Open Access Article Originally Published: January 17, 2006
Who would have thought that a converted, French-built quadra-cycle from across the storm-tossed North Atlantic could steal the heart of Motor City?
That appears to be pretty much the story to come out of this year's North American International Auto Show, at least from Feel Good Car's perspective. After all, no other carmakers had any of their vehicles running about inside the Cobo Center in Detroit last week, not only ferrying a television crew from the local NBC affiliate, but also the president of Rolls Royce, executives from Honda, and General Motor's Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz.
The ZENN, which is an acronym for "zero emission no noise", is the brainchild of Canadian Ian Clifford who introduced the tiny French-built car into North America around 2002. In France, the car is licensed as a "quadra-cycle" and limited to a top-speed of 45 km/h. It is intended for inner-urban travel only, and is powered by a small diesel engine. No driver's license is required in France to operate one.
Clifford thought it would make an excellent LSV or "low-speed vehicle" under the U.S. Transportation Department's 1998 FMVSS 500 classification, which was originally intended for more golf car-like vehicles such as the GEM and now defunct Bombardier's NV. With the exception of its diesel engine, it met all the qualifications and he arranged to have some imported into Canada for conversion to electric drive. He debuted the first models at an industry conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2002.
But the task of converting a good idea into a successful business venture is a lot harder than turning a diesel quadracycle into a battery electric car. It takes conviction, courage and capital, all in good measure.
Yet, here was Bill Williams, Feel Good Car's sales and marketing head, on his cell phone calling me from the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit during the 2006 car show. He'd heard through Clifford that I was also at the show and he wanted to get together; I wasn't there, actually. He excitedly told me about the great time he was having and the incredible reception the car was getting, including having GM's Lutz drive it for half-an-hour.
I asked him to call back in an hour and we'd do a bit more formal interview, which you can listen to using our Flash-based MP3 Player above or by downloading it to your computer's hard drive for transfer to your favorite MP3 device.
Williams explained that he'd arranged to do some "guerilla marketing" for the show, enlisting the help of the local NBC affiliate who would use the car as their roving, television broadcast vehicle inside the Cobo Center. With their satellite dish protruding on a pole out the sunroof of the car and the luggage space packed with their television gear, they 'EV'd' from exhibit to exhibit interviewing car company executives.
While I was talking to Williams on his cell phone, the president of Rolls Royce was driving the car and just after we finished our interview, the ebullient Williams called back to say that Bob Lutz had come by again for a second look.
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Reader Comments
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18 comments so far...
17-Jan-2006
12231
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The french-made Microcar MC2 is also made as a gasoline model with four seats that is homologated for 120 kph (75mph) in Europe.
Two electric versions, capable of 45 kph and 80 kph (50 mph), and a diesel version that runs on pure veggie oil, will be presented at a tradeshow in Ulm/Germany next week. The company refused to give me any further technical details beforehand, but I will visit the tradeshow and take a closer look + lots of pictures. As far as I've heard, the EVs will be equipped with Li-Ion batteries!
Regards, Jens
Posted by: Jens Schacherl
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18-Jan-2006
12242
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Bill Moore's article should never had said '45 kph' because 'kph' is incorrect metric notation. The correct notation is '45 km/h'. Hopefully his article will corrected soon with the proper use of metric notation. I have sent the editor an email. I am a huge fan of metric and I want to see it properly adopted. Seeing metric notation improperly used causes more problems than does the lack of using metric. I'm sure it was a simple misunderstanding. I'm only mentioning it here because others are repeating the error on the EV World website.
Posted by: Gavin Young
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18-Jan-2006
12244
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In light of the First Amendment, which higher authority has declared that we cannot use kph? We use mpg, not mi/gal, and we eschew L/100km. I won't give an inch on my right as a non-metric American to use kph.
Posted by: Dan Rivers
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18-Jan-2006
12245
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Dan, everybody is free to write kph or km/h.
But remember that 'EV-World' is a Web site with an international audience.
Think 'World' and not only 'USA'.
(BTW, if not, you are free too to build and maintain a 'EV-USA' web site...).
km/h is the more adequat notation on my point of view. Bruno
Posted by: Bruno Donnet
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18-Jan-2006
12246
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Okay...okay... I get the point. From henceforth and forever more, we shall use km/h. "So shall it be written, so shall it be done".
