There has been quite a political theater circus happening in Kentucky this past week. Democrats and Republicans have been tripping all over themselves to hold press conferences with the owner of a potential ZAP! factory as well as clear the legal roadblocks that currently bar certain three-wheeled electric cars from the roads of the bluegrass state. It seems the kerfuffle started when Republican senators, Dan Seum of Louisville and Gary Tapp of Shelbyville, sent out a press release July 2nd announcing an appearance at Integrity Manufacturing in Shepherdsville. Also appearing at the would be owner Randy Waldman and local ZAP! dealership general manager, Larry Cottingham, to announce their legislative intentions and support for new jobs at the facility.

Democrats preempted the senators with a press conference of their own which they scheduled for the day before the original media event. The senators "R" then decided to head the Democrats off at the pass and pre-filed a bill that would allow licensed three wheeled vehicles on roads with speed limits of 45 mph and under. The Dems finally held their press conference but unfortunately forgot to go over some details with Bullitt County businessmen and the Xebra they crowed they would test drive was a no show. Their corrected press release indicated that they would inspect what they termed a "Segway scooter" (we think they meant a Zappy 3) instead.

What do they make of all this at ZAP HQ in California? It seems that, while ZAP seems somewhat interested in manufacturing stateside, they say any "formal conversations" with this factory owner have not been held. Regardless of what side of the political fence you reside on, the whole hoo-hah makes for great reading as it was nicely chronicled on the WHAS11 Political Blog.

[Source: WHAS11 / Courier Journal]

We recently got word that a ZAP Alias prototype had been built but at the time, we couldn't find any pictures. With a link supplied by commenter "Jay," that situation has been somewhat rectified. Although we don't have photos beyond the screen grabs you see above, there is a news video from NBC24 showing off the car from different angles. They even chat with the Craig Winn of Applied Technologies, the man responsible for this first iteration.

From what we can tell, the prototype stays quite true to the drawings and video renditions previously released. It looks real and not made of styrofoam. He hope to get more and better pictures soon as well as an updated production schedule. If Electric Cars Europe want to import it, seems like the pace ought to be picked up a bit, no? H/t to jay.

[Source: NBC24]

A consortium of Dutch companies under the banner of Electric Cars Europe have decided a little collaboration is in order to help speed up the implementation of electric cars in the Netherlands. With a vision of seeing 26 per cent of Dutch cars powered by electrons by 2025, the consortium's plan has several parts, the first of which involves some conversion of several Lotus Elise vehicles to an electric drivetrain by partner company, Innosys Engineering. Isn't it a little strange how Lotus has become the "go to" company when you want to build, or even just convert, an electric sports car these days? But I digress.

The next order of business is to take €100 million already invested and metamorphose a couple hundred Volkswagen Golfs from liquid fuel to solid state. All of these vehicles, as well as some future models, are to be monitored by energy company, Essent, as part of large-scale testing of their "Mobile Smart Grid." This is a "smart" distribution system that will make the move to electric personal transportation more feasible by tracking how much power you need and when you need it. It can also bill you for what you use regardless of where you plug in.

To read about a somewhat surprising twist to their next phase as well as test your working knowledge of Dutch and watch some electric Lotus Elise action, hit the jump. As an extra bonus we've also tagged on an extra video from Innosys Engineering that shows off what they've accomplished to the syncopated rhythms of a funky soundtrack.

* Added another video showing more of the orange Elise on the track

A while back we were telling you that ZAP was looking for an engineering firm to help make their Alias three-wheeled electric car drawing come to life. It seems Applied Technologies, Inc. has taken up that challenge and, according to the Toledo Blade, there were plans to show off the powertrain-less prototype to the public for a few hours on Monday before it was shipped to ZAP headquarters. We were hoping we could show you a picture from the historic event but, not only is the Internet seemingly bare of Alias photographs at this time, there isn't even a press release from ZAP! marking the occasion. It's all very strange. The next thing you know, the Obvio will disappear from their products list.

Holy Spicoli! The Obvio is no longer on the Zap! product list. Maybe the new chairman of the board and heavy-duty investor is trying to regain some lost respectability for the company and actually produce a promised vehicle. In any case, expect to see some prototype pictures soon. Hopefully.

