Ladies And Gentlemen, Your 2009 Zap Xebra

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: December 11th, 2008

Autoblog Green has all the info on the “all new” 2009 Zap Xebra. The good news? Bye-bye fiberglass, hello steel construction. The bad news? It’s still a freaking Zap Xebra. Oh yeah, and nothing was done to improve the range or power, according to ABG. But, according to a statement from Zap found in the EETimes test drive (key bits: “quite rudimentary,” “struggle to get comfortable,” “somewhat unsettling,” and “noisy and bumpy”) all this was done without the benefit of a federal bailout. Hallelujah! All hail our new green car champions! Or not.

Edward Niedermeyer

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4 of 12 comments

Porschespeed on Dec 11, 2008

deVeritas, 2F1R layout even sans tilt/camber is really pretty impressive. If it's done correctly. Layout and weight distribution do play an important role in the equation. But, yeah. 1F2R generally sucks. And it would be a funny vid.

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Niky on Dec 12, 2008
Then with 2-front wheels you’re just moving the instability to the rear, so accelerating too quickly in a turn becomes bad in that case. Although that maybe less of a concern since rapid acceleration while turning is probably less likely (and less necessary) then the occasional rapid deceleration. Since when does anyone accelerate INTO a turn? The two-front / single-rear layout is extremely stable, and many kit cars and small sports cars with this layout can hold over 1 lateral g in a corner. It all depends on Center-of-Gravity... if you've got a 2-1 layout, you're obviously not giving the weight balance a rearward bias. It still surprises me that people will pay absurd amounts of money for this piece of crap. I've actually driven the original gasoline driven version from the Chinese supplier that XAP buys from... for about $2000-$3000 for the gasoline three-wheeler, it's already dubious... you get something that feels about as substantial as a Radio Flyer with a roof, handles worse, and has a suspension that feels made to last all of three weeks. Driving at 30 mph has never been so scary. even a bicycle feels safer at those speeds. If a Chery QQ deserves zero stars on any western crash test, that thing probably won't get past negative three. I was going to do a road-test of the thing for our website... then figured out it wasn't worth the trouble... since nobody was likely to buy it anyway... nobody in their right mind, that is...

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Bjcpdx on Dec 12, 2008
niky, regarding accelerating into a turn This is a very useful technique in FWD and AWD cars, within limits, of course. I first learned this from my father years ago when I drove his Audi 100LS. It had a tendency for the rear end to break away if you braked during a turn. He advised me not only not to brake but even to add a little gas durings turns. Of course that only works if you're not entering a turn too fast to begin with, but that's just part of good driving anyway. And I can tell you that my Outback grips much better in turns if you accelerate slightly. Try it. Anyway, the turn the Zap car made in that video looked plenty scary to me.

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Niky on Dec 14, 2008

Oh. That's accelerating out of a turn. It's a useful technique to counter oversteer, but in that situation, your FWD car has very little weight on the rear end, anyway, which is why it's oversteering in the first place.

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