What's up with Green Vehicles and the Triac electric car?
Triac - Click for high-res image gallery
Green Vehicles has been saying for quite a while that they would be starting deliveries of their Triac electric three-wheeler "soon." For example, when we spoke with Green Vehicles' Ehab Youssef last fall, he told us that deliveries were scheduled for December 2008. But that was one of many deadlines the company has missed. In fact, currently, Green Vehicles is still taking reservations – $2,499 for the Triac, $2,399 for the Buckshot – but hasn't delivered any Triacs, as far as we know. Full prices of the cars are $24,995 and $23,995, respectively. Last year, Youssef told us that the Triac would cost $23,000. Currently, the company's website says:
In the future, customers will be able to query a database with their order number to find out which manufacturing round their vehicle is scheduled for, the status of that round, and when their vehicles is scheduled to be shipped.Nonetheless, All Cars Electric is saying that Green Vehicles is now claiming an August delivery date for its first vehicles. Should it ever get produced, the Triac is expected to use a 20 kW AC motor and a 160 amp hour lithium battery pack to go up to 80 mph with a 100-mile range.
At present, the first volume production vehicles are pre-ordered for Traics and Buckshots. We hope that you will remain patient as we continue making every detail worth of the name Green Vehicles.
As a coda, Youssef was burned by Zap! a few years ago.
Gallery: AltCar 2008: Triac
Gallery: TRIAC
[Source: Green Vehicles, All Cars Electric]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
organic 4:44PM (7/15/2009)
for "August delivery date" I hope those things are on a boat NOW, It was a rolling chassis that was to be sent over, finish work was to be done in the USA. Little like Tesla. I wonder if that is still the plan?
Reply
Don 4:53PM (7/20/2009)
It has been quite disappointing to watch Green Vehicles . . . they have repeatedly missed deadlines. It has now been more than a year since they first said they would start shipping vehicles.
But then again, it is not like they are the only one. Aptera is also about a year behind their own schedule. But there is at least more visible progress from Aptera . . . they have several different prototypes that have been making the rounds and they have done many highly visible demonstrations.
I think a lot of EV makers basically put things on the slow track as oil plummeted down to $30/barrel. But now that it is up around $65 (and hit $70 a few weeks ago), interest in EVs is back. If the economy recovers, oil prices are sure to head close to triple digit pricing. And the EV interest will be back.
Reply
rogwild 2:21AM (8/23/2009)
Well, it is AUGUST 2009, and the 'GreenVehicles' website still lists the "Vehicle ETA" as 'pre-ordered'. We have seen an actual vehicle, and photos of an 'assembly line', but no 'delivered' production vehicles.....yet. Could Youssef be pulling a 'ZAP' on his customers?
Reply