TechnoRide, 'the car site for tech fans,' has managed to score a Zenn electric car for review. They seem to have had a good time with the NEV, calling it "impressive." They do, however, note a few issues with the vehicle, which are to be expected, including a lack of luxury features and excessive noise. The reviewer had no problem getting up to the Zenn's max-speed of twenty-five miles per hour and mentions that it's capable of more if it weren't for that electrically-limited speed regulation system.

TechnoRide also makes mention of the solid state electrical storage system from EEStor, which we are all still waiting to hear more about. The review echoes news that the Zenn with EEStor system should be available in 2009, and we remain hopefully optimistic that this is indeed the case. We're not forgetting that we've yet to see any demonstration of the capacitor-based system.

[Source: TechnoRide]

At ZENN annual shareholder meeting in Toronto yesterday, company officials made a big announcement about their plans to move beyond mere neighborhood electric vehicles. They plan to launch a model called the cityZENN which will be a fully certified electric car with 80 mph top speed and 250-mile range. The most important element of the cityZENN is the use of EEStor ultra-capacitors to store electrical energy. ZENN is claiming five minute recharge capability for the EEStor energy storage system. However, don't expect to do five minute recharges at home. Just as with fast charging batteries from the likes of Altairnano, putting that much energy in the capacitors so quickly requires very high current and voltage, much more than is available from any regular outlet. It will also take a very thick cable to provide sufficiently low resistance.

In other news, the existing NEV range will get new four passenger and utility versions added. ZENN also plans to work with some OEMs to produce vehicles with a ZENNergy drive-train (electric drive with EEStor storage) and branded as ZENN vehicles for sale. No word on exactly when that will happen. There's also a recording of the meeting available at the ZENNcars.com web site. You'll need to register and have RealPlayer installed to listen.

[Source: ZENN thanks to Mark for the tip]

If you like to laugh at tiny neighborhood electric vehicles, take a look at the video above. It's got ZENN cars, Canadian comic Rick Mercer and a few good beer jokes. Of course, Mercer also makes the case for NEVs in this video, so don't expect simple ridicules of ZENN's vehicles. Instead, the Canadian government is the target of most of Mercer's wit. A Canadian government that doesn't allow Canadian-built cars to be sold in Canada deserves to be made fun of, Mercer figured when he recorded this bit back in November 2007. Of course, the legal situation is still in flux, as it's up to each province to declare whether these battery-powered boxes are OK on their streets. The comedy, though, is solid - especially the bit about what Canadians consider to be a week's worth of groceries.

The big question, though, is whether the joke may be on ZENN. In a recent interview, ZENN's CEO Ian Clifford is sticking with the updated EESTOR story, saying, "If they stay on schedule they are scheduled to deliver it in 2008." We've been waiting a long time for some sort of definitive news on this ultracapacitor, but nothing has materialized yet. Who will get the last laugh? Thanks to Domenick for the tip!

[Source: Alternative Energy]

The EESTOR ultracapacitor is a technology we really, really want to know more about. The huge potential of these devices that we do know about certainly keeps our ears open for news - or rumors or anything, really - about the technology. We don't know much more about the actual ultracaps (aka Electrical Energy Storage Units or EESU), but Lockheed Martin must like them. The not-exactly-risk-friendly company - I mean, they work the bountiful government system with aplomb - has "signed an exclusive international rights agreement to integrate and market Electrical Energy Storage Units (EESU) from EEStor, Inc., for military and homeland security applications." It sounds like the EESU's will be used in LM's BattPack. Want more details? Sorry. "Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed."

So, about those promises. The EESUs are a ceramic battery "that could provide 10 times the energy density of lead acid batteries at 1/10th the weight and volume" and will supposedly cost half as much as traditional batteries on a price per stored watt-hour basis. So, until we get a better idea what EESTOR is actually working on, we can triangulate that they're not totally full of smoke and mirrors. Perhaps ZENN is in good hands after all.

Related:

• Is production of EEStor ultracapacitors being pushed back into 2008?
• Problems at ZENN and EEStor?
• Zenn buys into ultra capacitor company EEStor
• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?

[Source: Press Media Wire]

For package delivery companies and the Post Office, the rising cost of fuel is taking an ever larger bite of revenues. In Washington state, Carolyn Triebenbach has found a solution. As a rural letter carrier Triebenbach does her daily twenty-mile route on only $0.40 worth of electricity. She uses a new Zenn NEV to deliver mail to 520 homes in Sequim. When she has a particularly heavy load of mail after a long weekend, she may have to take a 20-30 minute brake break later in the day for a charge to finish the route but otherwise the Zenn operates quietly and smoothly. Triebenbach paid an extra $5,000 on top of the $12,600 base price to get a right hand drive conversion and the passenger seat removed to hold the mail.

