Buy a house, get the electric car thrown in

In Mexico, you'll soon be able to buy a house and put a new electric car on the mortgage as part of the package.

Porteon Electric Vehicles, a low-speed electric car company, has signed a deal with a developer in Mexico to effectively bundle its cars with the sale of a home, according to CEO Kenneth Montler, speaking at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations Conference taking place in Redwood City, Calif.

Porteon's electric vehicles, however, are a far cry from the Tesla Roadsters. The cars, which will come out in the second quarter of next year, top out at around 25 miles an hour. The initial cars will be launched at resorts and elderly communities. Later, the cars will be sold to college campuses and military bases. The U.S. military actually has issued requirements to buy low-speed alternative energy vehicles.

"We will transition to a highway car" over time, Montler said.

Other car companies competing in this space include Miles Automotive, Zap, and Zenn Motors. The big question with many of these low-speed companies is how large the ultimate market will be. I've been to Palm Springs. There are several retirement communities, but they are isolated from grocery stores and movie theaters by mini-freeways where the speed limit is 50. Montler argued that "new urbanism" will allow people to live most of the time in relatively confined areas, but it's not everywhere yet.

Although not the fastest car in the world, Porteon's car will be cheap. It will sell for around $7,000 to $9,000. The cars will run on hub motors--the motors are attached to the wheels--and get power from lithium ion or nickel metal hydride batteries. The car will also contain only 350 parts, making assembly and repair simple.

[ladiesmanwc]

No thanks

That sounds pretty useless to me. I'd be afraid to drive that around here...i'd get run off the road.

[kieranmullen]

Face reality! Lower house prices!

I can understand what they are trying to do. In an effort not to cause the average house price to fall, they just will include more things with it.

Its time they faced reality and lower the price of the house! In many cases the average household income has not kept up with home price increases.

KieranMullen

[drivin98]

Solar?

I like this idea. I think solar panels to power the car and house would also make good sense to be included in this deal.

[acampbell333]

Get 'ZAP'-ed When You But this House

Wasn't sure if you saw the story last month from Alameda, California where they are already doing something like this with ZAP.
http://alamedasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2093&Itemid=14

I also saw an article last month in the Orange County Register about GEM doing something similar. Actually Ken Montler used to work for GEM.

[acampbell333]

What's so bad about golf carts?

Everyone expresses abhorrence for neighborhood electric vehicles, aka glorified golf carts, but the people who own them prefer using them over their gas cars almost unanimously. Who wouldn't aspire to one day retire to the country, play 18 holes, drive your NEV to the store and home again. That's how the NEV law for low speed vehicles happened.

[willdryden]

The bad things are...

most use lead batteries, no weather protection, too expensive, short range (less than 30 miles for most), and too hard to plan routes around speed limit regs. If they raised the speed to 40MPH with a 70 mile range and put doors on them, they could charge the $10,000 most companies want for them. With no doors, I can do just as well on a bicycle in good weather.