, drivers have to wear helmets and you can’t take your kids along, as all passengers need to be over seven. In most cases, these are also very much leisure vehicles, often motorcycles for people with poor balance. They don’t have to meet the safety standards of your standard four-wheeled car, and this is also partially the point, since it’s something a little bit more extreme than a regular car.
We can argue that this won’t make much of a difference. It’s not a market that a lot of people will be participating in, since it’s difficult to justify having a three-wheeled car for your only vehicle. There will be plenty of people who want one for the idea of driving purity, something like a motorcycle but you can sit down. It’s going to be taken advantage by very few people, but the idea seems to be that they want to drive models that are best on the track.
This should also be seen as great news for green end of the province’s motoring population, whether or not they realize it at the moment. Yes, a lot of the three wheeled cars are aimed as simple performance vehicles, stuff that uses a relatively lax amount of safety regulation to be lighter and faster. But losing weight isn’t just good for a performance car. Let’s say you take one of these three-wheeled vehicles, pull out the traditional motorcycle engine and instead fill it with batteries and an electric motor. Suddenly you have a green vehicle that really anyone can drive, that could cost significantly less than your standard electric model or, if one takes a more performance-oriented approach, can be developed into a performance electric. Morgan has already done this with their own three-wheeler, using electrons where internal combustion would otherwise reside.
Yes, there are be companies that try to take advantage of the less stringent safety requirements in order to try to make a quick buck – the short-lived Zap Xebra, since recalled because the brakes fitted didn’t actually stop the car, is one example of what can happen – but an enterprising entrepreneur could more easily enter the market with a three wheeled niche electric than a traditional, more heavily regulated four-wheeled car. We should encourage them, especially as for a lot of people a small commuter powered by batteries would make a great deal more sense than driving something full sized to work every day. It’s a niche product, but with the possibility of three wheeled cars out there, it’s the kind of thing that a lot of commuters could embrace. It makes more sense than a motorcycle, since it’s similar to how people drive already and the extra wheel ads some stability. But it could also be used to make something cheap for an extra vehicle. When most electric vehicles go in excess of $30,000, it would be handy to have a much cheaper alternative.
But we live in Saskatchewan, and in Saskatchewan we have an active oil industry and an even more active suspicion surrounding anything that isn’t powered by burning dead dinosaurs. This isn’t a market that has embraced electric power, and I’ve encountered resistance to the idea from people charged with actually selling electric cars. While making a low-cost three wheeled electric might seem relatively low risk, it’s also something that would face an uphill battle in a province. But the idea of a low-cost, stripped down commuter is still an interesting idea if you’re putting in a small gas-powered motor. Remember, light weight, and the less weight you have to carry the less fuel you need to use. Even equipped with some kind of traditional internal combustion engine a little three wheeler is going to be using less gas overall, and that’s something that consumers can embrace.
These three-wheeled cars aren’t as safe as your regular car, but if we’re talking about driving efficiency, they’re a compelling idea as a way to get two and from work. As cities around the world try to limit the amount of internal combustion traffic in their city centers, it becomes an interesting way to get people who can’t afford a full-sized electric to continue to be able to access the downtown of those places. Saskatchewan cities might never consider drastic moves taken by other centers to limit that traffic, but Saskatchewan drivers could still benefit from a cheaper, cleaner little runabout that they’re never really going to take on the highway or drive particularly fast. A lot of the three-wheeler hype has surrounded the performance models, but for the rest of us, we might be able to get an interesting, efficient way to get to work in the morning.