*Alerted by a commenter, we noticed that although the Obvio is not listed with most of the ZAP! product line, it does have its own little paragraph down the page that states that Obvio is expected to deliver vehicles to ZAP in 2008. The Obvio website says it is "currently facing serious trouble in its operational schedule" because of the demise of its motor supplier and subsequent sale to Fiat.

[Source: Toledo Blade]

Things may be looking up for the somewhat controversial electric vehicle company "ZAP" since Mr Al Yousuf took control of the company the other day. Just after the change at the top happened, the California Air Resource Board added two ZAP models to their list of vehicles eligible for a rebate. Actually, it's the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) who hands out the cash on their behalf, as we mentioned when we told you the Vectrix was on the list. The money pile for the program has shrunk somewhat since that post and as of this writing there remains only $468,900. The rebate is worth $1,000 off the purchase of a Xebra sedan or truck and we suggest you take one for a test drive before buying.

Also in the past few days, ZAP has "acquired an ownership interest" in an electric motor company. The name of the company isn't known but we think it may well be located in China as they had mentioned working with such a company before. They seem to specialize in-wheel motors and the press release states that they are "developing a 7000-watt wheel motor for larger vehicle applications." In a departure from past ZAP practices, no prototype sketches accompanied the news but we will let you know when if the motor debuts in a new product. Press releases are after the jump.

Just days after the Al-Yousuf Group bought $475,000 of Zap's convertible debt, the president of that group, Eqbal Al Yousuf, was named chairman of Zap. This is not the first time Zap and Al-Yousuf came together: last November, the group (based in the United Arab Emirates) bought $5 million worth of ZAP shares and Eqbal Al-Yousuf has been on ZAP's Board of Directors since December. Al-Yousuf will become Zap's chairman on June 2. According to Zawya, Zap is the only non-UAE company the Al-Yousuf Group is invested in, but Al Yousuf himself invested in Phoenix Motorcars in December.

Zap's shiny press announcement of this change says that Zap's current chairman (and the co-founder of the company), Gary Starr, will remain on the Zap board of directors. Maybe that revealing Wired article made Starr want to get out of the spotlight a little bit.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, drivers in Ohio are facing problems when it comes time to register their electric three-wheeled vehicles. Most states classify three-wheelers as motorcycles, but Ohio adds one more item to their definition of a motorcycle: a saddle. This means that three-wheelers which have a normal "car-like" seat are unregisterable as a car, because they have fewer than four wheels, or a motorcycle. Two vehicles are mentioned in our source article, the ZAP! Xebra and the NmG from Myers Motors (pictured above), a company based, ironically enough, in Ohio. According to Josh Engel, chief legal counsel for the BMV, "It's not the first time that the law hasn't caught up with technology," adding that the state of Ohio is supportive of electric vehicles. Basically, the law needs to change, and Tom Hunter, communications director for the BMV, suggests that the real solution would be to classify the vehicles as neither cars nor motorcycles. A special class of vehicle would be created, and hopefully a motorcycle endorsement would not be required. We'll keep you updated if anything new comes of this issue. Thanks for the tip, Ken.

[Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer]

click to enlarge

It's Earth Day, so we would have been shocked to see the day slip by without a press release from Zap about their something or other. True to form, the EV company presents us with news that the Sopraffina Marketcaffe in Chicago will be using an electric Xebra truck with solar panels on the roof in its catering business (read more after the jump). Can't let the Ford Transit Connect have all the food fun, right?

The Xebra is Zap's one legitimate electric vehicle that has more than two wheels, but it does have some drawbacks compared to a "real" car because it's classified as a motorcycle. Still, for deliveries in downtown Chicago, running on electrons is a pretty good plan. Not a lot of sunlight reaches the street in the middle of the Windy City, but if you're on Lakeshore Drive, those panels should be able to suck up some juice. The three-cents-a-mile operating cost has got to be appealing to the business owners as well.

