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ZAP Expands Sales of XEBRA Electric Microcar; Orders 500+ from China
19 August 2006
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| ZAP’s Xebra. |
ZAP is expanding the US sales of its three-wheeled, low-speed, all-electric microcar, the XEBRA. (Earlier post.) The XEBRA can seat four (maximum load 500 pounds) and has a range of up to 40 miles (65 kilometers) and a top speed of 40 mph (65 km/h). It uses a DC motor powered by a lead-acid battery pack.
The XEBRA is being shipped to more ZAP-licensed dealers and consumers. The vehicle carries a suggested retail price of less than $10,000.
ZAP will focus its marketing on government and corporate fleets, with several government, municipal and corporate fleets already evaluating the XEBRA for integration into their current gas fleet.
The company has ordered more than 500 units of the XEBRA electric microcar from China car maker Shandong Jindalu Vehicle Co. Shandong Jindalu has already delivered some 100 units, and says it has the capacity to produce 1,000 units per month.
ZAP has an exclusive 10-year distribution contract with Shandong Jindalu to market the XEBRAs through its ZAP brand network of authorized sales and service centers.
Under the strategic business relationship, ZAP has permanent offices at the factory in Dezhou to continue research and development of new vehicle models and concepts, and to assist in the manufacturing process.
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| Miles ZX40 |
Separately, Miles Automotive has begun US sales of the Qingyuan ZX40—the Happy Messenger (earlier post)—produced by TianJin QingYuan Electric Vehicle Company. The $15,000 ZX40 offers a top speed of 25 mph and a range of 40 miles. It uses a 4kW motor from First Auto Works in China, powered by a lead-acid battery pack.
Miles Automotive promises to unveil a more robust EV from China late in 2007—:the XS200. The XS200 reportedly will use Li-ion batteries, have a top speed of 80 mph and range of 200 miles, and cost $28,500.
August 19, 2006 in China, Electric (Battery) | Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
If Miles Automotive can produce an EV for ~$28.5k, I will buy two. GM, FORD...are you listening?
Posted by: cs1992 | Aug 19, 2006 11:06:26 AM
I don't think many people have a use for vehicle with a 40 mph top speed and 40 mile range vehicle. I sure don't. I think the market will laugh at those capabilities for $28,500.
Posted by: nemo | Aug 19, 2006 1:04:34 PM
nemo,
That would be true if cs1992 was refering to the current version. More likely, the reference was to the XS200, the one with 80mph max and 200 mile range. The XS200 would be viable as a commuter car for most people.
_
___It would be interesting for American electric automakers to go head to head with ones from PRC.
Posted by: allen Z | Aug 19, 2006 1:18:46 PM
Not smart to put a single wheel in front. Makes a lot more sense to put it in back.
I don't have any use for such a design but I'm sure there are those who would.
Posted by: Lucas | Aug 19, 2006 1:51:24 PM
XS200 for me too! 3 wheels or 4 make no difference to me as long as it seats 3 people, meets safety standards for the US, and doesn't fall apart in a couple of years. Now if only I can convince the apt. owners to install weather-proof electrical connectors on my parking spot...they could even add a slight extra "rental" charge on top of the electricity rate to pay for the cost of installation and I wouldn't mind.
Posted by: Patrick | Aug 19, 2006 1:51:43 PM
Yeah the 40 mph 40 mile range has limited use for anybody but the 80 mph 200 mile range would suit many people. I'll be looking into the xs200 in the coming years. However, if everyone owned an electric vehicle the price of electricity will skyrocket and the price of gas will plummit. Gas will be so cheap everyone will want their petrol powered cars back.
Invest your money in solar panels now, there's a limited supply of gasoline but a limitless supply of sunpower in our lifetimes. Food for thought.
Posted by: Chris | Aug 19, 2006 1:52:51 PM
Tilting three wheeler, 1- to 2-seat configuration (with room for some groceries), safe roll cage, 40-45 mph top speed, natural gas plug-in electric hybrid, and great looks.
Price that at or below $7,000-9,000, and you couldn't sell them fast enough.
The "Clever" project and the recent "Pulse" design at MIT come close. Making the Honda Canopy available in the US (with cleaner emissions) would be a nice first step.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/en-proj20/index.html
http://www.vehicledesignsummit.org/vdscontent/pulse6.pdf
http://www.honda.co.jp/motor-lineup/gyro-canopy/index.html
Posted by: Joseph Willemssen | Aug 19, 2006 2:34:02 PM
Nemo-
I was referring to the XS200. With a vehicle like this, I would only require gasoline once or twice a year. To be honest, I'd be more concerned about future gasoline/petroleum sources than electrical. Solar should be pursued more vigorously.
