ZENN Coming to America

ZENN


EV World1 recently announced that the ZENN was entered in the 2006 Challenge Bibendum and won the gold medal in the Urban Vehicle category.

AutoblogGreen ***2 relays a story from Autoweek promising that the ZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise) will be available for sale in the United States in a few weeks.

Feel Good Cars, Inc., based in Toronto, so far, has signed up 20 dealers in the U.S., and expects to have about 45 by the end of the year. The electric mini car is a MC-2 glider assembled in Europe by its French manufacturing partner MICROCAR S.A., to which Feel Good Cars adds electric components purchased from vendors with the engineering support of the Quebec Advanced Transportation Institute.

While such a vehicle, a.k.a. Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, can be licensed for limited use in most states, it cannot be operated in its home province. The vehicle is similar to DCX gemcar; it is a LSV (Low Speed Vehicle) making use of a 72VDC system with a top speed of 25 MPH and a maximum range of 35 miles.

Other than testing of a US. market by importation of a Chinese EV, the only other competition* to the ZENN is the GEM (Global Electric Motorcar). Such vehicles are popular in gated communities, resorts, etc. for short trips where there is limited traffic.

Note: There are other electric vehicles appearing. One could say that the three-wheeled Zap Xebra is competing in the same market. There are some specialty cars available and, as noted in several different posts, an increase in electric city cars worldwide.

An intriguing aspect of recent promotion about the ZENN is that Feel Good Cars obtained an exclusive agreement with EEStor for their high-power-density ceramic ultra capacitors called ESUs (Electrical Storage Units). This blog is eager to learn how they incorporate the ultra caps into the electric drive. Another recent change has been in the micro car body, which now more closely resembles the Smart forfour.

Continue reading here: Alternative Fuel Medallions

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