[Source: Peninsula Daily News, thanks to Domenick for the tip]

Readers who click through all of the links that we offer you in a day might remember Ron Gompertz, the owner of Eco Auto, Inc. He was mentioned in an article on MSNBC about eco-car dealers in the U.S. Lynne Mason over at Electric Cars Are For Girls has gotten hold of Gompertz for a lengthy Q&A on what it's like to sell EVs and other green cars in Bozeman, Montana. Gompertz sells ZENN, Miles, Evader scooters, SNUGG electric bicycles, and Smart cars, and will ship them to you no matter where you live in America. How does he feel about the two NEV makers on his list? Gompertz told Mason that, "For electric cars, we chose the Zenn and the Miles. They're both excellent quality electric cars that you can plug in like a cell phone, and both easily adaptable to Montana's 35mph NEV speed limit."

Read the whole thing over at the girly EV site.

Related:

• More and more eco-thoughtful car dealerships coming to America

[Source: Electric Cars Are For Girls]

Recently we told you about Transport Canada's sudden shift to give Zenn's low speed electric vehicles a safety mark. Here is how it all happened according to the CBC; After the TV report, which included Transport Canada failing to give a good reason on why they held back the safety mark, Ian Clifford, founder of the ZENN Motor Company, said "hundreds and hundreds of people wrote in and responded to what really was an outrageous situation federally." Even NDP Leader Jack Layton complained of "bureaucratic roadblocks" during a question period in the House of Commons.

Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, said he was unaware of the situation until the TV report aired. Cannon looked into it and was told no safety mark was issued "because we were still waiting for information." Canon says "now that information has been tabled, the folks have looked at it and so we've issued the certificate." Clifford says he is "pleased and surprised" at receiving the market after a year and half of waiting. Clifford also said officials from Ontario and Quebec even told him they intend to introduce legislation soon on allowing low-speed vehicles on streets. British Columbia is currently the only Canadian province that lets low speed vehicles on the road.

[Source: CBC]

Less than a week ago, we told you about a CBC report with Zenn complaining Transport Canada was not allowing its low speed vehicle to sold in Canada. The report included a regulatory enforcement engineer that explained they were not being allowed to be sold yet because they were going to change the law. Turns outs the idea of ex post facto is still around, so they got a National Safety Mark.

CBC confirmed they received the safety mark and Transport Canada says it's up to individual provinces and territories how to legislate which roads are allowed to be used by the cars. British Columbia is currently the only Canadian province that lets low speed vehicles on the road. So, don't be surprised if you see a Zenn on BC streets soon.

Cheers for the press shinning a light and probably solving this problem! Jeers for the provinces and territories not stepping up with legislation.

[Source: CBC and tipster Mike]

Almost all NEVs in the U.S. are limited by law (and thus by a setting in the car) to 25 mph. In some areas - Montana, for example - the laws are being changed so that these little commuter cars can go 35 mph. But, just because the law changes doesn't mean that the car magically upgrades its top speed. No, for that we'll need to turn to Electric Cars Are For Girls' upgrade guide, written exclusively for ZENN vehicles.

I'll start the way the guide does: with caveats. Therefore, I must say you should only attempt this if a.) you know what you're doing and b.) it's legal and c.) you've read through all the caveats at ECAFG and understand what you're getting into. OK, that should make the lawyers happy (and stop you from becoming unhappy).

The guide describes a step-by-step method to change the settings to the speed controller. You'll need a laptop (PC, I think), some cables, a free file from ECAFG and a version of the GE Sentry Software ($40). Once you've collected these things, it's a fairly straightforward process of hooking the laptop to the car and changing the settings. The full details are available here.

[Source: Electric Cars Are For Girls]

Canadian-based Dynasty electric cars is ending production in Canada and moving over seas. Very soon Canadian-based electric car company Zenn may choose to give up on Canada and move production as well. Why? The Canadian dollar reaching parity with the US dollar did not help much (imports from Canada are now much more expensive in the US) but the major reason is Canada's regulatory agency won't let Zenn or Dynasty sell their electric cars in Canada even when they are sold and celebrated all over the world.

CBC News gave Harry Baergen, a senior regulatory enforcement engineer at Transport Canada, a call and asked if Zenn meet regulations. Harry said "They haven't met our requirements yet, no." When asked about the specific regulation Harry said "They've showed us that it meets requirements as an LSV (low-speed vehicle)." So... ah, what's the problem, Harry? Harry says "Our definition is presently being clarified because there is a little bit of a broadness in it."

Zenn's founder Ian Clifford says it's a "different story ... every time" from Transport Canada and they get "road blocks thrown up in front of us every attempt." Ian says it's getting to the point now where we're almost giving up on Canada." Danny Epp, general manager at Dynasty electric cars has already given up saying the company is "not getting any support from the federal level."

Good luck with production overseas Dynasty. You might want to look into Asia and specifically countries like Thailand which has an eco car program. Unlike Canada, Thailand is actually changing laws to support electric car companies. This is another reason electric cars will become common place in Asia before it's normal in the Western world. You can watch the video of the CBC report below the fold.

Update: Dynasty is sold in Canada.

