SPECIAL EARTH DAY DOUBLE ISSUE - AutoWeek

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YOU CAN’T APPROACH a neighborhood electric vehicle the same way you’d approach a typical gasoline-powered, fully functioning car. NEVs are meant to fill a gap in the transportation chain for clean city vehicles. (NEV is a federal category for electric cars that don’t exceed 25 mph. Big carmakers are likely to use them to help meet coming zero-emissionsvehicle requirements.) They are nowhere near as solid, sturdy or safe as even the flimsiest Fiat. However, they are—and this one, in particular, is—well north of the golf-cart category. ZENN stands for “zero emission, no noise,” and that’s pretty much what you get, as long as you figure electricity off the grid as zero emissions. The ZENN EV seats two people and can haul 13 cubic feet of luggage in something that is far more substantial than the golf-cartlike GEM e4 we wrote about four years ago (“A Glimpse of Future Past,” AW, June 28, 2004). The ZENN is a three-door hatchback 26 AUTOWEEK APRIL 21, 2008 thegreenissue (“fully enclosed!”) with an aluminum spaceframe covered in plastic body panels. An AC electric motor spins the front wheels. With all of its torque available at 0 rpm, the ZENN, like many electric conveyances, launches from stops with squealing authority. The problem after launch is that federally mandated 25mph NEV speed limit. Most customers make the (technically illegal) software change to increase top speed to 35 mph and thus increase their chances of coping in urban traffic. Our test car had no such software assistance, and we found ourselves regularly ducking out of traffic and crawling along curbs to avoid everything else coming up behind us. Nothing goes 25 mph in Los Angeles, no matter what the posted speed limit says. ZENN lists its range as either 35 miles or 30 to 50 miles, depending on where you read it. We found that to be a SPECS ON SALE: Now BASE PRICE: $15,995 DRIVETRAIN: Three-phase AC motor, 5.69 kW, 43 lb-ft; fwd ELECTRIC AVENUE AT 25 MPH, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM CURB WEIGHT: 1280 or 1350 lb (depending on ZENN source) 0-60 MPH: Never FUEL ECONOMY: N/A BY MARK VAUGHN bit of a stretch. We traveled 11 miles from home to EV Motors in Glendale and used well more than half the indicated charge. Power comes from six 12-volt lead-acid glass-mat batteries. The brushless AC motor makes 7.5 hp, which, on paper, doesn’t seem like enough to move the 1280-pound car around, but it behaved better than most gasoline-powered cars off the line and across the intersection. It was just after that where the ZENN faltered. The car bounced and wallowed more than a typical Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic, and the very skinny 13-inch wheels and tires were easily overwhelmed. But you adapt your driving style accordingly. The four-wheel discs, along with regenerative braking, meant that slowing was a little choppy. Inside, the ZENN is much more like a real car than the GEM. The doors, dash,
seats and instrumentation were far better and more carlike than those in the GEM, which we described as being “like a really well-engineered” port-a-potty. Our test ZENN had the optional power cloth sunroof ($1,195) and stereo ($195) and the standard power windows, heater and defroster. We didn’t have the $2,200 electric air conditioning. Base price is $15,995. ZENN knows it can’t market this car the same way you’d market a Pontiac or a BMW. “This is a car for the urban pioneer,” said ZENN regional sales director Bill Williams. “The urban pioneer is a young college grad with a job who needs to wear a suit to work yet lives in and around this downtown core center.” There are now 34 dealers in and around downtown core centers, including the pioneering guys at www.environmentalmotors.com in Glendale, California, where we got this car. To find your ZENN, visit www.zenncars.com. c TREK PORTLAND BICYCLE SWEAT EQUITY A two-wheel ZEV for one BY MARK VAUGHN IN THE END, IT will be the pigeons >> we remember most. Oh, the pigeons. But we’ll get to them in a minute. First, the joys of bicycling. Urban commuting by bicycle is good for everyone. It’s good for the city you live in, because it keeps cars off the streets. It’s good for your bank account, because you save gas. And it’s good for your health, assuming you don’t get squashed like a bug by some moron driving a vehicle while also talking on a cell phone. This being the Earth Day issue, where we explore alternative modes of transportation, the bicycle seemed only natural. We called Trek, which makes bicycles for seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. If Trek is good enough for him, it is good enough for us. We told them the plan: Instead of driving some gas-guzzling, ozone-depleting car on our regular 22-mile commute to the L.A. office, how about a bike? Trek (www.trekbikes.com) recommended the $1,700 Portland, an urban commuter. Trek makes the 58-centimeter aluminum frame, and, as with cars, various suppliers provide the rest. Shimano makes the three-gear front and 11-gear rear sprockets (33 speeds!) and both the front and rear derailleurs. Front and rear mechanical disc brakes are made by Avid, and Bontrager makes the rest. The wheels have only 24 spokes, and the tires are way skinny. The front forks are carbon fiber and are supposed to absorb shocks well. While this bike is set up for riding back and forth to work through city traffic, suggesting a certain comfort level, it erred on the side of mechanical efficiency. Each crank of the crank felt as if it got you twice as far as your average strand cruiser, regardless of gearing. Going to this from the fat-tired mountain bike with front and rear suspension that we normally ride was a cosmic leap. A better urban commuter, at least for Los Angeles, might IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII have been a hard-tailed mountain bike. The front suspension soaks up bumps, and the fixed rear transfers cranking power to the ground. Who knows? Or maybe the L.A. streets are just much worse than anywhere else in the world. It was pretty jarring over most of the roads, and we would have traded off a little give for a little of that efficiency. Or maybe you get used to it. Trek has you covered, whatever your needs. So do any number of bike makers. There is a bike out there that is perfect for your commuting needs; technology has come a long way since the Schwinn Orange Crate you rode in 1965. But pigeons have not. Barreling down Third Street in Los Angeles, flatout in top gear, a city bus the size of an apartment building bearing down on our rear wheel, a curb to the right, a cavalcade of faceless ’80s sedans to the left, there was nowhere to go. And suddenly, there they were—the pigeons, what seemed like hundreds of them, maybe thousands, feeding on some wretched dreck dumped into the street and obscured by their gluttonous frenzy. A few took flight in time to escape. We raised a forearm to protect our face, and some whapped off that. But some didn’t even get off the deck. Thump thump, came the sickening sounds. We couldn’t stop, or the next thump thump would have been us under the bus. By the time we were finally able to look back, two blocks away, a large lady waiting for another bus was kicking the carcasses into the gutter. Oh, the horror . . . the horror . . . But the bike was nice! c APRIL 21, 2008 AUTOWEEK 27
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SPECIAL EARTH DAY DOUBLE ISSUE - AutoWeek

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