According to GM Car Czar Bob Lutz, "The electrification of the automobile is inevitable." Inevitability also applies to the sun going cold. But with rising gas prices, some of us old timers are getting impatient (having had our youthful appetite whetted by GM's Electrovair way back in 1966). The Li-ion-powered Tesla Roadster is simultaneously sold out and yet not in production. Dozens of other miraculous EV's are just a $5k deposit and an infinitely adjustable (and not so inevitable) delivery date away. Meanwhile, down at your local Zap dealer, the banner proclaims: "saving the planet, one vehicle at a time." Their Xebra is all charged-up and ready to roll.
The idea of the Xebra has certain compelling aspects. A "fill-up" cost as little as thirty-five cents. Its advertised top speed is 40mph. The 30-mile range would do the job for a round-the-town errand mobile. And $11,200 buys approving looks from PC neighbors for reducing your carbon footprint; that's about a-tenth of the costs of a Tesla.
Anyway, I'm thinking Tesla's got it all backwards. Why spend $125k for a Roadster AND a conventional car (a necessity for longer trips, going shopping, or picking up the folks at the airport)? Half that amount will put a Xebra on display in the driveway with enough left over to stash a Lotus, Boxster or ‘Vette in the garage. Run your errands all week for a penny per mile, and head for the hills on the weekend.
Unfortunately, Zap spends more time and energy on hyping vaporware (and its stock) than actually building functional vehicles, as documented in this scathing expose. Their web site entices eco-warriors with a cornucopia of EV's offering blazing acceleration (0 -60 in 4.5 seconds) and miraculous range (240 miles). Delivery: TBD.
Zap's stock peaked at $4 a share in 2004 with the announcement of its electric-conversion Smart car. After that program short-circuited, its stock began a protracted melt-down (currently $.58). Desperate, Zap turned to China for something tangible to sell. Small electric three-wheelers are common and cheap there (about $3k), built in small factories that are anything but environmentally responsible. ZAP imports them with a hefty markup.
The Xebra's questionable provenance is painfully evident. Its crudely finished fiberglass body is a rolling wart of huge panel gaps, wavy surfaces and rough edges. The tiny car's interior unleashed a flood of childhood memories of being squeezed into an original Fiat 500, without the playful use of design and materials. The Xebra screams "kit car," especially when checking out its primitive golf-cart mechanicals. Six conventional twelve-volt lead-acid batteries provide 72 volts to the 6.7hp (not a typo) coffee-can motor.
I arrived an hour too late to drive the one sedan at the dealer. The buyers were busy signing papers for the $16k heavily-optioned metallic-green apple of their eye. What did the extra $5k buy them? Air conditioning? Power windows? More power? Not available at any price. We're talking "custom wiring," an upgraded controller, LED lights, alloys and a custom paint-job that would make Earl Scheib proud.
Once I squeezed myself into the Xebra pick-up, I had to contort my legs to operate the two pedals located on the left side of the steering column. As I turned into traffic, I was overwhelmed by the sensation that I've just committed a youthful prank– stealing one of those electric garbage-can haulers from a convention center. And I'm having doubts whether I'm going to be able to outrun the security guard running after me.
Flat-out and level, the speedometer eventually finds an unsteady waver between thirty-two and thirty-four. A moderate hill quickly drops "speed" into the teens. Every bump, crack and pothole becomes an obstacle to avoid or regret. The motor whines like a hairdryer about to expire (the salesman admits the sedan is even noisier). I have no desire to check the actual range of this motorized wheelbarrow/hair-shirt. Which way is back to the convention center? Why does my xB suddenly feel like a Bentley?
A Xebra owners' on-line forum reveals a consensus on range: 15 to 17 miles. And there are tales of endless woes of terrible build quality and material defects. Zap's six month warranty is a small consolation. Discussions abound on ways to fix and improve the Xebra's multitude of shortcomings. ZAP dealer Mark Higley bluntly responds to a damsel in distress with a dead Xebra: "I never recommend it as a primary source of transportation".
