Have you heard gas could hit $4 a gallon? Of course you have. What can you do about it? Not much. Like I said before, if I’m graced with some EVOS cheese I plan to purchase an electric scooter and use it in the summer as a first step towards reducing my personal reliance on 87 octane. A whole car would be nice for year round transport but the options are few.
Local media covered the Zenn cars purchased by Seahawk Air in pretty good detail. I test drove one of these last year while in Seattle at MCEV and although it isn’t a “gloried golf cart” it isn’t all that the typical car is either. Some really cheap plastic and exposed areas around the dash, no sound insulation, etc. Plus it is smaller than a Mini Cooper which scares some people. I’d like to drop a V8 in one and set a new Kodiak land speed record out by the dump but whateva.
Legally it can only be driven on roads up to 35mph but the car doesn’t go that fast unless you modify the computer programming which I’m told isn’t that difficult. But then you can’t go as far on a charge and legal issues come up. I’m not sure if the KPD or Troopers would care if someone was doing 45mph in a LSV or NEV on a 45mph road. Local governments could put in laws allowing modifications and higher speeds for these cars as has been done in parts of Washington. If you could achieve higher speed you wouldn’t be limited to Kodiak Prime so you could go visit the dude who converted the VW Rabbit to AC/DC out in Antone!
When I was walking for public office I brought attention to the Dynasty which I have also test drove and is produced (or was) in Canada. It looks like a four-door Beetle and the inside makes the Zenn car look like Caddy. The one pictured above it the utility/truck model. Both cost around 12-14 thousand but neither struck me as having a heater that could keep up with the Alaskan temperatures. And that is another drawback to electric cars up here - battery power goes down when it is really cold outside so I’d probably need a heated garage for the car to be 100% effective November to April.
There is another vehicle similar to these two called the Kurrent. They can be found in Ferndale, Washington near Bellingham. I went to see one in Kirkland on my last trip but the dealer had sold them all. I’m not sure how much better they are than the other two but I’m willing to bet they aren’t that pimp.
There is also the GEM car by Chrysler and it really is a borderline golf cart. Maybe it uses a fore banger.
My favorite option you can get today is the 2004-2007 Toyota Prius Plug-In Conversion. This gives people the ability to charge the batteries at home without the engine running and achieve unreal gas mileage in the neighborhood of 100mpg and better. CalCars is the big name in this game but it comes with a big price tag, between eight and fifteen grand. Still, in Kodiak you could run on the electric mode most of the time and only use the gas when you go out to the Flats to pick yer banjo or the base to use their pool that is still better than the one we are going to build. I’ve heard that there might be a plug-in kit for the Ford Escape hybrid and if this is on a 4x4 model you’d have the perfect Last Frontier machine. Except that it is a Ford.
Another conversion of a different sort making waves is the Smart car. Duh. These come with tiny gas motors and get really good mileage and now they make an electric model. These make the Zenn car look like a Caddy on the outside and a Buick-like price tag. How is Buick even still in business?
Speaking of GM, they like to show off a concept called the Volt which is a plug-in car set for release in 2010 or 2011. F-word GM. If you haven’t seen Who Killed The Electric Car yet then Netflix that mudderphutter immediately. I will NEVER buy a Chevy, GMC, Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, or Hummer after seeing that film although I doubt I would have bought one before based on the crap they put on four perfectly good Goodyears. The EV-1 is perhaps the greatest thing they ever came up with (aside from the Vette) and they buried it. And the conspiracy continues. CLICK HERE.
Now CLICK HERE to see what about $80,000 will get you (and some pics of the north lot at Qwest Field). The Tango. Michael Clayton even has one. There is also the Myers Motors Sparrow for 50K less but as the wise man who I share 50% of my DNA with points out, three wheel cars make it hard to avoid Kodiak’s ludicrous pothole situation. The Sparrow is a fine idea but it is SO UGLY. The previous owner of the company had designed a way better looking trike with a Harley engine and I wish they’d use that body style instead.
But my biggest hope for the future is with my favorite manufacturer. Subaru is in the house. They have been flirting with a concept called the R1e. The R1 was a car they sold in Japan and they made it electric but I believe the R1 is or has been replaced by the G4e (“Good 4 earth”). Hopefully they are AWD. Why does Japan keep all the cool stuff to themselves? Because we took Ichiro away, that’s why. Maybe when he retires they’ll start letting us by Yamaha iPod bikes.
Speaking of bikes and coming full circle, Schwinn has just released an electric bike in the $1500-2000 range that goes 18mph and has the wiring hidden inside the frame to look cleaner. One model even uses the chainless drive system with a shaft. Funky.
If I were a real reporter I'd look up the tax incentives for purchasing an electric car but I'm lazy so you can do that part.
Although I find the whole electric car concept fascinating I wish there was more attention on home heating that isn’t so reliant on fossil fuel. I missed the presentation at the college last month that touched on some of this but I can tell you I’m more concerned with the price of heating oil that what I put in my car. Can someone hook a brother up with the latest 411 on greener furnaces?
