Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Outside Linden Hills Co-Op recently was a tiny car–so small it was parked where the bikes go. Its name? Zenn–zero emissions, no noise. This road tot uses a standard 120-volt outlet and recharges fully in eight hours; 80% charge in four hours. With a top speed of 25 miles per hour, one could easily ask who would want one. If you’re a city dweller, ask how many of your errands in a week are exclusively run on surface roads. The speed limit on Minnehaha Parkway is only 25 mph.

Some people argue that electric vehicles make no sense because the pollution then comes from the power plant. First, that’s true only when you’ve gotten it from such a plant. Wind, water and solar don’t create hydrocarbons, and many cities allow consumers to buy “off the grid” power generated exclusively by such alternative sources. The second relevant question is how much? Shae Singer, at Aspen Electric Cars and Carts in Aspen, CO, notes that recharging an electric car for 8 hours uses no more electricity than an electric garage door consumes raising and lowering the door for two round trips. It goes up and down when you leave for work, up and down when you return; add one grocery run later (up, down, up, down) and you could have recharged your urban errand runner from “empty” on the same amount of electricity–enough juice to drive 35 miles.

These mini rides aren’t the only answer to reducing fuel consumption and dependence, but like the burgeoning scooter population, they’re an answer–a bigger one than their size suggests.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 10:45 am and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.