VIDEO: New Triac highway speed electric car available now?
Is there a new three-wheeled highway-capable electric car about to emerge from "stealth mode"? We believe so and we have the video to prove it. As our faithful readers well know, we have been following the lengthy development of other three-wheeled vehicles like the Aptera and the VentureOne very closely as they are being prepared to enter the market. We haunt their forums,
Here is what we know. Ehab Youssef got tired of choking on ZAP vapor, took matters into his own hands and is now about to show them how it's done. His company, Green Vehicles (which recently moved from their retail Los Gatos location to a larger San Jose space according to a report in the Los Gatos Observer), will be offering a 144V lithium ion-powered vehicle (most likely sourced from China but with some work done here) capable of 70 mph with a 120 mile range,
*Update: Thanks to reader, Bill, who pointed out that the seating isn't tandem.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mark 5:25PM (4/26/2008)
if only it had 4 wheels...like a NORMAL car
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Bill 7:32PM (4/26/2008)
70 mph onn a motorcycle - no crash tests required on any of these 3-wheel wonders.
Think of it as evolution in action.
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A.Brien 8:44PM (4/26/2008)
If the battery last 10 years then i think that for that price it's a good buy. I can't wait to see cars power by battery of hydrogen or even natural gas that can run without suffocating petroluem. If
north-american goverments were truthful we will convert a lot of actual gasoline cars to run on natural gas, it's a cheap convertion and it help pollution and especially it can replace imported petroluem. 10x better then subzidizing ethanol.
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scott 11:00PM (4/26/2008)
The website. Unreal. They/he states the car is sheik! Is that a joke or does it really mean "chic".
S
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GenWaylaid 11:46PM (4/26/2008)
If they could only produce those performance numbers in a motorcycle (as in open and two wheels), they would own the electric motorcycle market.
Of course, so much is dependent on the price point. That's a frequent disappointment with lithium-powered vehicles.
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oobflyer 12:21AM (4/27/2008)
With performance/range similar to the Aptera, but $10K less - seems like a good entry into the arena - maybe the competition will heat up!
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hodad66 11:46AM (4/27/2008)
Interesting.......
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Bill 12:38PM (4/27/2008)
Nice vids: all style, no substance. I'll believe these when I see them. But as all -electric vehicles, I'd say they're very "anti-sheik".
BTW, from the photos, seating is side-by-side, not tandem.
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Chris M 10:08PM (4/27/2008)
Why do I get the uneasy suspicion that the "available now" car is the NEV, not the freeway compatable vehicle?
Maybe I'm getting to old and cynical.
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DAMARA NIGHTSTAR 1:35AM (4/28/2008)
Hey,,,It's different creation,different style..attracts me..I like it.
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john riley 6:13AM (4/28/2008)
The center headlight makes it look like the old cyclops cartoons from Road and Track.
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Niralisherni 7:23AM (4/28/2008)
Reminds me a bit of an auto rickshaw
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Taylor Kemp 12:31PM (4/30/2008)
OMG, I just saw his car stting in a showroom here in Mill Valley, CA!!!! I just had a second to look as i drove by, but the sign on the window said "all electric vehicles" I am going to go there tomorrow to see if it was actually this car!!
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Jake 3:38PM (5/02/2008)
Aptera beats it, even with the added $7000 cost. Better performance, safety (airbags,rollcage) etc... I'll by an Aptera if the warranty is reasonable and they include GPS.
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TeslaHater 11:18PM (5/03/2008)
Aptera does not have airbags...that is the whole point of making it 3 wheeled...no crash test needed. If they had airbags it would need to be crash tested, thus why not make it 4 wheeled.
ps...I read somewhere else this Triac thing has a rollcage too...plus, how can you take a car that looks like an airplane seriously?
Why do you think there are NO 4 wheeled electric freeway cars, save for Tesla? The big guys in Detroit are the only ones who can afford to crash test them and get them approved to drive in the USA...and THEY still have a couple trillions of $ of oil in the ground to do business with their partners in the oil company! They don't want anyone driving these things!
Support American energy companies (clean coal, solar, wind) and support the little guys building three wheelers, so in 5 years when gas is $10 a gallon they'll have the $ to build you a 4 wheeled EV!
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Chris M 2:48AM (5/04/2008)
TeslaHater: Aptera does indeed have airbags and is undergoing crash testing, even though the law doesn't require it for 3 wheelers. The designers chose the 3 wheel design in an attempt to reduce rolling resistance, simplify construction and reduce weight, not to evade safety regulations. However, the 3 wheel does not offer much of an advantage, and may cause some problems, and Aptera is already planning to design a 4 wheel version.
Where did you get the strange idea that adding airbags would automatically trigger a crash test requirement?
There are (or were) other freeway capable 4 wheel electric cars besides Tesla, including the RAV4EV, the Honda EVplus, the GM EV1, several other limited production cars and homebrew conversions.
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ryan 5:33PM (7/17/2008)
to reduce rolling resistance? why would you want it to roll easier you obviously have no clue what your talking about
TeslaHater 4:02AM (5/04/2008)
ya...and look what happened to those.
cars with air bags are required to be crash tested, regardless of amount of wheels it has...i didn't just get a "strange idea"
as you say, if Aptera is building an air bag equipped, crash tested, 3 wheeled "air plane" car that in order to reduce rolling resistance, either:
1). you don't know what you are talking about
2). Aptera doesn't know what they are doing/talking about
it makes zero sense for a start up car manufacture to start with a three wheeler that they plan to air bag and crash test...might as well start with a 4 wheeler if that is the case. with this in mind, i must respectfully say you have been misinformed. if i am wrong, then the guys making these decisions at aptera, are, well, the correct adjective is evading me...i'll get back to you on that...
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James Bowe 2:05PM (5/14/2008)
TeslaHater: Tesla was formed by a bunch of dotcom millionares who were sick of waiting for Detroit to save the world. They are currently rolling fully functional 4-wheel highway obliterating electric vehicles off the assembly line. If you follow Tesla's logic, it's simple and intelligent. They couldn't make a cheap bottom of the line EV for the masses because they don't have the economies of scale that the big manufacturers have. They would have to use the crappiest of components, and the car would feel, look, and probably run like a much cheaper model because of it. So they decided to come in with an elite model and compromise on nothing. The success of that model combined with an influx of cash when they go public next year will allow them to produce their 'whitestar' electric 4-door sedan at a much lower price point in a few years. As economies of scale start to work in their favor, they can add even less expensive models, and everybody wins. It seems like you want electric cars on the road, have much anger with the established players in the automobile industry, and dislike Tesla??? I don't get it. Tesla is a startup that is selling EV's and turning the industry on it's head. Hate Tesla? They are the only company building the future you dream of right now. Strange...
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Unlucky_O 8:37PM (6/03/2008)
This thing is Utter Garbage, Looks like a chopped in half smart car fused with Zap's Alias.
In fact Eqbal Yousuf used to work with zap, looks like he got his technological ideas from zap like so many others.
Oh yeah and Who would buy a car from a lawyer?
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