Zac — Urban Mobility from Portugal
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03.29.06
Always pleasing to have stories coming at us from around the world. A comment on our post about the Cannondale Jacknife bicycle, alerts us to the zippy little Zac, an electric powered scooter from Portugal. If you weigh less than 80 kg (176 lb for our US brethern) then this little 19kg mover will pull you up “10% of inclination“ (we assume they're meaning a slope of up to 10 degrees). It can reach a max speed of 25 kph (15 mph) and give an hours worth of travel (at 15 kph). As the pics suggest the twin rechargeable 12V 12A batteries are stowed under the running board. The purchase price is about € 390 ($470 USD), and it is said to have a running cost € 0.29 ($0.35 USD) per 100 km (62 mile) of distance covered. The close up photos on the site seem to suggest the Zac is well made, with an foldable anodised aluminium frame structure and kevlar transmission belt. ::Zac Eléctrica
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“10% of inclination“ means a slope of 1 in 10, so that's actually a slope of up to 9 degrees. Might as well get on your bicycle...
Doesn't 10% mean 10 units up for every 100 units forward?? In which case, I make it 5.7degs! (cos rule)
I am not quite sure why you think this is a novelty... Razor electric scooters have been around for at least 2 years and seem to have similar specs (plus some models offer seats and lights) and they are much more affordable
P. Dantic is right. Anonymous Coward is right about the slope but wrong about the angle.
A 9 degree slope is a 15.83% grade, while a 10 degree slope is a 17.63% grade.
JMM, we aware that there are many electric scooters out there, and have mentioned several of them before. The 'novelty', if you like, of this one is that it has its origins in Portugal. We like to spread the love around a bit.
Thanks also team for many thoughts on the angle of slope!
Portugal is cool and all, with their fancy electric scooters.
But in Uruguay, they can go 15 miles on a single penny, using their compressed air bikes. And the new prototype goes 100 mph!
I think you can make it up most hills if you are going 100 mph, as long as there aren't any curves.
All hail Uruguay!
How about a link to that 100mph compressed air bicycle?
I think the electric scooter is lazy ass lame.
Kids could probably haul ass on one but most adults who have had decades of Java the Hut lifestyles would get covered in road rash.
I'm with George. Let's see an article about the compressed air bicycles. That sounds awesome. Can't say I agree with George all around though. Electric scooters... lazy ass lame... what you talkin' about George. Electric scooters are sweet!
Wow, even Portugal is starting to get its electric act together. Now, we'll need to revive the batteries for these electric "vehicles" (toy?) won't we? There is already a sustainable business in reviving dead "non rechargeable" as well as NiMH, gel cell (like the one in this scooter, likely) batteries. For example, these revived "non-rechargeable" lithium batteries LS 14250 alarm (retail $18) are sold for only $.01 (1 penny) on online auction sites. Guaranteed, to be as good as new, with 100% feedback, and thousands shipped worldwide. Are sustainability writers are of this yet?
I think the age of "Personal Urban Transportation" has finally arrived with $4/gal gas. I just wish people would stop making horribly ugly scooters, it gives the whole category a bad rep. The Go Motorboard 2000x (www.gomotorboards.com) is a beautiful piece of work.