The weekend Boxster is going to have to wait until someone builds my formula for a cheap urban electric errand-mobile: convert a $2500 Tata Nano (which looks downright spacious, well finished and safe compared to the Xebra), give it a genuine 30 mile range and a 45mph top speed, and price it at $8k to $10k. That's so obvious, it should be inevitable.
99 Comments on “2008 Zap Xebra Review...”
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Thanks for the review. Did you notice any handling difference having only one wheel in front? I’m guessing the weight of the batteries covers a lot of sins, but delta trikes are well-known for tipping while braking.
Great review of a lousy car.
In writing about the Geneva show, I might have mentioned that Toyota made public its plans for a plug-in Prius. Range for the only-electric mode: 20 miles; top speed: 60 mph. Delivery date: 2010. Personally, this is the only planned car I know of that is worth waiting for.
Cities like San Francisco will buy these things and use them for government workers to get around. Maybe even as cop cars.
Martin Schwoerer,
Do you mean ‘top speed 60mph’ in electric mode?
“Flat-out and level, the speedometer eventually finds an unsteady waver between thirty-two and thirty-four. A moderate hill quickly drops “speed” into the teens. Every bump, crack and pothole becomes an obstacle to avoid or regret. The motor whines like a hairdryer about to expire.”
That’s a review of me on my bicycle.
KixStart: yes, top speed 60mph. Autobild.tv shows the prototype and an interview with Toyota’s European EV boffin Hans-Peter Wandt. The prototype only has a range of 8 miles but the 2010 model, using a Li-Ion battery, intends to up that to 20 miles. The concept vehicle was, I think, shown at the Detroit show but the European version is actually being driven on Belgian roads. Sure beats the Chinese garbage.
After Mustang, Jaguar and Alfa reviews this is a real let down. Gawd I hope this is not the future.
Speaking of letdowns. I saw my first Smart car on the road yesterday. I’m not sure what I expected, I think I thought it would be cool. It wasn’t. It was “Oh look a Smart Car!!! WTF!!!”
Road & Track traditionally puts an odd vehicle through its regular road test for the April issue. This car seems a viable candidate.
Is TTAC planning anything special for April 1?
Martin Schwoerer,
Danke, ich habe ein Autobild.tv Artikel gefunden.
I’ll go through it with my trusty (but 35-year-old) Deutsch-Englisch Woerterbuch this evening. I’m shocked at how little I could understand off-hand.
For some reason, this little pickup offends me deeply. Maybe it’s because Ford used to offer the Ford Ranger EV, maybe it’s because the Ranger would be a much better car than this… it was reliable, efficient, and more comfortable. In other words, an excellent buy.
Yet, naturally, Ford killed it.
I say someone needs to put an electric motor in the Ranger chassis. Forget the Nano for now, the Ranger has a proven reliability record and has a decent reputation in the United States.
@ Michael Karesh :
“Is TTAC planning anything special for April 1?”
I’ve heard that TTAC is planning on a two week shutdown to create better alignment and efficiency across organizational lines and boost productivity.
Someone in my neighborhood has not one, but TWO of these things in their driveway.
I don’t really fault that vehicle for its shortcomings. There are probably uses for it where it can excel. I fault Zap’s failed business plan that markets this thing as something it isn’t. Over $11,000? Seriously? When you visited the showroom did you notice if they left their bong out in plain sight?
Toys-r-us sells power wheels with more style, speed and options.
edit: Holy crap! Does that thing have a radio in it? The range is barely enough to get through a song! Oh wait, I guess at its’ actual achievable velocity you could get in an album or so.
Michael Karesh: Road & Track traditionally puts an odd vehicle through its regular road test for the April issue. This car seems a viable candidate.
The April issue of Road & Track was available on March 1. They “virtually” tested the Racer Motors Mach 5 from the “Speed Racer” movie.
Zero to sixty in six tenths (0.6) of a second, but only 7 mpg.
My thought is what would happen to the DVD playing in the 2008 Toyota Sequoia [Platinum] that was recently reviewed, if the Sequoia t-boned the Xebra, would it cause the DVD to skip, or would the occupants of the uber-tank even notice?
