WIRED sticks it to Zap! - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

SVOboy · 03-25-2008, 08:41 PM

Uh oh, more trouble in electric car ville: http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretran...6-04/ff_zapped

bennelson · 03-25-2008, 10:28 PM

Ouch!

Kinda harsh article.

The one paragraph in there about the Zebra sounded close it right.

It goes about 35, but the range is better than 20 miles.

With any company, I wouldn't go by any claim they have for future vehicles.

I just want to know what they have right now, and what works.

If there isn't something out there for you, build it yourself.
Or go back in time to the 70's and get a Citicar, or the early 1900s, had some great electrics back then too!

bestmapman · 03-25-2008, 10:42 PM

WOW,Too bad for ZAP. I always wondered why they had so many cool looking vehicles on their site, but the ones they were actually selling were not very appealing. Now it makes sense.

Maybe they can pull through and get those car made that everyone wants.

trebuchet03 · 03-25-2008, 10:55 PM

yikes, now that's a pretty crappy company... crappy, on a fundamental level :/

Daox · 03-25-2008, 11:02 PM

I've heard this story before. Inventor has an idea and lots of research to back it up. Inventor goes to investors for money. Inventor gets LOTS of money. Inventor thinks why put item into production when people are throwing so much money at it? Getting money from investors is easier than selling actual parts.

In my particular case the inventor was eventually sued by an investor. The investor won and took all the research. The inventor was thrown in jail.

I'm not saying thats whats going on here. But, it has happened before.

trebuchet03 · 03-25-2008, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daox

I've heard this story before. Inventor has an idea and lots of research to back it up. Inventor goes to investors for money. Inventor gets LOTS of money. Inventor thinks why put item into production when people are throwing so much money at it? Getting money from investors is easier than selling actual parts.

In my particular case the inventor was eventually sued by an investor. The investor won and took all the research. The inventor was thrown in jail.

I'm not saying thats whats going on here. But, it has happened before.

Except... The inventor isn't even there anymore... He was kicked out by the asses in there now...

Ryland · 03-25-2008, 11:15 PM

I'm kind of suprized that ZAP is still around at all at points in time, I just sold my 10 year old ZAP electric bike kit, it performs almost exactly as promised, and did so for a number of years, until the battery started to head down hill, but other then that it is a well built, American made product, I think where they went wrong was when they tried to move past the electric bike market, they should have stayed there, and invested more time and energy in better batteries, and hub motors, and leave the vaporware alone.

cfg83 · 03-25-2008, 11:25 PM

SVOboy -

Yeah, Zap has done Zip when it comes to electric cars that can compete with normal ICE cars. I suspect that the dude that bought the Zap territory screwed up. I was tracking the "no Smarts for Zap" story for over a year. If I am interpreting the article correctly, he should have been aware of that legal spat before he signed up.

I have some of their press releases. They are very good at vapor-ware!

CarloSW2

WaxyChicken · 03-25-2008, 11:44 PM

that kinda thing just gets me PO'd so bad.
false promises, taking advantage of what few investors will believe in the concept, and basically ruining the reputation of the EV for the general public.

When companies do this they just add to the problem.

If i had $100K to blow on an investment then I'd start my own EV company instead of go with a franchise that has yet to show a proven, available product.

Christopher Jordan · 03-26-2008, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Uh oh, more trouble in electric car ville

I had money-in-my-hand for Zaps E-Pod in 2005, they shined me on, so I built my own "E-Pod". I don't feel a bit guilty for stealing the name now.

Fast-forward to today (last week in fact); Subaru of Santa Cruz was selling a Xebra, which I thought would be ideal. Doing a little homework I found out Subaru cut off dealing with Zap. Part of the article-

And Wayne Schenk, owner of Subaru Santa Cruz, who had signed up as a ZAP dealer, also complained to the paper that ZAP has issued "a million press releases on stuff that has never happened." By the end of 2005, ZAP's stock price was back down to 26 cents.

Now I think I know why! THANKS WIRED! Xebra is not the trike for me.

countersTrike