Not-so-shocking admission: Zap kills Xebra, slows development of Alias
by Jeremy Korzeniewski on Nov 30th 2009 at 7:01PM 
Our sleuthing colleagues over at The Truth About Cars have dissected electric car maker Zap's latest 10-Q filing, and they unearthed the following little tidbit: "The decrease of $1.5 million (in revenue) is primarily due to the phase out of our three wheeled Xebra vehicle with reduced selling prices."
We can't say that we're particularly shocked that Zap has found it difficult to continue moving its little three-wheeled Xebra contraption, especially with discretionary spending money in such short supply these days and reasonably-priced hybrids flooding the used car market. Perhaps even more damning for Zap, though, is the admission that it is doing "less work on the development of the Alias prototype vehicle."
Whatever the future has in store for Zap in 2010 and beyond, one thing is for sure: there will be no shortage of press releases to let us all know what's (supposedly) going on behind closed doors.
[Source: TTAC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anthony 7:33PM (11/30/2009)
Do we care anymore?
I was amazed at the alias like two years ago, but now it's just an annoyance, and it's delayed even more!
Get on with making that car in the joint-partnership with lotus already.
Reply
neptronix 7:59PM (11/30/2009)
Another death rattle from the dorky looking lead-acid NEV car makers.
Not so shocking indeed.
Wish they would have spent their time developing the alias instead of the turds they have for sale now.
Reply
Jim Corteau 1:59AM (12/01/2009)
Crap. I just got a job at a ZAP dealer. Now what am I gonna do?
Reply
David Martin 5:37AM (12/01/2009)
Zap are the idiots who hqave been pushing the ludicrous EESTORE capacitors, who are always claiming that 'soon' they will be producing capacitors at their major new factory in la-la land, in the revolutionary 'Con' configuration.
Still, the executives there seem to have managed to spin out the story drawing very nice salaries for years, with absolutely no evidence that they can build anything that works, and indeed many respected electrical engineers arguing that this cannot work and is a modern perpetual motion machine.
Way to go, Zap!
Reply
EVsuperhero 12:30AM (12/02/2009)
I thought it was Zenn. Zenn produces NEVs and they own like 10% of ESTOR. Zenn is always hyping the ESU from Estor.
skierpage 6:49AM (12/01/2009)
Zap are idiots in their own way (read the Wired story), but its Ian Clifford of Zenn Motors that's hyping EEStor and thus its own stock. Easily confused.
@Anthony, Zap's "joint-partnership with lotus" car was the ZAP-X; all mention of it is gone from their web site.
Reply
David Martin 8:49AM (12/01/2009)
My bad - should have checked my memory before posting.
naturalyshocked 6:03PM (12/01/2009)
i think it should be reversed.
2 wheels on the front and 1 on the back, for a stable car.
Reply
Paul Pearson 8:36PM (12/02/2009)
I designed the very first Alias proto chassis.Something seemed very "off" when they tried to pay me in Zap stock.I fell for that gag once.the first Alias was legit and can be seen on my web site electriccustomcars.com real money was to hard to come by at Zap so I passed on doing the body for the car.Paul Pearson
Reply
Paul Pearson 9:35PM (12/02/2009)
lotus had nothing to do with the Alias after the first body drawings.The Zap-x was a Lotus ICE proto/show car that Zap got a hold of for one car show in Vegas,it never got beyond that
Reply