Canadian Government Back to Killing the Electric Car (Only in Canada. Pity)

I can't help but think it is better to wait for the right technology to come along and build a car that is capable of travelling at least 50km/h. I see three downsides to having slow moving vehicles on the street.

One is that it is going to hold up other traffic, which is probably going to cause petrol engined vehicles to be running at less efficiency (my understanding is that they are designed for best efficiency at much higher speeds in a higher gear ratio) than they might otherwise. If they add to congestion, this will probably also result in more idling at lights.

Then there is a safety issue. Like it or not, many drivers aren't going to be happy driving behind a Zenn, and the result may be more accidents trying to pass.

Finally, if these things do come on the market and get a bad rap, it may make marketing more realistic electric vehicles a mush harder proposition.

Derek Andrews
Nova Scotia

The Zenn deserves a break...but customers do want speed. The new Th!nk which started production again in November has a 100 kph top speed.

Check out sites:
http://www.think.no and http://www.thinkglobal.no

This car has an interesting Canadian dimension. During the Clinton/Gore years of assistance to electric cars, Ford bought this line from Pivco, but shelved it fast when GWB came to power. In 2000, we outfitted it with a Hydro-Quebec lithium battery (another EV casualty)and it ran away from the competition at a Montreal EV show.

It should be coming to North America in 2 years and will meet Canadian highway regulations.

Leo Williams
Nepean-Carleton

Allow me to quote a local friend, professor, and long-time small-g green, Dr. Peter Bursztyn, who has some caveats for ZENN-enthusiasts.

It looks very attractive on the surface, but there are some problems with the ZENN. Some can be fixed, others probably not.

The first problem is the batteries - olde worlde lead acid. These are reliable, cheap but HEAVY and environmentally nasty when disposed of. If a deep-pocket investor comes forward, another lighter, more capacious battery could be adapted - which would make the vehicle more costly.

Another problem is crash worthiness. The reason it has not been approved for sale in Canada is its inability to protect occupants in a crash - particularly when the opponent is a 3-tonne pick-up or similar. The great weight of the lead acid batteries also contributes substantially to the ZENNs own momentum - propensity to self-destruct should it hit a tree . . .

According to the info, ZENN is limited to 40kmph. This is very slow almost anywhere but a school zone! Presumably that could be remedied, but would reduce range or increase cost.

Range is a serious problem. In summer there is no difficulty, but in winter two things happen. All storage batteries suffer from loss of capacity in cold weather. At -10C you can expect capacity to be halved. Then you need cabin heat. At the minimum, heating the vehicle will cut range in half. Then there are the other accessories like wipers, lights, etc. So in winter, you can expect range to be 20% or less of summer range! Not many people in Southern California think about winter when they are designing cars!

(personal email March 21, quoted with permission)

Obviously one way to deal with the issue of asymmetric collisions would be to get the heavier personal vehicles off the road - such as by requiring anyone driving anything over 1.5 tonnes in an urban area to have special 'heavy vehicle' training & license. This would winnow out the Hummers and larger SUVs/pickup trucks from city streets and cull them back to use by businesses that really need them instead of mere penis-extension tools.

Erich Jacoby-Hawkins
Barrie, ON

The views I express on this blog are purely my own and should not be construed to represent the official position of the Green Party of Canada - the same goes for all other people's posts & comments.

Good news about ultracapacitors etc. Companies are indeed working on batteries that will "make the ZENN capable of highway speeds" (CBC).

As far as regulating vehicles, hmm. Perhaps - I'm all for getting Hummers/Tactical Environmental Assault Vehicles off the roads, Erich, but I think that if there is a problem with crash safety, ZENN (and other small cars) need to take structural improvements on themselves.
A personal safety approach just makes sense - why rely on the other cars to be safe rather than ensuring your own safety? Self-caution rather than relying on others to look out for you?
Volvo invests heavily in making their cars safe, and they've built up a 'sturdy' reputation for themselves (pun absolutely intended). If ZENNs can prove themselves in standard specs as well as being the environmental choice, then I think you've really got a winner.
However creating a licensing/restriction program on urban vehicles as little as 1.5 tonnes is a hassle I doubt the government would buy into.

We can expect these technologies to get better and better with time. Look how far the petrol car has come from its beginnings. But let's hope that time is not long.

All the arguments against the approval of the Zenn car are spurious and ludicrous in the face of the fact that bicycles and electric assisted bikes are allowed on our highways ( although not on our super highways.) and are surely more vulneable and traffic slowing than Zenn cars. I would suggest it would be a heck of a lot safer to drive a zenn car than to ride a bike.
And the most cogent point made so far is that if we do not support our own Canadian electric car industry we will be buying foreign ones. How short sighted and un-Canadian is that.