Highway Capable EV's HERE now??

It looks like a scam to me.

1. Their web page does not give a physical address.

2. Their contact info is an email, but no postal address or even a phone number.

3. To get 250 miles range at 75 mph, and that boxy little shape, would require $60,000 worth of batteries.

4. They're claiming a new kind of battery.

5. No price is mentioned.

6. Is the Smart even street legal in the U.S.?

And finally, January 1 is very soon, but is not now. What do you want to bet that the car will not actually be available then? (But I'm sure they'll happily accept pre-paid orders.)

Everything about it shouts SCAM.

The Zenn City Car is a long ways off, but at least Zenn is a real company selling real cars. Tesla is expensive and there's a long wait, but its Roadster is on the road.

Of course, the Tesla is highway capable and is here now, though there's a long wait to get one. And plenty of conversion shops are building highway-capable EVs.

 

The 2nd generation Smart is, but that is the 1st generation. ZAP motors did manage to import some 1st generation Smarts and update them to US specs. Then they wanted $20 to $25K for a car you can now buy direct from Smart for $12K. I wonder if this is a front company for ZAP that is trying to get rid of some Smart cars. The outrageous claims are very similar to ZAP. ZAP has been 6 months from released a mind-blowing new EV for about 10 years now.

 

Too bad. But it was pretty obviously not a realistic promise.

Zap is an unusual company. They've been running scams for a very long time, and still are. But at the same time they are selling an EV you can buy today and which functions pretty much as advertised. The stock Xebra now costs about $11,500, goes about 20 miles on a charge and goes about 35 mph; and the 2008 by all reports is much more reliable than the 2006, which in turn was a lot better than the first ones. I wouldn't buy their stock. But thanks to Zap I've been doing most of my in-town driving on electric for a year and a half.

In the end, I suspect it will be the next round of gas shortages that really drives the impetus to EVs.