Lastly, I just learned that Threshold now recycles household batteries. You can take in yer AAA, AA, C, D cells, all that all that. Wonderful.
Local media covered the Zenn cars purchased by Seahawk Air in pretty good detail. I test drove one of these last year while in Seattle at MCEV and although it isn’t a “gloried golf cart” it isn’t all that the typical car is either. Some really cheap plastic and exposed areas around the dash, no sound insulation, etc. Plus it is smaller than a Mini Cooper which scares some people. I’d like to drop a V8 in one and set a new Kodiak land speed record out by the dump but whateva.
Legally it can only be driven on roads up to 35mph but the car doesn’t go that fast unless you modify the computer programming which I’m told isn’t that difficult. But then you can’t go as far on a charge and legal issues come up. I’m not sure if the KPD or Troopers would care if someone was doing 45mph in a LSV or NEV on a 45mph road. Local governments could put in laws allowing modifications and higher speeds for these cars as has been done in parts of Washington. If you could achieve higher speed you wouldn’t be limited to Kodiak Prime so you could go visit the dude who converted the VW Rabbit to AC/DC out in Antone!
When I was walking for public office I brought attention to the Dynasty which I have also test drove and is produced (or was) in Canada. It looks like a four-door Beetle and the inside makes the Zenn car look like Caddy. The one pictured above it the utility/truck model. Both cost around 12-14 thousand but neither struck me as having a heater that could keep up with the Alaskan temperatures. And that is another drawback to electric cars up here - battery power goes down when it is really cold outside so I’d probably need a heated garage for the car to be 100% effective November to April.
There is another vehicle similar to these two called the Kurrent. They can be found in Ferndale, Washington near Bellingham. I went to see one in Kirkland on my last trip but the dealer had sold them all. I’m not sure how much better they are than the other two but I’m willing to bet they aren’t that pimp.
There is also the GEM car by Chrysler and it really is a borderline golf cart. Maybe it uses a fore banger.
My favorite option you can get today is the 2004-2007 Toyota Prius Plug-In Conversion. This gives people the ability to charge the batteries at home without the engine running and achieve unreal gas mileage in the neighborhood of 100mpg and better. CalCars is the big name in this game but it comes with a big price tag, between eight and fifteen grand. Still, in Kodiak you could run on the electric mode most of the time and only use the gas when you go out to the Flats to pick yer banjo or the base to use their pool that is still better than the one we are going to build. I’ve heard that there might be a plug-in kit for the Ford Escape hybrid and if this is on a 4x4 model you’d have the perfect Last Frontier machine. Except that it is a Ford.
Another conversion of a different sort making waves is the Smart car. Duh. These come with tiny gas motors and get really good mileage and now they make an electric model. These make the Zenn car look like a Caddy on the outside and a Buick-like price tag. How is Buick even still in business?
Speaking of GM, they like to show off a concept called the Volt which is a plug-in car set for release in 2010 or 2011. F-word GM. If you haven’t seen Who Killed The Electric Car yet then Netflix that mudderphutter immediately. I will NEVER buy a Chevy, GMC, Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, or Hummer after seeing that film although I doubt I would have bought one before based on the crap they put on four perfectly good Goodyears. The EV-1 is perhaps the greatest thing they ever came up with (aside from the Vette) and they buried it. And the conspiracy continues. CLICK HERE.
Now CLICK HERE to see what about $80,000 will get you (and some pics of the north lot at Qwest Field). The Tango. Michael Clayton even has one. There is also the Myers Motors Sparrow for 50K less but as the wise man who I share 50% of my DNA with points out, three wheel cars make it hard to avoid Kodiak’s ludicrous pothole situation. The Sparrow is a fine idea but it is SO UGLY. The previous owner of the company had designed a way better looking trike with a Harley engine and I wish they’d use that body style instead.
But my biggest hope for the future is with my favorite manufacturer. Subaru is in the house. They have been flirting with a concept called the R1e. The R1 was a car they sold in Japan and they made it electric but I believe the R1 is or has been replaced by the G4e (“Good 4 earth”). Hopefully they are AWD. Why does Japan keep all the cool stuff to themselves? Because we took Ichiro away, that’s why. Maybe when he retires they’ll start letting us by Yamaha iPod bikes.
Speaking of bikes and coming full circle, Schwinn has just released an electric bike in the $1500-2000 range that goes 18mph and has the wiring hidden inside the frame to look cleaner. One model even uses the chainless drive system with a shaft. Funky.
If I were a real reporter I'd look up the tax incentives for purchasing an electric car but I'm lazy so you can do that part.
Although I find the whole electric car concept fascinating I wish there was more attention on home heating that isn’t so reliant on fossil fuel. I missed the presentation at the college last month that touched on some of this but I can tell you I’m more concerned with the price of heating oil that what I put in my car. Can someone hook a brother up with the latest 411 on greener furnaces?
Lastly, I just learned that Threshold now recycles household batteries. You can take in yer AAA, AA, C, D cells, all that all that. Wonderful.
