ZAP (NYSE arca: ZP)
Electric cars mount a charge — New-style batteries hitting the highways travel faster, longer
In a recent article by Jennifer Saranow The Wall Street Journal looked at the electric car noting, the electric car is being reborn as a futuristic high-speed sports vehicle in the United States. Highlights of this July 27, 2006, article follow.
With rising gas prices, advances in battery technologies and an aging generation looking for a low-key way to ride around their communities, a host of companies are betting that battery-powered vehicles finally will catch on.
Some car makers are coming out with models they claim can go greater distances on a single battery charge and go much faster than previous versions. Others are adding carlike features such as sunroofs and steel doors to a slower class of battery-powered electric vehicles, hoping drivers will see them as perfect second cars. More U.S. states, meanwhile, are passing laws allowing these slower electric cars on some public roads.
The resurgence of the battery-powered electric vehicle comes as rising gas prices are encouraging many consumers to look for ways to save at the pump, including opting for other new fuel-saving technologies that have hit the market in recent years such as hybrid vehicles, which use a combination of gasoline engines and electronic motors to boost fuel efficiency.
Other new battery-powered electric vehicles are starting to reach the market. Transportation technology company Zap recently began delivering to dealerships its Xebra “city car,” three-wheeled, four-door, $8,900 electric vehicles that can go as much as 64 kilometers per hour and last for as much as 64 kilometers per charge, Zap’s fastest and longest-lasting electric vehicle on the market today (options available include stereos and leather seats).
The Electric Drive Transportation Association estimates that between 60,000 and 76,000 low-speed, battery-powered electric vehicles are on the road in the U.S., up from about 56,000 in 2004. While higher-speed and longer-lasting models can cost more than $100,000, lower-speed and limited-range models can frequently be found for less than $10,000.
Advances in battery technology also are helping to make a longer-lasting electric car more viable then when car makers such as GM and Toyota Motor Co. introduced their electric models about a decade ago. While these earlier models ran on lead-acid and nickel-metal hydrate batteries, the newer long-range electric cars generally run on lithium-ion batteries. Such batteries are lighter and can store more power per charge than older batteries, enabling the vehicles to last for more kilometers.
Steve Schneider, CEO of ZAP comments, “I was not surprised to read this in the Wall Street Journal. Electric cars are an idea whose time has come. Global warming is a given. Vehicle emissions are a major contributing factor. We’ve got the green factor going for us and with the price of gas topping $3.00 a gallon, they make sense.”
Source:
By Jennifer Saranow
The Wall Street Journal Europe
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