[Source: CBC News]

C-NET's Michael Kanellos did a little thinking out loud this week when he tried to list all of the electric car start-up companies (not major automakers working on EVs). He counted 16 small companies. The names on this list will be familiar to just about anyone who reads AutoblogGreen, but I thought it was interesting to see them all gathered in one place:

Tesla Motors (sports cars), Wrightspeed (sports cars and plug-in drivetrains for trucks), Fisker Automotive (electric sedans), Zap (low-speed and sports cars), Miles Automotive (low speed), Zenn Motors (low speed), AC Propulsion (retrofitting Scions for electric), Phoenix Motorcars (SUVs), Aptera (three-wheelers), Porteon (low speed electrics), Lightning (sports cars in England), Reva (economy cars), Ultramotor (electric trishaws), Myers Motors (freakish three-wheelers featured in Goldmember), Think (electric economy cars) and Venture Vehicles (three-wheeled electric cars.).

I'd say the only "major" player that Kanellos missed is GEM, which has been making glorified golf carts for ages. Other contenders not on his list include Universal Electric Vehicle, American Electric Vehicle, G-Wiz and Hybrid Technologies. I'm sure there's at least a couple more we're missing, but we're already got over 20 small EV companies. Pretty soon, he figures, this list will be much easier to calculate: "History shows that most of these companies will be wiped out." So it goes, as my favorite author would write.

[Source: C-NET]

To those who've been following this site for a while, the car you see above may look familiar. We have covered the Canadian built ZENN neighborhood electric vehicle on several occasions including their involvement with ultra-capacitor developer EEStor. The car pictured above is based on the same design as the ZENN but it's built in France by Groupe Bénéteau and the battery is used to power accessories and start the engine. You read that right, an engine.

The crew at CAR magazine in the UK sampled the MicroCar MC1 which is sold as a quadricycle allowing it to avoid most safety requirements. This version is available in two wheelbase lengths with two or four seats. From the wobbly steering column to the choppy ride to the "near suicidal" highway experience they came away less than impressed. Fortunately as an NEV the ZENN is limited to 25 mph in most places.

[Source: CAR]

After having earlier proclaimed that they would have their remarkable new ultra-capacitors in production this year, it now looks like EESTor is delaying production for as much as six months. CNET actually managed to talk to EEStor CEO Richard Weir on the phone and he said that production would start sometime before the middle of 2008. EEStor was supposed to deliver 15 kWh energy storage systems for installation into a new EV made by ZENN.

ZENN invested several million dollars into EEStor. To date no one outside of ZENN or EEStor has actually seen or tested the new capacitors. If they work and are affordable (two VERY big IFS) it could be a breakthrough for electric vehicles. Caps can absorb energy much more quickly than batteries but they traditionally have had limited capacity and big ones were very expensive.

Related:

• Problems at ZENN and EEStor?
• New capacitor research could increase capacities by seven times

[Source: CNET, thanks to Domenick for the tip]

As Toyota hesitates on lithium ion battery technology and General Motors races ahead, Canadian startup Zenn is trying to leapfrog them. We've talked about ZENN before and also their deal with EEStor to use their ultra-capacitor technology. EEStor has made some pretty amazing claims as has ZENN. ZENN is claiming that drivers will be able to charge up their cars in five minutes and get a five-hundred-mile range.

While this may indeed be possible it's still very much unproven. Capacitors are able to absorb energy much faster than batteries, which makes them desirable for EV applications where they can absorb the kinetic energy recovered during regenerative braking. However, their capacity is also much more limited. The current generation Honda FCX fuel cell car uses ultra-capacitors but only has a range of about one third of mile on the capacitors. High capacity ultra-capacitors are also very expensive.

Whether EEStor will be able to actually build an ultra-capacitor with a 500-mile range at an affordable price is still very much an open question. Another issue is the five minute charge time. Capacitors don't magically reduce the amount of energy it takes to move a car 500 miles. They just reduce the amount of time it takes to absorb that energy. Just like the Altairnano batteries that can reportedly be charged in ten minutes, you won't be able to get that five minute charge at home. You will need a very thick cable to transfer that much electricity in such a short time and a huge amount of stored energy. Special charging stations will be needed that will be very expensive at first. Charging at home on your 60-200A circuits will take almost as much time as a battery.

[Source: ABC News]

ZENN promotional video

We haven't heard much from ZENN recently, but the electric car company announced yesterday that ZENN will be offering warranty services through 4CS. It looks like vehicles and parts will be covered through 4CS' iWarranty and iParts services. If you're ready for a way-too-busy website design, you can check out the 4CS homepage for more information. I've pasted the 4CS press release after the jump, as there's a bit of technical mumbo-jumbo (e.g., the phrase "focused portal") and I'll let the truly interested parse it for themselves. For most of us, the important thing to know is that ZENN's one-year warranty for their low-speed electric vehicles is now being operated by 4CS. That's all. Carry on.

[Source: 4CS]