Zapping Gas Prices With A Three-Wheeled Electric Vehicle, A Zipcar And A Bike
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 07. 7.08
My friend Carey is a single Portland, Oregon mom with a mortgage, a short commute to a full-time job and two school-age daughters. That translates to a fairly mainstream transportation need. She's also my choice for TreeHugger of the week because as of about two months ago she finally found a way to mothball her Honda and get off the gas roller coaster ride by buying a Zap three-wheeled electric vehicle.
Part of a personal transportation network
Carey is nothing if not pragmatic. She surveyed the small playing field. Of the five electric vehicles currently for sale, Zap seemed the best choice. If she was going to plonk down $11,700 for a Zap Xebra electric sedan, it did not have to meet her every transport need, but it did need to fulfill some criteria. The family of three had to comfortably fit in it, along with at least a few bags of groceries. The Xebra had to make it to her academic job and back on a single charge, and it had to be both fast enough to feel part of neighborhood traffic and safe enough for her teenager to learn to drive with (as the Zap is not classified as a low-speed vehicle, it can go beyond the 25 mph of those low-speed alternatives - going up to about 40 mph). After two months of getting to know her Zap, Carey has been satisfied...and even unexpectedly surprised.
For what she has found is that roughly ninety percent of her driving needs can reasonably be met by the Xebra. For the other 10 percent, she has three options - she can ride her bike, she can take advantage of Portland's car-sharing Zipcar program, or she can even de-mothball the Honda if a long trip by car is necessary.
Electric vehicle love
Alex Campbell, marketing communications coordinator at Zap said that many of their customers are finding a similar pattern - even if they have a gas car they no longer want to use it after getting an electric vehicle.
"We've got the Alias coming, it's our next car to be a bit more appealing to the mainstream, and we're even working on a four, wheel passenger car. But what we have found being in this business for a while is that an electric vehicle is not for everyone, so we're pretty careful about telling people to try before they buy. The main thing is for people to start examining what they really need in terms of transport."
Perhaps one reason electric car vehicle owners like Carey find themselves less and less willing to go back to a gas-driven choice is that there's still a lot of novelty value to be gotten from driving the bright-colored, slightly funny-looking three-wheeled Xebra. People stop and stare, and point, and chuckle, she says. They seem to be getting almost as much fun out of seeing her driving it as she gets out of driving it herself. Via ::Zapworld
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This really is an ever so ugly car, and I personally wouldn't be caught dead driving it. I can honestly say that this car wouldn't make much of a splash when it comes to the United States.
What GM should do is bring back the electric EV1 car from the mid 1990's. That car looked nice, was fast, and had great distance on a charge for that decade.
I run http://savegasforums.com which is dedicated to all new, old, and experimental technology on all fronts of energy.
Zap is still a low speed low range car with no recharge public opportunity infrastructure.
Where can I buy one?
Agree with that: ZAP is the only affordable, viable, street legal EV in the US today.
@ John Taylor: Here is the Dealership map for ZAP:
http://www.xebraworld.com/Dealer%20Map%20Page.htm
I love people who say electric cars are ugly.
As if somehow a Chevy Astro or Malibu wasn't.
Are you just searching for reasons not to drive one?
I'm still a student, so I won't be buying myself a car before 2010 at the earliest (and then only if I end up needing it). Hopefully by then I'll be able to get a Volt or other PHEV, but I'd consider an all-electric. I already have a Zipcar membership here in Boston and I love it. For trips far out of town I can either rent a vehicle if I really need to drive there, or more likely take a bus, train, or flight.