EVs have come a very long way in just 15 years. In case you need reminding, in 2008, the Zap Xebra was just about the only EV a regular person could hope to buy. But what a steaming pile of junk it was: an extremely crude $3,000 Chinese three-wheeler with a 6.7 hp coffee can 12V motor and a six-pack of 12V lead acid batteries. Top speed: 30 mph, on a perfectly flat road. Range: 15-17 miles. Price? $12k in 2008 ($17k adjusted). That’s about what a 2023 Chevy Bolt goes for after federal and state tax credits.
I tested a 2008 Xebra back at the old site, and that scathing review went viral, as I was apparently the only one willing to actually drive one. By 2009, Zap pulled the plug, due to increasing consumer backlash at the lack of support and price. And in 2013, Zap was ordered by NHTSA to offer to buy back all Xebras for $3,100. Looks like the owner of these two in Port Orford didn’t get the memo; he would have been $6,200 ahead if he had.
Zap was an endless stock-manipulation hype machine until folks finally got smart, or were smarting from the endless issues with their Xebras. But that’s all in the (sort-of) far past.
This one came from the same dealer where I tested that Xebra. They seemed to be doing a fairly good business at the time. There were enough buyers desperate for an electric car at the time, no matter how modest its specs and capabilities.
Since it was a three-wheeler, it didn’t have to meet any of the safety regulations regular cars do. The fiberglass body sat on an extremely crude frame of welded channel steel. On one forum, an owner said his frame started to rust away after the first winter.
I did read comments the other day about some of you wanting an EV but a really basic bare-bones machine. Here you go! It just needs some new golf cart batteries, and you’re set to go…just not very far, or fast.
The front one even has a cyclops third headlight.
You’ve been Zapped!
The EV state-of-the-art was stuck in 1910 mode for some hundred years, until lithium batteries appeared and folks harnessed them to powerful motors…and a revolution began. And in just 15 years, EVs have leapfrogged IC cars. Who would have thunk?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic/Review: Zap Xebra – The Justified Assassination
Back then my commute took me past a large mechanic shop/gas station. One day I drove past and the parking lot was full of these things — the shop owner had apparently decided to roll the dice and go all in on starting a Zap dealership. I don’t think any of them ever sold, as the number of units on display never seemed to decrease. Then one day they were abruptly all gone. Poor guy, hope his business recovered after that disaster…
I wondered what happened to these…..
-Nate
A guy that lived around the corner from us in Belmont, CA got one right around that time, it was new and it was very purple. He also had solar panels on pretty much every square inch of his house. These were just charged with a normal electrical extension cord, there’s an outlet (or three prongs I guess) tucked under that flap in the D-pillar. He still had it when we moved in 2010, I’ll be in the area next month, perhaps I’ll pop by and see what he’s got now!
I remember a few of these in the Palo Alto/Mountain View/Sunnyvale area. But not as many as the Think EV. I test drove an another early commuter EV, the 3 wheeled Corbin Sparrow. It was fun but very crude. Sadly, I’ll never forget the day of my drive, Sept 11, 2001. I was buying a motorcycle seat, Mike Corbin’s main business and he offered the drive while I waited.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers_Motors_NmG
CC Effect: Someone had one of those equally goofy Myers’ NmG (No more Gas) EVs at a car show just last week. It was after the essentially identical Corbin Sparrow had been discontinued and supposedly improved but the NmG owner at the show told me it was still a ‘very’ short range (20 miles) limited-use mode of transportation. He’d just spent ~$4k upgrading the original SLA batteries to Optima AGMs.
They were sold about the same time as the Zap Xebra but was told the NmG’s price was an unbelievable $26k.
Not long after, the price increased to just under $30k but at least Myers had switched to lithium batteries by then, which increased the range to a (claimed) 60 miles.
A strange-looking, single-seat machine (even more than the Zap Xebra), there were two versions with the more common one designed to deliver Domino’s pizza with a strange hatch in the rear (aka ‘pizza butt’) but, AFAIK, Domino’s backed-out of the deal.
I would occasionally see a yellow Sparrow (before they became the NmG) commuting southbound on 101 through Mountain View and Sunnyvale, in the commute lane around 2002-2003. I think this was before those HOV lanes were opened to hybrids or EV’s; just for carpools, busses and motorcycles.
With a max 20 mile range (and half that at highway speeds), trying to commute with a Sparrow would be the very definition of range anxiety.
