The competition is coming!!

[SmartPassion]

I don't believe Mr. Ehab Youssef is associated with Zap any longer. He was one of the plaintiffs.

Originally Posted by msjohnson1974

Yep the cars you mention are the same guys suing Daimler over smart... which probably explains some of the lack of info from smart USA - you don't want to talk too much whilst being sued...

http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.ht...ble-td16366753

[Karl Roth]

Or is that part of the conspiracy.
karl

[factor9]

Originally Posted by LinuxGuy

Pricing is stated in the spec PDF's.

Triac - $19.995
Mouse - $12.995
Nev - $11.995

What are they going to do with all the batteries? And, I'd like to know how "green" their plant will be? Toyota's battery plant in Canada doesn't have a very good track record from what I've read.

On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with a little competition! As with most products, it should help improve all the small cars!

[timhood]

I don't really see how these are "competition". While NEVs are legal on roads with posted speed limits up to 35MPH, they cannot legally travel that fast in 49 states, where they are limited to 25MPH. (Only Montana allows travel up to 35MPH). Anyone want to imagine what an accident would be like in one of these things? There's no way they are built with anything near the safety design of a smart. And the smart relies substantially on the safety cage and the airbags, which are frighteningly absent in these "cars".

Notwithstanding that I couldn't even leave my neighborhood in one of those NEVs, the question of service and maintenance, increased insurance costs (especially the Triac, which gets a specialty rating since it has less than 4 wheels), the fact that they cost as much or more as a smart leaves me puzzled.

The Toyota IQ is the closest real potential competition I can think of.

[tverb]

There is the Mitsubishi MIEV electric vehicle being tested on a limited basis in NYC.
To me the big issues with electrics are distance between recharge, time to recharge, materials used in batteries, cost of battery replacement, recyling dead batteries (this also applies to hybrids).