Who Killed the Electric Car?

Phil Heaven is the recording engineer for Soundings of the Planet, a record label in town (http://www.soundings.com). He and his wife Toby-Lyn own Sandalwood Salon and Spa in downtown Bellingham. The Heavens met while attending Ferndale High School and have lived in Whatcom County most of their lives.

Who killed the electric car? No one, I drive one most every day and for less than $11,000 you can too! I drive a ZAP! Xebra SD. ZAP! (Zero Air Pollution), located in Santa Rosa, California, has their cute and quirky little Xebra sedans and pickups built in China. They are licensed, registered and insured as motorcycles since they have three wheels rather than four. Here in Washington we need to have a trike/sidecar motorcycle endorsement to drive them.

A Xebra is not for everyone, though. It’s designed to be a “city car” and works best for people who live and work in the same town. The sedan (SD) seats four and has a range of up to 25 miles per charge. The pickup (PK) seats two but has room to upgrade to larger batteries giving it a range of around 40 miles per charge.

Both models have a top speed between 35 and 40 mph. Driving style and terrain have a significant effect on range. With the hills and 35 mph roads I typically drive on, my range is about 18 miles. If I were careful not to accelerate too quickly, avoid hills and keep my speed down, I imagine I would hit the advertised 25 miles per charge. To recharge the batteries, you just plug it in to any regular outlet. A full charge takes about seven hours but you can get most of your range back in around two hours. It costs less than three cents per mile for the electricity.

Physically, driving a Xebra is not too different from driving any other small car. There’s no gearshift lever, just a forward and reverse knob on the dash, but that’s about it. In every other way, driving a Xebra is a unique experience. It’s just so much fun to see all the reactions from people seeing a Xebra for the first time. Once, I actually had a guy jumping up and down, waving his arms to get me to pull over so he could find out about the car.

Driving it has greatly increased my appreciation for how much energy can be saved by driving more conservatively. Driving habits I’m learning in my Xebra are actually improving my fuel economy while driving my “stinkers” (that’s what we call our gas vehicles now). But the silence at stoplights, and knowing that by driving electric we are putting 98 percent less pollution into the air, are the biggest rewards.

Some of the people I talk to seem to think that the Xebra couldn’t be stable with only three wheels. But the center of gravity is very low due to the placement of the heavy batteries. This makes the car very stable. It has been calculated (by another Xebra owner) that the Static Stability Factor (a parameter used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association to measure how easily a vehicle rolls over) is about the same as a Chevy Camaro.

One of the reasons I chose a Xebra is the strong online user community. The Xebra_EV Group on Yahoo.com (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Xebra_EV) has a very active membership. People help each other troubleshoot problems, share tips and tricks for improving range and develop aftermarket parts to help improve the vehicle. The group helped me to know what to look for in a dealer, and what to expect from the car. The wealth of information and experiences of other owners helped me decide that this was something I not only could do — but should do.

There are Xebra dealerships in Seattle and Salem, but I chose to get mine from Sean Rarey in Grants Pass, Oregon (http://GPEV.US.) Sean developed a modification for the Xebras that adds an extra battery, improving performance. With Sean’s V84X modification my top speed is increased to 40-plus mph and I’m able to keep up with traffic even when the batteries are getting close to the end of their charge. This modification and their dedication to electric vehicles are a big part of why I refer people to GPEV.

There are a growing number of all-electric vehicles to choose from these days, but the Xebra SD is currently the only one that will exceed 35 mph, carry more than two people and is readily available. Most BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) have four wheels and are limited to 25 mph by a federal highway safety standard that requires expensive testing and safety equipment in order to exceed that speed.

In August a new law will go into effect in Washington that will raise that limit to 35 mph. When this happens I think we will start to see more electric vehicles on the road. For more information on Xebra options or to schedule a test drive, send an e-mail to myheaven@soundings.com. §

•Xebra User Web site — http://Xebraworld.com

•ZAP! Web site — http://Zapworld.com

•Xebra User Group — http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Xebra_EV.