ZAP has proven to be an excellent company when it comes to issuing press releases. They have also offered some nice products in the past, like the Zappy line of scooters. For some, the Xebra (see gallery below) fits their needs quite nicely, and for those people, ZAP is a fine company. For the rest of us, the chances that the ZAP X SUV, ZAP Alias or Detroit Electric brand ever get off the ground seems awfully slim.


Let's check out Number 19.

The world desperately needs vehicles with alternative powertrains, such as battery electrics. The potential to make a killing in the business is huge, as is the potential to lose everything. The auto industry - as anyone who has ever gotten involved in it knows - is hugely capital intensive so investors are needed. However, people tend to be unwilling to put large quantities of cash unless they see a potential return. In any new business arena there are startups who fail without drawing much attention to themselves. Unfortunately there are also those that draw inordinate amounts of attention to themselves before they ever produce anything. Those in the latter category tend to poison the investment waters for those who may actually have something real to offer.

Such is the case with Zap! and their heavily-hyped electric vehicles. The Santa Rosa, CA company has been around for quite a number of years and has actually managed to sell a number of electrical products mostly related to mobile power products. However when it comes to electric transportation, their products are limited to the Chinese built three wheel Xebra "sedan" and "truck". Wired has now pubished a detailed article on the often sordid 16 year history of Zap! and its two primary leaders Gary Starr and Steve Schneider. Schneider and Starr have apparently "built" a business on alternating press releases about world-beating new electric cars and issuing new stock to continue paying the bills, including their salaries. Meanwhile enthusiastic prospective retailers of Zap products like Ehab Youssef and Joseph Gottlieb with little experience in the realities of the car business, have plunked down large amounts of cash for the right to sell vehicles that either come nowhere near meeting their rated specifications or never materialize at all. It's a sad tale but well worth the read. For those Zap representatives that often post in the comments here, please feel free to try and refute anything you feel may be incorrect in the article - but only if you have facts to back it up.

[Source: Wired]

Zap's CEO Steve Schneider did a very interesting audio interview with CEONEWS.Tv recently where he talked about the Zap-X, the Zap-Coke deal and the future of the company. On Zap-X, Schneider says Chinese automaker Youngman owns 51 percent stake in the Detroit Electric joint venture, while Zap owns 49 percent in the company. Schneider explains Detroit Electric will sell higher speed electric vehicles while Zap continues to sell the lower speed vehicles. Schneider says the Youngman relationship is unique because, according to his understanding, there are only a handful of licenses given to Chinese companies to make cars inexpensively (Zap can sell buses for half the price, for example). On the release of the Zap-X, Schneider says it's a 36-month project but did not say when it started (it's been at least 14 months). Schneider did say the Alias is a 18-month project and they are six months into it. Remember that Zap has been talking about the Alias since June 2007, which was eight months ago.

On the recent deal with Coke (Coca-Cola is using thirty of Zap's compact trucks in Montevideo, Uruguay) Schneider says it was spawned from the UPS deal. Schneider explains the UPS deal came from one brave UPS rep that "risked his career" to use Zap trucks and a tractor trailers hub model. The hub model showed bottom line savings for the company and what do you think happened to that UPS rep? He was promoted to a much "larger capacity" position at the San Fran UPS branch! "Quite a few" companies (Schneider won't give out names) have contacted Zap, looking to repeat the model, since that brave UPS rep started the ball rolling.

Schneider also talked about a trip to Dubai and said the Middle East is more interested in electric cars than you might expect. Schneider was asked about the Daimler lawsuit and while he could did not say much, he did say Zap's lawyers tell him it should be settled in three months. Things are changing like the climate Schneider jokes and "the market is finally catching up (after 14 years) to what ZAP has been preaching." Schneider expects Zap to have 100 dealers by the end of this year, up from 56 at a recent meeting. AutoblogGreen is not a stock investing website but we have to admit we are really impressed by this interview and Zap's CEO Steve Schneider responses. He talks a good game, at least.


[Source: CEONEWS.Tv]

Paul Niedermeyer over at TTAC got the chance to drive a ZAP Xebra pickup and his review pretty much reads as you would expect. The car is poorly assembled, slow, short range and dangerous. He goes so far as to refer to it as a motorized wheelbarrow/hair-shirt - which, despite what you think of the car, is pretty funny. Was there anything that he did like about the Xebra? Nope.

