Half life of about ten minutes on a high street filled with 4xs.

A great present to someone you really don’t love.

The sort of thing we force invalids to drive..

Fine, if everyone drives one but that is not going to happen simply for health and safety reasons.

How did this vehicle pass mandatory crash testing?

I’d prefer the bus.

If we all convert from the steel two ton multi litre engine petrol guzzling tanks to some form of lighter weight three seat swing body car/bike hybrid for personal fun transport; Carver , Hawk , T-Rex , VenturaOne , Peugeot 20Cup , Silence PT2

, ALE

Still dreaming .. a Tesla Roadster

Half life of about ten minutes on a high street filled with 4xs.

A great present to someone you really don’t love.

The sort of thing we force invalids to drive..

Fine, if everyone drives one but that is not going to happen simply for health and safety reasons.

How did this vehicle pass mandatory crash testing?

I’d prefer the bus.

If we all convert from the steel two ton multi litre engine petrol guzzling tanks to some form of lighter weight three seat swing body car/bike hybrid for personal fun transport; Carver , Hawk , T-Rex , VenturaOne , Peugeot 20Cup , Silence PT2

, ALE

Still dreaming .. a Tesla Roadster

Half life of about ten minutes on a high street filled with 4xs.

A great present to someone you really don’t love.

The sort of thing we force invalids to drive..

Fine, if everyone drives one but that is not going to happen simply for health and safety reasons.

How did this vehicle pass mandatory crash testing?

I’d prefer the bus.

If we all convert from the steel two ton multi litre engine petrol guzzling tanks to some form of lighter weight three seat swing body car/bike hybrid for personal fun transport; Carver , Hawk , T-Rex , VenturaOne , Peugeot 20Cup , Silence PT2

, ALE

Still dreaming .. a Tesla Roadster

Half life of about ten minutes on a high street filled with 4xs.

A great present to someone you really don’t love.

The sort of thing we force invalids to drive..

Fine, if everyone drives one but that is not going to happen simply for health and safety reasons.

How did this vehicle pass mandatory crash testing?

I’d prefer the bus.

If we all convert from the steel two ton multi litre engine petrol guzzling tanks to some form of lighter weight three seat swing body car/bike hybrid for personal fun transport; Carver , Hawk , T-Rex , VenturaOne , Peugeot 20Cup , Silence PT2

, ALE

Still dreaming .. a Tesla Roadster

Let me start at the beginning. My wife and I moved to downtown SLC a few months ago and realized that our cost for gas had gone up because we were making more frequent trips but they were shorter. Turns out that at least with our car, running it for 2-5 miles costs more than running it for 20-30 miles (I think it has something to do with engine temp and fuel economy)

Anyways we looked at the numbers and an Electric makes sense for us, even if it’s an NeV.

To date we have test driven the Zenn, the GEM and the Zap Xebra.

There were 3 major problems with the Xebra that I could see.

#1 Cheaply constructed, this car absolutely feels like it’s going to fall apart. The head rests wobble like they are about to come out, the plastic bits on the interior vibrate and even the emergency brake wouldn’t fully release. In short it’s like most things from china, cheaply constructed and probably unsafe (lets hope the alias fixes those issues)

#2 No room! I’m not a large person, I’m only 5’6″ and even though I fit ok in the passenger seat, when it came my time to drive i noticed that the drivers seat is incredibly cramped. Now I’m not talking no leg room cramped, I’m talking no elbow room cramped. I’m not particularly broad shouldered by my shoulders were pressing the door. My poor wife had to roll the window all the way down because there wasn’t enough elbow room for her to driver (large chest).

#3 Inefficient! Yes I know it’s an electric vehicle, but it is still horribly inefficient design. The electric motor continues to run (idles) while stopped. This car could probably increase it’s range by 25% just by putting an engine kill switch in. The dealer told me this was something to do with torque, but clearly he didn’t know what he was talking about, because electric Additionally there is no regenerative breaking at all.

So to sum up, I’m so glad I test drove one of these, they do have potential, but they need to increase the size of the driver compartment to fit a normal adult. This could be accomplished by dividing the space between driver and passenger more like 50/50 rather than 30/70 like it is now. However I wouldn’t hold my breath. These cars are not built by Zap. They are imported as-is by Zap who then does the electrical conversion. But if they could at least be a little more discerning about quality control this car even as-is could go from a 5 of 10 to 7 of ten. Turn off the electrical motor instead of idling it and you get bring that up to an 8 of ten.

Anyways for the record my experience was 5 of 10, I prefered the Zenn to this, and will be test driving a Miles Electric Vehicle http://www.milesev.com/ as soon as I can find a local dealer, after which I plan to make my purchase, but so far Zenn is the clear winner.

Let me start at the beginning. My wife and I moved to downtown SLC a few months ago and realized that our cost for gas had gone up because we were making more frequent trips but they were shorter. Turns out that at least with our car, running it for 2-5 miles costs more than running it for 20-30 miles (I think it has something to do with engine temp and fuel economy)

Anyways we looked at the numbers and an Electric makes sense for us, even if it’s an NeV.

To date we have test driven the Zenn, the GEM and the Zap Xebra.

There were 3 major problems with the Xebra that I could see.

#1 Cheaply constructed, this car absolutely feels like it’s going to fall apart. The head rests wobble like they are about to come out, the plastic bits on the interior vibrate and even the emergency brake wouldn’t fully release. In short it’s like most things from china, cheaply constructed and probably unsafe (lets hope the alias fixes those issues)

#2 No room! I’m not a large person, I’m only 5’6″ and even though I fit ok in the passenger seat, when it came my time to drive i noticed that the drivers seat is incredibly cramped. Now I’m not talking no leg room cramped, I’m talking no elbow room cramped. I’m not particularly broad shouldered by my shoulders were pressing the door. My poor wife had to roll the window all the way down because there wasn’t enough elbow room for her to driver (large chest).

#3 Inefficient! Yes I know it’s an electric vehicle, but it is still horribly inefficient design. The electric motor continues to run (idles) while stopped. This car could probably increase it’s range by 25% just by putting an engine kill switch in. The dealer told me this was something to do with torque, but clearly he didn’t know what he was talking about, because electric Additionally there is no regenerative breaking at all.

So to sum up, I’m so glad I test drove one of these, they do have potential, but they need to increase the size of the driver compartment to fit a normal adult. This could be accomplished by dividing the space between driver and passenger more like 50/50 rather than 30/70 like it is now. However I wouldn’t hold my breath. These cars are not built by Zap. They are imported as-is by Zap who then does the electrical conversion. But if they could at least be a little more discerning about quality control this car even as-is could go from a 5 of 10 to 7 of ten. Turn off the electrical motor instead of idling it and you get bring that up to an 8 of ten.

Anyways for the record my experience was 5 of 10, I prefered the Zenn to this, and will be test driving a Miles Electric Vehicle http://www.milesev.com/ as soon as I can find a local dealer, after which I plan to make my purchase, but so far Zenn is the clear winner.