Crave

Zap Shuttle

(Credit: Zap)

It's not for road trips, but the van that Zap has introduced at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention might just ease the carbon burden for very local transport.

The Zap Shuttle, which can hold five people, is touted as the nation's first 100 percent plug-in, rechargeable electric van. It's meant to replace small shuttle vans that you see going from airport terminals to rental lots and around other short-range areas such as corporate headquarters, college campuses, indoor warehouses, and sports arenas.

The mini-van has optional accessories, such as solar panels, for prolonged use. It has a per-charge range of 30 miles, which is fairly impressive. And it charges in six hours using any standard 110v wall socket, just like the one in your garage. There's an optional 220v rapid charger for those who are impatient.

Even better is that the van (as well as a new sister-model truck) is street-legal in the U.S. for roads 35mph or under, meaning it could replace scooters in some urban areas. But starting at $14,700, we don't expect that anytime soon.

The four-day auto dealers convention, which is taking place in New Orleans, runs through Tuesday.

(Credit: Zap Lasers)

We're not sure how comfortable we'd be with our dentist using equipment made by an outfit called Zap Lasers, but it's probably better than a pair of rusty pliars.

The "Styla" is a pen-like device that's billed as the first microlaser for making soft-tissue incisions. Measuring less than 7 inches long and weighing under 2 ounces, it can be used for such procedures as performing biopsies and removing tissue. It can sense whether the person using it is right-or left-handed and, for the novice, even has eight pre-programmed procedures, according to Gizmag. (Shudder.)

A word of caution: The Styla gets signals from a foot pedal that runs on a 2.4GHz frequency, so make sure your dentist or oral surgeon isn't a gadget freak who has a bunch of phones and other wireless devices that could interfere with the connection. Because the last thing you need is an unnecessary root canal caused by a wrong number.

It was good enough for John D. Rockefeller Jr.

To promote itself, Detroit Electric--a new joint venture between Zap and China's Youngman Automotive Group--plan to release a limited number of cars based around the Detroit Electric, an electric car produced by the Anderson Electric Car Co. in the early part of the 20th century.

Anderson produced various models of the Detroit Electric from 1907 to 1939. Customers included Henry Ford and Rockefeller. It was also featured on a stamp. TV host Jay Leno has some of the cars in his collection.

Zap CEO Steve Schneider and Albert Lam, Detroit's CEO.

(Credit: Detroit)

When the opportunity came up to buy the brand, Zap and Youngman decided to go for it, said Zap co-founder and CEO Steve Schneider. The reissued car will be based on a model from around 100 years ago.

"For the bride to be, or the bride of many Junes ago, a Detroit Electric," read a company advertisement from decades ago. "No other bridal present means so much, expresses so perfectly all you need to say."

The company advertised quite a bit in Cosmopolitan. During the 1910s, Anderson employed 1,100 people (and not a drunkard, scalawag or reprobate among them!).

Back in 1917, a Detroit Electric cost anywhere from $1,775 to $2,375--in other words, fit for the proletarian or plutocrat. The cars could go 65 miles to 100 miles on a battery charge, but only go at speeds ranging from 6 miles per hour to 25 mph.

Although the company was growing in the 1910s, prices continued to drop on combustion cars, which started to sap sales in the 1920s. The stock market crash of 1929 then took a toll on the company. It lingered through the 1930s before collapsing in 1939.

But it wasn't for lack of enthusiasm.

"The magnificent Detroit Electric is easily the enclosed car sensation of the year," read another ad. Huzzah!

Detroit, in its new incarnation, will start coming out with electric economy cars in 2010.

iZap hard at work

(Credit: Zap)

Having already capitalized on the green movement, electric car maker Zap is hitching its star to another unstoppable trend: the iPod. The company, which has made headlines in the last year for expanding its lines to include higher-end models such as sports cars and SUVs, reportedly plans to unveil a "Made for iPod" auto at next week's Macworld extravaganza in San Francisco.