Posted by: Bill Moore
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18-Jan-2006
12247
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Bill, be cool and say clicks/hr.:-)
Posted by: John Boyd
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18-Jan-2006
12251
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The funny thing is, I am in Germany and I just wanted to make the unit easier to read for those americans who might already be confused by those strange metric numbers ;-)
But if you all think you're ready for the challenge of 'km/h', 'l/100km' and 'mm^2', so much the better!
Regards, Jens
Posted by: Jens Schacherl
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19-Jan-2006
12264
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... oh, and by the way, I measure EV energy use in Wh/mi. Is that permissible?
Posted by: Dan Rivers
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19-Jan-2006
12269
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That's a nice little car. Not too crazy looking like a Sparrow or Tango so it would go over well with the mainstream buyer. Can they make one that goes a little faster?
Posted by: Sledge ...who likes 'kph' :-)
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19-Jan-2006
12274
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Sorry Dan, mi/Wh is the correct unit of measure. ;)
Actually, I always use mi/Wh, but I've seen mi/Wh a few times.
This is a good format for battery testing and development. Scaling this up to a 80 mph vehicle would be easy if you could piggyback on the crash testing of an existing vehicle (ie ACPropulsions planned/hoped for Scion conversions).
Posted by: Steve Erlsten
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19-Jan-2006
12277
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This is typical we get an article on a very interesting little vehicle and everyone is suddenly distracted by metric details,argggggg.
PLeeease.
I am interested in learning more of this car and have wondered why it was not offered as an electric from the time of introduction.The diesel and gas versions are not that great as they vibrate terribly being in-line twins.I have just purchased the earlier version of the microcar with intentions of converting it to electric.Others remark about a faster version,In order to do this the car would have to be scaled up in size to meet crash standards and safety equipment added thus increasing weight.It would then loose its charm/appeal and efficiency as a minimalist transport for two.After all its meant for short not long trips and by limiting the speed and classing it as an NHV it is excluded from having to meet the same standards as full sized faster road vehicles.
Posted by: D Gate
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19-Jan-2006
12282
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Looks like I won't see the car this week. The trip from Toronto to the Colorado has been delayed because NBC wants to use the car for its coverage of the Super Bowl! Now that's what I call 800 lbs of "guerilla" marketing!
Oops! I meant to say 362.87 kilograms.
Bill Williams also said they are getting ready a couple more cars for the dealer tour and that they'll be sure to stop here in Omaha so I can see them.
Posted by: Bill Moore
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19-Jan-2006
12291
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I'm from Santiago, Chile and I think cars like this could help us to solve a lot of pollution problems in our city. I'm not sure if this kind of vehicles have some special restrictions like top-speed or requires special licenses in our country. Could you please tell me where to find information about licenses and/or restrictions for this kind of cars in your country? This will help me to talk with our authorities in order to intruduce these cars in our market. Thanks!
Posted by: Gunter Redel
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19-Jan-2006
12296
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Car safety
The car is Crashtested as a normal car Europe, so it shuld be as safe as a normal car in the EU. M-147 -Class 4-wheel-vehicle are not exempt from crash test in Europe, like the NEV's are. That could be a added sale argument...
The car looks more practical :-) than the Kewet
Posted by: Michael Eric Menk
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20-Jan-2006
12313
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I'm interested in experimenting with adding electric drive to the rear axle of my Ford Tempo.
Where would be a good source for an inexpesive electric motor for such an application? Is there a provider of used or surplus mitirs of this kind.
Chuck Hanson
Posted by: charles hanson
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20-Jan-2006
12315
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Lately I've been hearing some people using the term 'clicks' as a unit of measure. But I can't find a definition of it anywhere. Is one click equal to 1 kilometer? How, where and why did the term 'clicks' get started?
Note to the editor: It seems that when our comments post to your site, there is currently no link to our email address, even though your comments form asks us to provide our email address. Had the email links been active, I could have sent this question about 'clicks' directly to John Boyd.
Posted by: Gavin Young
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21-Jan-2006
12330
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Gavin: 1 click (or klick) is one kilometer. I think it has military origins:
http://www.onlineconversion.com/forum/forum_1052881169.htm
Posted by: Steve Erlsten
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21-Jan-2006
12331
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Gunter, the best way to reduce air pollution is to regulate ICE vehicles. If you want to push for cleaner air, push for adoption of US or EU emissions requirements and fuel requirements. One of the most important changes in vehicles has been the introduction of low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur fuels. They allow the catalytic converters to work without being "clogged" by the sulfur and the soot that comes from sulfur.
Good luck!
Posted by: Steve Erlsten
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