CARazed

ZENN Motor Company has announced that they are a step closer to a real electric car (my words). EEStor, the company they’ve partnered with for the necessary battery technology for the highway speed capable cityZENN is making very good progress toward commercialization of their battery technology.

“Yesterday’s announcement bodes well for EEStor’s completion of its third party verified permittivity milestone and is a very strong affirmation of our investment in and the rapid progress of our business plan,” stated Ian Clifford, Chief Executive Officer. “Energy Storage has always been the Achilles heel to the mass adoption of electric vehicles and EEStor technology is the “better battery” that the world has been waiting for. Every technology and industry reliant on electrical energy storage will potentially benefit from this.”

Once the batteries are good to go ZENN should be able to produce the cityZENN and begin selling through the dealership network already selling their neighborhood electric vehicle. The cityZENN should have a range of 250 miles and be capable of 80 miles per hour… and it’s all electric. Sounds great.

I’ve still not seen a photo or drawing of the car concept. Maybe they are planning on using the existing car design. I hope not. I hope they come up with something much nicer looking. Photo credit ZENN Motor Company.

I spotted this article in The Seattle Times this morning. Someone found a disadvantage to near silent cars…it seems they are hazard to pedestrians and the blind. I’m certain that this is true but I have confidence that the human race will adapt quickly to this new obstacle, if you can call it that. I also know how resourceful people are and fully expect technology or technique to help solve this potential problem.

Actually if I didn’t know better I’d assume that some bonehead spin doctor working for the oil industry hatched this one. Maybe if everyone drove monster trucks we’d save more lives at cross walks.

Someone should also call ZENN too and let them know they got it all wrong with their, “zero emissions no noise” cars. Those little things could turn out to be real killers if they don’t put some bells around their necks… sigh.

ZENN motor company, the electric car company from Canada, just launched a website redesign. Its a nice new flash website with an interactive online brochure, a build and price feature, product gallery with recent videos, ZENN retailer locator (you can buy these cars today in the USA), and a cost savings calculator.

ZENN stands for zero emissions no noise. It is a fully enclosed neighborhood electric vehicle, or NEV. This classification means it is limited to 25 miles per hour and the company doesn’t need to comply with some regulations freeway ready cars need to like crash testing.

If you live in a small community and run short (slow) errands this might be an excellent car to look at. For most of us NEVs are just too slow. I live in near Sacramento, California area  which is mostly surface streets, but most of them are 35 and 45 MPH. I don’t think I could get anywhere in a ZENN without getting run over. I’m still hoping this NEV effort is just a preview of a faster freeway capable car from ZENN.

Here is an electric car you can buy today in America, made in Canada. The main draw back is that it is limited to 25 MPH in order to stay in compliance with FMVSS 500 Regulations. These US Government regulations were originally written for golf cart like electric vehicles also called NEVs or neighborhood electric vehicles. FMVSS 500 doesn’t require such steps like crash testing.

We’ve contacted ZENN to see if a highway capable vehicle is planned, no word yet. It’s exciting to see another company enter the electric car market but a little sad to hear the cars can’t drive down the freeway or even down many of our 45 MPH boulevards and secondary roads.

But if you live in a small community and 25 MPH works for you this might be a great little car to buy. It’s a 2 seat, 3 door hatchback with a fully enclosed aluminum alloy space frame and ABS Body Panels. It’s 100% electric and charges to 80% in about 4 hours and fully in about 8 hours. It plugs right into normal outlets too, no special wiring needed. It has a nice storage space in back and can store up to 13 cubic feet of stuff. It’s range is only 35 miles but that’s plenty for most small community errands.

Base price is $12,750. Some extra cost options are a sunroof, battery upgrades, upgraded stereo, and an ETEC LSV-100 Fast Charger ($8,995.00) gulp!. We plan to take a field trip to our nearby electric auto dealer and check one out. They are on the lot now and waiting for buyers. Visit the ZENN website to locate a dealer near you.