These look more like CKD kits than entire cars…
There’s so much wrong with this “car” it’s hard to single out any one aspect that’s particularly awful, but for whatever reason the record-setting A-pillar width grabs my eyes the most.
From what I can work out that’s effectively what they were, have seen some of the equally awful gas powered vehicle these were based on, as seems some made it stateside as non highway vehicles. interesting that the bodies seem to have been designed to have two front wheels.
There were a few further attempts at building electric cars from Chinese market vehicles, most competent was the koda… Still doomed to fail though, partly due to the rather patchy quality of vehicle they based them on, but at least you could rightly call those a car (Chinese manufactured cars have come a long way in a relatively short timespan, current stuff is as good as a lot of Euro or US output)
RE: the central headlight… Mr Stern will know, but I believe that, because three-wheelers are titled as motorcycles, they have to meet the FMVSS lighting requirements for motorcycles, and one of the requirements is that the headlight must be within (some number of inches) of the centerline of the vehicle. I’m not sure how the other Xebra got away without it.
And automotive diagnostic tools have come a long way. Just bought a Innova 3340a multimeter and it can do double the tests that 30 years ago required a machine the size of a Snap-On roll cab.
One crucial detail of the Xap buyout is that these fiberglass-bodied cars were NOT eligible.
Only the final model year, steel-bodied ones (easy to tell from behind, they had actual styled taillights alongside a proper hatchback, not the trailer lights deployed as low as possible below the catflap trunk opening seen here) were bought back, because the added weight of the steel body with unupgraded brakes (!) pushed braking performance below statutory acceptable limits.
Which is worse, the Zap Xebra or the Hoffmann? Tough call.
Wink LSV (Low Speed Vehicle)
My favorite recent one that dropped away was the ElectraMeccanica Solo. Three wheels with the desirable 2 in front configuration. It was literally meant to be a C5 Corvette-like space for 1. They’ve also all been recalled now, but I have to cheer on stuff like that a little for trying. Like the Elio.
The Xap is pretty embarrassing, though.
Kids, just say NO!
Back in 2008??? there was a dealer in Portland operating out of the old Lyman Slack Chevy building. They were liquidating these for about $6000 for either the “truck” or “sedan” version. I was one of those who desperately wanted an electric and I figured how could we loose at that price so the wife and I went to take a look. We couldn’t fit into the truck so we took the sedan out for a test drive. To call this a “steaming pile of junk” is to give it too much praise. Fit and finish that would make a Yugo seem refined by comparison. The new metal body shell was so thin that it could be measured in angstroms. Power? What power? We struggled to make it up a normal city hill. Noisy, rough, we did get her up to 35 but the range was dropping precipitously at that speed. The pedals were offset from the steering wheel in a crazy way. There was nothing good about it. An old King Midget would have been a better set of wheels. To call this a glorified golf cart would be an insult to golf carts. So glad we got away from it as soon as we could. Our electric adventure would have to wait until 2014 when we picked up a Chevy Spark EV, a city car for sure but a real car.
The Citroen Ami is the spiritual successor to the Xebra. Sneaking one into the US shouldn’t be too tough. Just get ready to be mobbed every time you drive it because it’s THE ultimate chick magnet and in a good way.
It is the”Aging wheels” youtuber who would enjoy such an electric model . https://www.youtube.com/@agingwheels . He likes to collect all the weird first electric vehicles.
This is on the lower(est) side of the pre-modern EV era, being less fit for the road than a 1977 CitiCar… I think stuff like the GM EV1 was more in line with what EV’s were capable of up to the mid-2000’s. And that STILL was quite a shocker compared with today’s stuff.
I would still like to see a more economical EV available today. Something like the Bolt probably came closest, but GM is hurriedly shuffling that out of the way to presumably make room for more SUV-ish shaped lumps with 400+ horsepower. If I were going EV, I’d be okay with 150-200hp, basic heat and a/c and some tunes, and safety equipment. Regular instrumentation, switches, hold the touchscreens and self driving baubles.
I know that many of the auto enthusiasts here would appreciate a car like that coming to market, and we’d be lining up to buy them once they’re a few years old.
Reminders that there were worse things than the Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar that I was occasionally driving back in 1973. If you really needed it driven home what steaming piles of whatever these were, keep in mind that the CitiCar had four wheels, a top speed of a bit over 35mph, and an honest range of about 35 miles – although your speed would be dropping once you got past the 25 mile point.
And the CitiCar did it with only three lead acid batteries under the seat. Ok, the Zap was a four door that sat four. I’ll still save my memories for the CitiCar.