Posted by: cs1992 | Aug 19, 2006 2:45:03 PM
A Honda Rebel at 40 mph will probably get over 100 mpg. It only costs about $4,000 and if you drive it instead of the SUV the fuel savings are great and you don't loose cool. If you are concerned about safty there is a covered BMW Motorcycle that they claim is as safe as a car.
A Tango (small electric car) would be great at $10,000 or below else the motorcycle is the best bet.
Posted by: jim | Aug 19, 2006 7:25:50 PM
The ZX40 is forgettable. The XS200? Unless you are one of those guys that like to speed at 100+ this would be a good deal. And if they sell enough of them, it could bring pressure to bear on Ford & GM. Just don't do any commericals like GM did with the EV-1.
Posted by: Gerald Shields | Aug 19, 2006 7:47:12 PM
How in the world does this thing pass DOTs FMVSS?
Posted by: fred | Aug 19, 2006 9:00:25 PM
>Solar should be pursued more vigorously.
A Solar Car??? That's not even on the horizon, unless you hope to drive it on the horizon of the sun.
Posted by: nemo | Aug 19, 2006 9:23:24 PM
A honda rebel won't hit 100mpg and you can't put your kids in a safety seat on the motorcycle with you (atleast I'm not that foolish). Let us see that honda rebel meet the same emission requirements set up for cars.
Posted by: Patrick | Aug 19, 2006 10:05:48 PM
Simply...i want 4 wheels on my car...that´s it ! I keep waiting for my electric car to my home country Sweden.
Posted by: Paul Berg | Aug 20, 2006 3:03:00 AM
The low speed, low millage ones are stupid.
The XS200 should be pretty cool if it's not as ugly as the ZX40.
Posted by: James | Aug 20, 2006 4:44:43 AM
Nemo-
Not a direct solar powered vehicle. I am talking about techniques to generate electricity cleanly to power them. The Solar America Initiative aims to bring costs of solar down to competing technologies within 10 years.
http://renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/market/business/viewstory?id=43134
Although, there are solar panels available for directly recharging (or at least helping reharge)the batteries of the Prius. Maybe solar technology will one day help offset the energy drain of other on board devices such as the AC or radio.
Posted by: cs1992 | Aug 20, 2006 4:47:20 AM
Introduction of such vehicles will build the oem supply chain and push other automakers to follow suit.{assuming these vehicles perform well}
Gm has a presense in China and could use their labor force to vault to the fore of the ev world.Will we demonize them for outsourcing American jobs?What would such a vehicle cost built by the UAW?
These questions will become moot if vehicles such as the xs succeed.An electric vehicle industry could become much more distributed than the present auto industry.The big three will be replaced by the average three hundred.Toyota could become king of the hill just as the hill begins to dissolve.
As the father of three children in the military I welcome such a revolution.I believe we will figure out how to supply the electricity.I as a knuckle dragging conservative would buy such a vehicle in a heartbeat.
Posted by: earl | Aug 20, 2006 5:07:34 AM
>Not a direct solar powered vehicle.
OK. You'd be surprised how many people (on another board) ask, "I'm wanting to make my car solar powered. How many panels will I need to put on top? I bought a station wagon so I'll have enough room."
Posted by: nemo | Aug 20, 2006 11:58:09 AM
You mean like this:
http://www.aps.com/images/PDF/renewable/009PrescottAirport.pdf
The bad news is that state of the art facility will only power about 150 homes. Most of the older facilities in Arizona will only power 5-10 homes. We're still a long way away from solar making any widespread impact on our energy useage.
Posted by: nemo | Aug 20, 2006 12:04:47 PM
Nemo:
Stirling Energy Systems technology has a good chance of filling a good percentage of electricity needs. They use a solar thermal process to power stirling engines at efficiency rates they claim are double that of PVs. They are in fact going to install up to about 1200 megawatts in southern California over the next few years.
Posted by: Cervus | Aug 20, 2006 1:27:25 PM
http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2004/renew-energy-batt/Stirling.html
Posted by: Jim | Aug 20, 2006 8:16:34 PM
These won't even sell in the far east (where they're used to seeing three-wheeled vehicles) due to the price. In the US - they must be kidding.
Posted by: Bob | Aug 20, 2006 8:51:20 PM
Could someone tell me why Miles Automotive 'dumbed down' the Happy Messenger for US sales? When it left China, it had a top speed of 60 mph and a range of 90 miles.
Posted by: hamerhokie | Aug 20, 2006 10:31:34 PM
Watch the video over at Zapworld.
