Monday, December 1, 2008

ZENN electric car


While downtown Portland on Sunday, I snapped photos of this tiny electric car. I'd seen it zoom down the street a few months ago, and thought it was a JDM import of some sort, and looked feverishly on the Internet to try and figure out what I saw to no avail. However, I realized Sunday what it was: a ZENN Car.

ZENN stands for Zero Emissions No Noise, and is a Canadian company specializing in electric vehicles. The little ZENN, which certainly qualifies as a subcompact car, has a top speed of only 25 mph, making it limited to neighborhood and city jaunts. It gets between 35 and 50 miles on a charge. Speaking of charging, a convenient feature is that the ZENN can be plugged into a standard 120V outlet. Additional notable features include ABS plastic body panels, an aluminum-alloy frame, and four-wheel disc brakes with electromagnetic regeneration.

The base cost of a ZENN, according to the ZENN Motor Company Web site, is about $17,245. Options include air condition option, floor mats, and a sunroof.


LINKS
ZENN Motor Company
Full ZENN Specs

2 comments:

T.G. said...

I really like your blog,I'm glad some Americans appreciate the considerable virtues of subcompacts.Here in Canada where the innovative ZENN is made we have not been able to buy the cars until recently but that is only in certain provinces(British Columbia and Quebec).I suppose that is similar to California getting electric cars before any other states do.In Canada the ZENN can't be driven on roads with speed limits higher than 50 kilometers.I'm hoping ZENNs will be available throughout Canada in the near future,our politicians lack the political will and hide behind the "safety issues" excuse when pressed to move faster on the availability of the cars.

D2M said...

The ZEN sounds like a really interesting car. I'm not sure how well a car like that would fair in 80% of the US though, since there's lots of high way driving.

However, where I live in Japan, this car would be almost perfect. Except for the toll roads, the standard speed limit only goes as high as 50kph.

Except I wonder how it would do in the snow? Where we live, it snows a lot, so that'd be the deciding factor. :)

Also, I like this blog too! And I don't even have a subcompact. (Yet.)