ZAP Electric Vehicles Receives Largest Order of Electric Cars ever from Chicago Based Start-Up
This is great news for ZAP, but also great news for me as an electric car enthusiast. ZAP confirmed in an email today that they have received the largest order for electric cars ever and from a Chicago based startup called the Electric Vehicle Company (EVC), no not that Electric Vehicle Company. So it looks like I may have double the opportunity to secure either a Smart car or an electric vehicle from ZAP via EVC.
Whenever I bring up my excitement for electric cars though, I get the same response, “Yeah, that’s great, but where do you charge it?” That’s an easy solution to fix my friends. Electric outlets are a dime a dozen and as electric cars become more prevalent, more outlets will be added. The next question that always arises is “How can you get behind electric cars, when much of our electricity currently comes from coal fired power plants or nuclear power plants?” Well, at least the opportunity exists with those alternatives for renewable power sources such as wind, wave, solar, or geothermal energy. The oil option or some hybrid solution of part oil, part electric or part oil, part hydrogen, just isn’t going to cut it in the long term.
So EVC, if you’re listening, send me a promo kit or let me know when you are having any test drive events.
Photo courtesy of Zap of Concord.
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What good news for the future of the electric car! I tossed this up on Gapers Block, btw.
Rather, here on GB.
I was about to suggest this to the Green team: the company should get its employees these cars! Think we can pull that request off?
I would love to see that, but not really likely me thinks.
I just got off the phone with a salesman from Star Motors in Oak Forest, IL. They deal in ZAP cars. I’m new to this so I was SHOCKED to learn a few things. 1) In Illinois the 3 wheel vehicle has to be set to do know more then 40 mph.
2)The 4 wheel sedan has to be set to do no more then 25 mph becuase of the vehicle classification by the idiots in Springfield. 3) The state of Illinois will not issue a license plate for the 4 wheel sedan because it’s classed as a low speed vehicle… think golf cart… and they cannot be plated. So you have to buy it out of state.
Off the record the salesman said there are places that will modify the vehicles to do the normal speeds they were designed for… but he couldn’t tell me where. Does anyone know? I’d hate to order the 4 wheel all electric and only be able to do 25 mph. That’s insane.
I have to agree there Mike, that is pretty nuts. I haven’t done much research into the classification of these vehicles, but this definitely sounds like a new avenue of research I may need to pursue.
Thanks - Jeff
I was surprised to hear the salesman tell me that. The odd thing is that there is no problem with the gas electric hybrid… just the all electric. I searched the secretary of state laws that night for an hour but couldn’t find anything about vehicle classes, etc. I would be interested if you find something. i would definitely want to pursue this to a state level to get the law changed.
Mike
> 1) In Illinois the 3 wheel vehicle has to be set
> to do know (sic) more then 40 mph.
This is not entirely accurate according to the Illinois Vehicle code. Anything less than 4-wheels on the ground is considered a motorcycle in Illinois (think those custom 3-wheeled choppers). Google for ‘Illinois Vehicle Code’ and start reading everything with the word ‘electric’ in it. You need to educate yourself on the actual laws on the books — if you’re interested in EV’s, you’re gonna need it (meant politely, but honestly are you gonna believe a salesperson???) Technically you need a J-11 three-wheeled restricted motorcycle license to drive it, since it’s a motorcycle.
Furthermore, don’t expect a lot of help from the DMV — from my experience they’re aware of what they’re _used_ to dealing with normally, and not what’s actually ‘on the books’ and that’s why political appointees are bad — they don’t know how to do their job, but rather how to schmooze (and play golf). Sorry ’bout the rant there — the local DMV staff are so frazzled that when you go in there you see signs ‘Rudeness will not be tolerated’ and in fact it’s the DMV -Staff- being rude. Anyway, have your documentation in order and don’t ASK questions, TELL them I need this, that and the other thing, but by all means don’t make it sound like a ’special’ vehicle, make it sound as normal as possible or they’ll balk and say ‘we need to check with Springfield’ (aka, the afore mentioned political appointees)
> 2)The 4 wheel sedan has to be set to do no more
> then 25 mph becuase of the vehicle classification by > the idiots in Springfield.
> 3) The state of Illinois will not issue a license
> plate for the 4 wheel sedan because it’s classed as a
> low speed vehicle… think golf cart… and they cannot
> be plated. So you have to buy it out of state.
It’s a lot worse than that — NEV’s (neighborhood electric vehicles) are illegal to drive in the State of Illinois, UNLESS the local municipality that has jurisdiction of the roads has approved their use. Furthermore, they’re illegal to drive on streets with speed limits in excess of 35mph. (625 ILCS 5/11‑1426.1) In cases where two municipalities share jurisdiction of a roadway, then you must be cleared by BOTH. And while you may cross municipality roads with greater than 35mph speed limits, you may NOT under any circumstances cross State of IL highways _at all_. Think of small towns with a state highway running through the middle… not that anybody’d care in most small towns, until there was an accident.
On the flip side, they do not have to meet the same safety requirements as a ‘normal’ car — crash tests, seat belts, air bags — which keeps costs low.
I haven’t looked at this blog for a while. In response to Matt’s entry… I did try to look through the Illinois vehicle code and couldn’t find much. But that was back in April. Maybe there’s more now.
Believing a salesman? No, not really. If you couldn’t plate the car why would they even sell them? On the other hand, why not, plates are not their problem.
He did tell me that if the car was a gas/ electric hybrid then the state of Illinois couldn’t care less. Same car, different way to power it. And like he said, just get it fully converted to elecric later on.
I purchased a Zap Xebra and so far have been quite happy with it. There are range and speed limitations, but it takes care of most of what I need to do on a daily basis. For those of you looking into these options, I purchased my Xebra from a dealer in Kansas because I had a bad experience with the Illinois Zap dealer and have heard of many others who have as well. As for licensing issues, I cannot comment about the 4 wheeled NEV’s, but I did have problems at the Elston Ave. licensing location at first. However, the person in charge of these vehicles in Springfield has attempted to communicate that in Illinois Xebras are considered motorcycles. FYI, there are a few Xebra owners in Illinois.
I have had my SD since the end of October and have not had any issues with being pulled over. In fact, the main run in I had with a police officer was when my car was parked in front of my house and the police officer wanted more information about it because she knew someone who she thought would be interested in buying one.
It is not perfect, but I really do like my Xebra and overall am happy I bought it.