Donal Fagan: Did you notice any handling difference having only one wheel in front?
At the speed this thing trundles along, having three wheels is not much of an issue, except it makes it harder to miss potholes, etc. Three wheelers tend to understeer/skate, due to the imbalance in the amount of rubber between front and back.
theswedishtiger: neither.
Anybody have experience with something called a REVA electric car? Here is a link I found some time ago when I was googling around for EV’s.
http://www.revaindia.com/
They claim to have a range of about 50 miles, with a 50mph top speed. As far as I know, it has been in production for a few years – a coworker of mine from Bangalore said he has seen some on the streets there, but does not personally know anyone who owns one, so no more info…
Great review! I chuckled all the way through. Love the performance summary, too. Fiberglass 101 project indeed.
I pity the people plunking down $16k of presumably hard-earned money on the sedan version of this piece of crap. They’d be better off buying an eight year old Corolla and finding some guy on Craislist to do a home-built electric conversion for them. It would be better on every metric, save for the “Look at me — I’m dumb as a bag of hammers for trying to buy overpriced green credibility” metric.
edit: Holy crap! Does that thing have a radio in it? The range is barely enough to get through a song!
And how much does it reduce the range to keep the radio on ?
Reminds me of the electric milk floats they used to have in the UK; at the end of the day you’d see them struggle to get back to the depot with all lights and wipers switched off to preserve every last ounce of power.
6.7 horsepower? I used to have a walk-behind brush-mower (we used to live in the sticks) that harnessed more ponies than this rolling turd.
I’d put a quart of gas in its little plastic tank, and it would happily (and loudly) munch and mulch my so-called yard for about an hour, at full throttle. (Hearing protection strongly optional, but highly recommended.)
I’m not an engineer, but doing some *very* rough math/guessing makes me wonder if this Xebra chassis might be less revolting (a bit quicker and with *much* greater range) yet still get 70-80 mpg, with my lawnmower-sourced engine instead.
And that was a Victorian-era Briggs & Stratton; Honda and Nissan make very refined small 4-strokes that would be better still.
They wouldn’t help the driving dynamics much, though.
Thinx, I’m in Bangalore right now and have been for a week. I’ve seen three of the Reva cars on the street, and my taxi driver jostled in traffic behind one. It seemed to be able to easily keep up with (or even overtake) the Honda City 5-speed taxi.
For this environment, they seem to make sense. There is a tremendous amount of pollution in the air. The congestion here has to be experienced to be understood. The streets are quite literally packed with scooters, small cycles (under 200cc), autocars (three wheeled open taxicabs, most with two stroke engines, some with LPG conversions), microcars, compact cars, larger variants of the autocars used as trucks, farm tractors, trucks, buses… all manner of motorized conveyance can be seen interwoven with pedestrians. The degree of skill it takes to pilot a vehicle in this environment cannot be understated (I certainly wouldn’t be game to try it, never mind that I’m from a left-hand drive country). Top speeds possible in light traffic is in the 35-40MPH range – in short bursts only. The ideal vehicle for this environ seems to be the microcar or microvan.
So, a vehicle like the Reva seems like a great alternative for those who need and can afford it, and don’t leave the city.
But in the non-tropical and SUV-centric world that is my home country, this vehicle would probably not survive. It’s too weird looking, would probably not be able to comply with any side-impact standards, and it’s unlikely it could perform well in the frozen Northern winters. Not to mention it doesn’t have a heater….
Electric vehicles have a bright future as part of vehicle mix. The problem is most of them are still stuck in the cottage industry/vaporware stage. When the large manufacturers overcome issues of scale, cost, and performance, things should change. And I do think that there will be an electric Nano in the future. There’s no way the cottage industry types can even approach the Nano as an EV platform.
I know a guy who had one of these. I remember he said how much he liked it at the time. Then a few months later, I saw it parked out by the street with a for sale sign on it. IIRC, he wanted $8k. Needless to say, it sat there for months.