Since the Xebra is 3 wheeled I assume most places it doesnt need to meet most safety issues. Speed isnt limited like the NEV's (Gem, etc) , dealer says it will do near 50MPH on a flat road (which would be great for me). I assume the 40MPH was for the 40 Mile range.
Posted by: Lotfw | Aug 21, 2006 6:13:35 AM
No way I could drive that three-wheeled jobby; I'd be too paranoid that a malevolent Rowan Atkinson would drive me off the road :)
Posted by: Robert Merkel | Aug 21, 2006 6:54:03 AM
Robert, thanks for the smile that Reliant Robin got beaten up on by the Mini of Mr. Bean.
I didn't see it when skimming the comments but a 3 wheeled vehicle is counted as a motorcycle under current vehicle regs and as such doesn't have to meet safety regs. Add another wheel and you gotta meet all the safety regs. This adds several hundred pounds of vehicle weight sapping range from an electric or MPG from small gas cars. Here's to hoping for a breakthrough on the cost of lightweight materials, batteries etc. for cars that will solve that problem.
Posted by: Tim Russell | Aug 21, 2006 8:29:31 AM
Bit off topic but is anyone old enough and watched enough TV to remember an episode of the Partridge family
where there was an eccentric older woman who drove an electric car?
I remember it as being seen as very difficult to drive of course. I would like to see that episode again some day cause we might find that Who killed the electric car? The Partridge Family!
Posted by: Lotfw | Aug 21, 2006 10:09:26 AM
Long, detailed article on the Tesla here (reprinted from SNS) -
"...overarching purpose of Tesla is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy
...
The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.
..."
[and plenty more]
Posted by: Anna Haynes | Aug 21, 2006 6:13:03 PM
Three-wheel configurations are stable as follows: a) One steered wheel in front, two powered wheels in rear. b) Two steered wheels in front, one powered wheel in rear. Both of these configurations have been widely used in microcars in the UK, Europe, and Asia since the early 20th century.
Three-wheel configurations that are steered from the rear are not stable, however are highly useful for lowspeed operations where tight turning radius is critical e.g. fork lifts, road sweepers, etc.
Compare the Zap Xebra to other neighborhood electric vehicles. They typically have top speed of 25 mph and range of 20 miles, no doors or fabric doors or at best plastic doors w/o locks. They typically have limited seating & storage capacity, and cost $15,000 - 25,000. The Xebra is faster & has better range, has conventional doors with locks, and has seating for 4 plus decent storage (and if I'm not mistaken, the rear seats can be folded down so you can seat two up front and carry a decent load of bulky stuff in the back). And the price is $5k - $15k less. So compared to other local-driving electrics, the choice is obvious: Zap is a winner.
I would buy a Xebra in two seconds if I had a place to park the additional vehicle. I log my miles for business reasons so I know the ranges I need, and the Xebra would work for @ 75% of my driving. The other @ 25% requires freeway speeds & range of @ 150 miles minimum, and includes client site emergencies at odd hours that are not amenable to a quick last-minute car rental. On the other hand, this might be viable with membership in a Car Share organization for access to vehicles for freeway trips.
So consider this possibility: You have a small electric car for local trips, e.g. Zap or similar. You use public transport if you commute to work. And you belong to a Car Share co-op for the times you need vehicles with higher speeds, more carrying capacity, and longer ranges. The point of all this, after all, is to have practical transportation without trashing the planet, and it seems to me that this combination works well.
Posted by: g510 | Aug 31, 2006 6:25:41 AM
An interesting discussion. I just acquired a Ligier Ambra which, except for range, is similar in speed and size to an electric. I use it to travel to the nearby village and neighboring villages of up to 20 mile roundtrip. Surprisingly, I have found it satisfactory. There are only short stretches where one might speed up to the national limit, but in fact they are limited by traffic when they reach the end. I think many drivers would be surprised to find that 45mph is not much of a limitation. We do have a Golf Ecomotic for longer trips, but usually opt for the train. One other thing--don't believe the sales pitches about speed. Coming up out of the Dartford tunnel made it painfully obvious that 45 on level ground means about 25 up a steady grade. In any event, 100mpg (slightly less with the bio-diesel we make), less waste oil (1.6 litres instead of 4), smaller tyres (remoulds at that), everything is smaller and thus consumes less. The whole car can be recyled. It is a step toward the future and the one I imagined as a kid. (If you ignore that it's like a Motel T in shiny paint, it's very cool).
Posted by: Stephen Van Scoyoc | Sep 5, 2006 6:13:04 AM