We have had the opportunity to drive the Xebra, and we also found the machine to be a bit on the slow side. We also noted the small interior and poor build quality. We still maintain, though, that the vehicle is fine for what it is. If used as a vehicle to get to the grocery store, campus, library etc, it'll do fine. If you actually plan to drive the Xebra every day, or on high-speed or high traffic roads, you should look elsewhere.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]

Unhappy with your plugless Prius? Zap thinks it has an answer for you.

The king of green car press releases has issued another announcement, this time talking about the availability of a Toyota Prius and Highlander plug-in conversion kit. In collaboration with Hybrid Plus, Zap's kit will convert hybrid Priuses and Highlanders into what tests predict will be 120 MPGe (city) and 90 MPGe (highway) vehicles. Depending on the vehicle, the kits cost between $24,000 and $36,000, and Zap says turnaround time is about four weeks. The press release doesn't get into great details, but it sounds like you need to bring your Prius/Highlander to Boulder to have Hybrid Plus do the work. You might also be able to go to a local Zap dealer to have the work done (UPDATE: Zap says that Zap dealers will be able to do the conversions).

While electric car dealerships seen a little more business in the last few years, as a recent New York Times article points out, it's still hard to get by selling nothing but electric cars. Many EV dealers already sell other types of vehicles and, as Hybrids Plus CEO Carl Lawrence says, electric car companies and hybrid conversion companies collaborating is "natural."


[Source: Zap]

Recently, I wrote a post that talked about Volvo's statement that they were working exclusively with PML (a company that makes in-wheel electric motors). I found this concerning because I thought PML was working with Zap on the Zap-X, a Lotus-designed, affordable, normal-looking electric car. I contacted Zap Communication's Alex Campbell, who checked with Zap's CEO Steve Schneider about Volvo's statements. Zap says they are in a relationship with PML but only on three-wheeled vehicles. As for four-wheeled cars, Zap tried but it looks like PML went with Volvo. Zap has moved on to a Chinese company that they say is not only cheaper than PML but can provide in-wheel electric motors sooner. So there is no confusion, here is exactly what Zap says:

We signed an exclusive agreement with PML on 3-wheelers and at the time were negotiating with them on other vehicles. We have since partnered up with a company in China with rights to their wheel hub motors. The significance is that the wheel hub motor that we have acquired is currently working in application and we believe will be commercially available within a shorter period of time than PML's. It is my understanding that the PML motor has still yet to work in any automotive application. And they are expensive so it would need to be manufactured in China to stay competitive.

[Source: Alex Campbell from Zap]

In an interview, Ichiro Sugioka, project leader of Volvo's Recharge electric car concept, says PML FlightLink is "currently working exclusively for us." If that was not clear enough, Ichiro adds "all their efforts is going into our projects." The interviewer presses for more information, even mentioning PML's relationship with Lotus, but Ichiro is very clear. You can see this exchange three minutes into the video below the fold.

Why is this notable? Green car fans will recall the PML's in-wheel motors were going to be a key part of the Zap-X. I guess we should have noticed the relationship was probably over because Zap said it had some exclusive rights with PML and then PML started to work with Volvo. Companies don't write press release saying relationships have fallen apart. So, what does this mean for the release date for the Zap-X, the Lotus-designed, affordable, electric car?

Zap never made an exact release date for the Zap-X public, so it's hard to say the date has slipped. I would assume the internal date must have slipped a little bit. While Zap makes great products, they are probably one of the more out-sourced electric vehicle companies. I always imagined Zap, Miles or Tesla would be bought out sooner or later by a large automaker trying to catch up.

This little soap opera makes me think the top automakers just might bypass the middle man and work with the smaller technology companies instead.

Related:

• Volvo could develop a robot that plugs in your car
• Frankfurt Preview: Volvo ReCharge - The Swedes go series hybrid
• Zap! does deal for wheel motors
• Video: 900 miles without a fill up

[Source: Google Video]