This makes sense for certain limited industrial applications; that is, delevering mail or parts or trash cans or whatever around a large factory, college campus, or the like, especially if some buildings were down the street from each other (that is, you needed something vaguely street legal to go the block or two between the two sites, unlike a golf cart). It’s certainly not meant to be used as an actual automobile doing actual driving around town.
# keepaustinweird :
Someone in my neighborhood has not one, but TWO of these things in their driveway.
sounds like they’re doing their part (to keep austin weird). Sorry!!! I couldn’t help myself!
It does make sense. Only it makes sense as a $3000 ‘car-bike’, mass-produced in China. At current prices, it’s not much different from indulgences sold by Rome back in the day.
The only reason to drive something like this is to save money (=gas), and there are far better ways to do that right now. Like keeping that 1992 Corolla until it dies (like that’s ever gonna happen).
2WD 5 speed compact pickups are the ideal platform for EV conversion. They are small enough to have 30-50miles of range while able to take the extra 1000+ lbs of weight from the battery bank. You can get a used 2wd Ranger or S-10 for $1-3k.
You put the motor and 3-4 batteries where the engine used to live and the balance of the battery bank between the frame rails under the bed for a nice low center of gravity.
The Luigiian :
I say someone needs to put an electric motor in the Ranger chassis. Forget the Nano for now, the Ranger has a proven reliability record and has a decent reputation in the United States.
That’s why Europeans don’t complaint about gas prices because they drive scooters,bikes,mini cars and the car above.
Americans hasn’t learned from the past like the Opec Oil embargo remember how many hours did you waited on the gas station to pump your continental car with gas?
So this abomination gets one star, and the Ford Focus gets zero stars? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???
dkulmacz: So this abomination gets one star, and the Ford Focus gets zero stars? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???
Oops; I thought one star was the minimum.
dkulmacz :
So this abomination gets one star, and the Ford Focus gets zero stars? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???
Uh, the Focus got one star as well. And while all TTAC reviewers strive for the truth, we have all have different ways of perceiving/grading it. I may have given the Xebra no stars. That said…
Paul Niedermeyer:
Actually, you're right: we don't have the system rigged for no stars. I'll talk to the techies on Monday.
I stand corrected.
I remembered a comment someone made in the Focus thread to the tune of “is this the first X-star on TTAC?”, and figured that X had to be zero. Rereading it I found the exact comment and it was indeed “is this the first 1-star on TTAC?”.
OK, fine. This is obviously still not on par with the Focus or any of the other recent oneders. You need that zero rating . . .
Is ther any reason to buy this rather than a 50cc scooter or a bicycle for 1/10 the cost or less? The scooter or even a bike would probably be more enjoyable and more practicle. I’ve got a walk behind lawn mower in the garage with a 5.5 hp motor for god sakes! As others have said, why not just buy a cheap light weight car from the 70’s/80’s and install a relatively heavy duty DC motor ,producing let’s say 20 hp, install 15 lead acid batteries, and you’ve got a more comfortable vehicle with more power and a greater range per charge for well less than half the cost. I love how Hybrid News defends the car or whatever you want to call it, as appropriate for its purpose. Seems to me its purpose is seperating eco-fools from their eco-money (they seem to think its running errands around town or the commune).
Why can’t Zap import some other EV’s?
http://www.motorfactories.com/ec001.html
http://www.motorfactories.com/ec003.html
Is this thing the long-lost nephew of the Cushman
meter-maid mobileparking enforcement officer’s cruiser?This is got to be a joke, what a waste of time, money and space….
I would rather buy and restore an old VW Rabbit Diesel pickup than be caught dead in a Zap, rhymes with Crap.
Speaking of being caught dead, you know why it only has three wheels, right? So it is classified as a “motorcycle” and doesn’t have to meet any safety standards.
