A few moments of ZENN
Automotive writer Dan Neil and Kai Ryssdal go for a quiet spin around downtown L.A. in one of the newest electric automobiles, the ZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise).
A ZENN car (ZENN Cars)
More on Sustainability, Auto Industry
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- WEBSITE: ZENN Cars
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
KAI RYSSDAL: We have stepped outside the friendly confines of the Frank Stanton Studio to the Marketplace automotive test proving ground, otherwise known as the garage here at 261 S. Figueroa for another chat with our once and future car guy Dan Neil from the Los Angeles Times. Dan, good to see ya.
DAN NEIL: Hi, Kai.
RYSSDAL: We were going to start this segment with you pulling up in some great car, squealing the tires and revving the engine but we couldn't do that because of this thing you brought us today.
NEIL: Yeah, this is the ZENN electric car. And it doesn't squeal tires. In fact, ZENN stands for Zero Emission No Noise.
RYSSDAL: Uh, when I drive this home I plug it into the outlet in the garage?
NEIL: Absolutely. It's a 110 household outlet.
RYSSDAL: You know what's great, by the way .... The manufacturer's sticker, miles-per-gallon-city: 245.
NEIL: It's about one penny per mile to operate. But this goes only 25 mph, and it's limited to streets with only 35 mph speed limits.
RYSSDAL: Why buy this at $15,000 now when it can only do 25 or 30 mph, when I can wait maybe, what, two, three years, spend 15 grand and get something that can go 50 and get me on the highways going to work instead of having to take surface streets and have some of the limitations that this has?
NEIL: I think gasoline is going to be $5 and $6 and, inevitably, $10 a gallon in the next 20 years. I think that Americans are going to have to accept a different modality when it comes to transportation. And people buy these cars to declare their greenness, their willingness to change, their coolness. Now, that isn't to say that's in bad faith or that they're not saving money. But this is really a forward looking kind of fashion statement.
RYSSDAL: Yeah, and on that point, actually, it's worth noting that in 2 1/2-inch-high letters in neon green on the side of this car it says: Electric.
NEIL: Oh, yeah.
RYSSDAL: And then you open it up and it's fairly bare. I mean, it's uh...
NEIL: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, it only weighs 1,280 pounds. This is what you get when you ask for a 1,280-pound car.
RYSSDAL: So, the seats are, I mean, you can see them sitting there on the little aluminum tubing. There's none of this . . .you know, upholstery. Well, there's upholstery but there's none of this sophisticated stuff.
NEIL: That's right. The glove box in a Mercedes Benz S Class is more substantial.
RYSSDAL: Let's go for a ride.
NEIL: OK
RYSSDAL: Seat belt for me ....
NEIL: OK.... Now it's on.
RYSSDAL: That was it.
NEIL: That was it.
RYSSDAL: There was nothing. There was the click of the key and that was it.
NEIL: That's right. All right, here we go.
RYSSDAL: Out o the streets of Los Angeles. We're going to go through the 2nd Street tunnel here.
NEIL: Yeah, now, the 2nd Street tunnel is usually about a 60 mph zone.
RYSSDAL: Oh yeah. Speed limit's 25, though, so ...
NEIL: Yes, that's right. The speed limit is officially 25.
RYSSDAL: And we're doing 22, 23, so this thing is almost pegged ...
NEIL: There you go. It's pegged now.
RYSSDAL: 27!
NEIL: Oh, 27!
RYSSDAL: 27, come one, with a couple of extra hundred pounds in the back.
NEIL: Oh, it's interesting. We have some inertia.
RYSSDAL: Oh, but see .... you hear that sound? That's me hitting the peg on the bottom of the gas pedal.
NEIL: Uh-huh. There you go. But, again, it sounds like we're discrediting electric vehicles. That's ....
RYSSDAL: And it's important that that not be the case, right?
NEIL: Let's not discredit this technology. This is a very kind of extreme case. But electric vehicles do work, can work. They will be affordable. So this is kind of a transitional vehicle.
RYSSDAL: [BEEP] Oh, the horn is on the blinker thing! So sorry. Yeah, now, I would think about this. Not this one, but along these lines in the next couple of years if gas hits $5 and $6.
NEIL: Yeah, if you lived in Playa Del Rey or Santa Monica or Sun City, Ariz., or any big retirement community, why wouldn't you have one of these? It will do 99 percent of what people want it to do and cost a penny a mile to drive. So I think it makes great sense for a lot of people.
Comments
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From Wooster, OH, 06/25/2008
The previous writer is obviously uninformed about the efficiency of electric power generation. Overall, the electric car will emit only 30% of the CO2 as a gasoline car. The internal combustion engine is very inefficient relative to a modern power plant. Please educate yourself.
