A joint effort by the Zenn Motor Company (Toronto, Ontario) and France's Microcar SA may hit European streets as early as 2010.
[NOTE: See comments below. We probably "jumped the gun" on this story. While ZENN contracts with Microcar SA for their current NEV, no announcement has been made as to who ZENN will work with on the CityZENN.]
The new model, the cityZenn will be capable of speeds of up to 80 miles an hour, with a range of 250 miles. These advances are expected, based on new technology being developed by EEStor Inc. of Cedar Park, Texas.
The standard Zenn (zero emissions, no noise) is currently on the market in the US as a NEV (neighborhood electric vehicle). The car plugs into a conventional electrical outlet and runs 30 to 50 miles on a single charge, depending on the speed and whether the air conditioning is used. Average battery life is about eight hours at an operating cost of only two cents a mile.
1 comment:
Tom -- Thanks for the comment. I went throught my sources for the story, and it looks like I misinterpreted some of the articles. While Microcar SA is the manufacturer of the current ZENN Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, no announcement has been made on the OEM for the cityZENN.
With Beneteau's announced sale of Microcar SA to an investor group (Phillipe Ligier/21 Central Partners) there may be some changes in Microcar's relationship with ZENN -- but since all the mentions of the CityZENN suggest that it will launch first in Europe, it would make sense to assume that the OEM would be a European-based company -- possibly Microcar SA.
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