The model will feature a head unit that will accommodate the music player and pipe its tunes directly through its speakers, according to iLounge, using its new "iZap" power system made specifically for the iPod. Zap says it will eventually include the technology in all its cars. Could a coupe named "Cupertino" be that far off?

The UPS branch in Petaluma, Calif., has leased 42 Zap Xebras, low-speed electric vehicles, for deliveries amid a flurry of activity at Zap.

The Xebra, which comes as a car or truck, is a little bit like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It has three wheels, comes in flashy colors, and tops out at around 40 miles per hour. You can't take it on the freeway, and acceleration is middling. Look at the picture. It doesn't exactly scream chick magnet. (Read more on my test ride.)

Please don't laugh at me

(Credit: Zap)

But for inter-neighborhood deliveries, it does the job. UPS will set up drop-off nodes where the Xebras can load up with packages and go do their holiday delivery routes.

Zap is one of a number of low-speed electric-vehicle makers. These cars, which rarely go above 40, are mostly designed for retirement communities, college campuses, and military bases.

A number of analysts and observers in the clean-tech community view Zap with some suspicion. The company has been around for years but has not had a break-out hit. Nonetheless, it's been quite active lately.

It signed a deal with a Chinese company for lithium ion batteries and hired Albert Lam, former managing director of Lotus Engineering. Zap is also working with Lotus to design all-electric sedans and SUVs for 2008.

I woke up today ready to write a story on the three-wheeled electric cars coming from Venture Vehicles when a question dawned on me. How many electric car and plug-in start-ups are there in the world today?

Electra glide in silver

(Credit: Zenn Motors )

I count 16. They are: Tesla Motors (sports cars), Wrightspeed (sports cars and plug-in drivetrains for trucks), Fisker Automotive (electric sedans), Zap (low-speed and sports cars), Miles Automotive (low speed), Zenn Motors (low speed), AC Propulsion (retrofitting Scions for electric), Phoenix Motorcars (SUVs), Aptera (three-wheelers), Porteon (low speed electrics), Lightning (sports cars in England), Reva (economy cars), Ultramotor (electric trishaws), Myers Motors (freakish three-wheelers featured in Goldmember), Think (electric economy cars) and Venture Vehicles (three-wheeled electric cars.).

You'll see photos and video of Venture's car next week. The test drive was a hoot.

That doesn't even count the major car companies--GM and Nissan--committed to coming out with electric cars and plug-ins, or the people doing diesel hybrid buses. And there are also the three electric scooter and motorcycle guys: Zero Motorcycles, Vectrix and Brammo. And it doesn't count the golf cart guys. Or the battery guys like Altair Nanotechnologies.

Again, if I missed you and your grandmother's car company, forgive me. These are just the ones I've written about and can recall. History shows that most of these companies will be wiped out. Most car start-ups never get far, in part because of the outrageous capital costs involved in tooling up factories. But there are a lot of good ideas out there.

Zap, which specializes in electric scooters and economy cars, is jumping into the sports car market.

The Santa Rosa, Calif.-based company will try to bring an electric sports car to the market by the end of 2008 built around the APX, a concept car developed by England's Lotus Engineering. Lotus designed the APX to accommodate a gas-powered V6.

The APX will have an electric engine

(Credit: Lotus)

Zap said its car will go 350 miles before a charge, significantly farther than either the Tesla Roadster or the car from Wrightspeed, two other electric cars.

The car will only cost $60,000, said ZAP CEO Steve Schneider. The Tesla Roadster sells for $92,000 while the Wrightspeed X1 will go for around $120,000. The Zap-X won't be as fast, but it won't be putter either. It will go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.8 seconds; the Tesla Roadster does that in 4 seconds while the X1 can do that in three seconds. Just as important, the Zap will have room for five adults, instead of two for the others.

"We are appealing to the SUV buyer who feels sort of guilty about buying an SUV," said Schneider.

It's also a lot faster than Zap's current cars. Most of them aren't freeway legal. They top out at 35 miles per hour.