Anyone remember the 3-wheeled Dale from 1974? Supposedly able to get 70 mpg from an 850cc engine and cost $2k. In reality, it was nothing but a scam which played on fears of the first gas crisis, perptuated by a 6′, 200lb transsexual:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_sports_car
What other company offers a vehicle for under $12,000? The people that buy electric vehicles are looking to save money and the environment. How do you save money by paying $60,000 for an electric car. ZAP is actually getting EVs on the road today and something should be said for that! These cars are not for everyone, but you got to hand it to the company for their efforts to clean the environment.
jdriver :
March 15th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
What other company offers a vehicle for under $12,000? The people that buy electric vehicles are looking to save money and the environment. ….
lotsa companies, bicycle companies.
My brother commutes 14 miles a day on a bicycle. A couple of good sized hills involved too. And a bike is prolly safer than that thing.
Uh, no. ZAP is not interested in cleaning the environment. ZAP is interested in getting as many saps as possible to buy their glorified, overpriced, enclosed golf cart in an effort to make lots of money. Hell, the Xebra doesn’t even qualify as an NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) because it only has three wheels.
“Uh, no. ZAP is not interested in cleaning the environment. ZAP is interested in getting as many saps as possible to buy their glorified, overpriced, enclosed golf cart in an effort to make lots of money.”
If that was true then why is it that ZAP! is not turning a profit. I think most of the people on this site have absolutely no clue what it takes to try to actually get a product to the market. Why do you think there are so few EV’s on the road? If it was such a profitable business don’t you think more people would be making these things? I happened to be an investor of ZAP and I think you people have no consideration for what it takes to fight the uphill battle of fighting the oil money. I don’t think any of you really give a crap about global warming, our environment or anything other than what car will go the fastest. If more people would actually be constructive instead of doing a bunch of uneducated bad-mouthing then maybe we could actually see cars like the ZAP-X on the road.
http://www.zapworld.com/files/zap-docs/zap-apx.pdf
http://www.detroit-electric.com/
The Alias is another way ZAP! is trying to change the perception of their company. This is due out in 2009 and is in production right now.
http://www.detroit-electric.com/
Because they haven’t a clue as to what they’re doing.
Maybe if the Xebra was more realistically priced at around $6k (which is also about the price of a good electric golf cart), then it might actually garner enough sales for ZAP to make a profit and it could conceivably be believed that they’re trying to benefit the environment.
But gouging a few suckers for $12k, well, that’s ‘real car’ money that would much better be spent on a real car like a Toyota Yaris, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, or even a smart fortwo.
rudiger :
March 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
…that’s ‘real car’ money that would much better be spent on a real car like a Toyota Yaris, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, or even a smart fortwo.
You just don’t get the fact that this company is trying to avoid burning fossil fuels. All of these cars run on gas. ZAP never tried to market this as a “real car” anyway. It is for a niche market.
This is a “real car” and if people like you don’t run ZAP! in the ground maybe it will actually get to the market.
http://www.zapworld.com/files/zap-docs/zap-apx.pdf
jdriver: “If more people would actually be constructive instead of doing a bunch of uneducated bad-mouthing then maybe we could actually see cars like the ZAP-X on the road.”
I was very constructive in my review: reread the last paragraph.
The ZAP-X is anything but a real car; it’s a proposed concept, like quite a few others ZAP has floated before. ZAP and the other EV cottage industry types aren’t capitalized adequately to bring something like the ZAP-X to market. Look how hard it is for Tesla and GM (Volt).
Paul Niedermeyer :
March 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
“I was very constructive in my review: reread the last paragraph.”
I was speaking more about the comments than the actual article. I am saying that the concept of the ZAP-X is a real car, but the Xebra was never meant to be a “real car”
Capitalization could happen if more people would get behind the movement. If more people would invest in these companies instead of buying up as many barrels of oil as they can and running up the cost of gas, then we would see the capitalization nescessary to bring a car like the ZAP-X to the market.
ZAP doesn’t need any help from ‘people like me’ – it sounds like they’re doing a fine job of running themselves into the ground all on their own.
rudiger,
Do you know anything about the history of this company? They have been trying to bring EVs to the market for 14 years. Are you going to wait until the planet heats up another few degrees before you realize that something needs to be done?