From Great Falls, MT, 06/23/2008
We have two familys that have Zenn cars here in 6the city . I talked to the one gal at the big street custom car show we had here a few weeks ago and she said her electric bill was neglegible. The guy that says electric cars are not fuel efficient is brain washed. An 18 volt DC electric motor has been reported to have more torque than a 90 horse engine(gas). The concept of putsing around your town at 35 miles per hour is just plain within reason for these cars. They arn't meant for doing the same work as the gas guzzler I don't know why some people have such a hard time with this. Also electricity is easier to produce than petroleum and you don't need petroleum to produce electricity. We have wind farms going up everywhere. If a gallon of gas costs 4.00 per gallon the price of running the zenn is 4.00 per 245 miles. I don'tknow what's so hard about that to figure. Another reason Detroit doesn't make electric cars is there is hardly any money in it for them , so expect all the little companys today to be big companies tomorrow. We only have one dealer here in Montana from what iI can find out, and he is in Bozeman. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could get rid of a couple of my gas vehicles. I have four and only really need two.
From Reston, VA, 05/22/2008
The Zenn electric car would be very useful throughout Washington, D.C. where the speed limit is in the 25 to 35 miles per hour range. Low emissions and appropriate speeds. It sounds great.
From Clinton, CT, 05/21/2008
Kai - You should get your friend Dan there to do test drive of the Aptera Typ-1.
http://www.aptera.com/
I'm sure it would make a great piece for the show.
From Philadelphia, PA, 05/21/2008
Joanne,
I think one of the key differences between this and a fuel vehicle is that the elctrical motor is more efficient at taking the charge of its batteries and converting it into movement of the car. There was a recent Nova special where this was discussed. Tesla another electric car manufacturer even explains how they calculate fuel efficiency for an electrical vehicle and what fossil fuesl it may be burning.
If you were to make this move then you might be able to upgrade to solar or windpower and now your vehicle is much more green!!!!
From Beaverton, OR, 05/20/2008
Kai,...Buddy,...Do you record your show with a bullhorn? Do you make breakfast with a flamethrower? Why do want the Zenn car to be an SUV? It's perfectly capable of doing 90% of the "car" jobs a family needs, like taking one person to the store, picking kids up from school, going to church. Many families have at least three cars - make one of them a neighborhood electric and pick the car for the trip, not who "owns" it. Do you take your three kids and a dog on every trip? That must make your barber crazy. No? Then use a gas car for that time, but make it one of the few "gas" trips of the week. I guarantee - most of your trips will be one passenger and well within the 50 mile range of these NEVs. On the air, you seemed to make fun of the low power, but blew past the fact that electrics like the Zenn use 1/10th the fuel (in electric kW compared to gal of gasoline). Fuel produced in the U.S., not by Oil Pimp Extortion Cartels. Need some cool factor to overcome your horespower overcompensation? How about telling your granddaughter how brave you were to give up your "hot rod" for a cool electric, and get us on the road to a clean, energy independent life. When you get a haircut, do you use a weed-whacker? Hope not. Well?...when you use a car,...Right Tool for the Right Job, Kai.
PS. Your show is usually well-imformed, which is why this story surprised me. Jack Cone, www.greentogether.com
BTW: the 1/10th cost of fuel figure is from 2006,...so I'm guessing that's improved a "just a little".
From Clinton, CT, 05/20/2008
Kai - Thanks for the story on the ZENN car. But I'm afraid it leaves your listeners thinking that electric vehicles are nothing more than glorified golf carts. You could have pointed out that between 1997 and 2003 Toyota had actually produced and sold or leased more than 1000 RAV4-EV electric vehicles with a top speed of 78 mph and a range of 80-129 miles per charge. Hundreds of these are still on the roads today in CA and neighboring states. It turns out practicle EV's are just as much a thing of the past as they are of the future. But that's another story.
For your listeners with some spare coin, they can place an order for a Tesla Roadster today. With 0-60 in less than 4 seconds and a top speed of 125 mph you won't find this one in "the slow lane".
EV's are the ultimate flex-fuel vehicle. Critics say that the emissions are just transferred from the tailpipe to the powerplant. However, the electricity doesn't need to come from burning coal or natural gas (as most of ours does today). These vehicles run just as well on electricity from nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar. Indeed many EV owners today power their cars from electricity generated from solar panels on their own roofs.
With gas prices doing what they are now, it's only a matter of time until EV's are back for good.
From Detroit, MI, 05/20/2008
I found your story about the Zenn electric car very lacking. I felt they way you portrayed the electric car industry as more immature than it truly is. I am sure you were trying to shine light on the cars that are currently available, but your comment about having to wait 2-3 years for a really practical electric car is not true. Please look into the Mile Automotive and the Phoenix Motor car which both should be available in the next year. Which promise to meet your practical need for a car for two kids and a dog. I feel it is important to encourage the public to demand these cars. They offer the best opportunity to eliminate the fossil fuel issues. As for the source of the electric. Ask your self is it harder to force the change of a handful of dirty electric power plants in the United States or the millions of cars that are on the road?
05/20/2008
A plug-in electric car that gets 200+ miles per gallon??? Where does the electricity come from? Does it generate spontaneously in the wall? Electricity is one of the most intrinsically inefficient types of energy - more so if it comes from a nuclear power plant.
Why is using massive amounts of energy to build a power plant, generate and then transmit electricity (all intrinsically energy intensive and inefficient), to plug in a car such an improvement over what we’ve already got?
The whole point of the environmental movement was to teach people to think of the consequences of their actions in context, think about their consumption cradle to grave. Plug-in cars are an outrageous scam. Shame on you for falling for it - and right after the radio essay from the economist who extolled the rationality of economic thinking.
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