Testimonial/We've come a long way baby!

[mhigley]

Ever since I worked at a gas station pumping gas back in 1976 (I was 12 years old BTW) I dreamed of having an electric car. I saw the "gas crisis" up close and personal. Grown men yelled (and I mean YELLED!) at me like it was my fault that gas had risen over fifty cents a gallon.
In 2004 or so I decided I was going to have an electric car no matter what it looked like or how primitive it was in function and design. I am not a DIY guy so I needed a vehicle that was made by a company (preferably still in business) with some kind of support. I also needed it to be affordable and as useful as possible. The Myers motors http://www.myersmotors.com/ car wouldn't work. Very fast but no place to put the dog. The four wheel cars for sale like the GEM and ZENN NEV had a top speed of 25. Too slow for my town. Then came the ZAP. It had three wheels so it was classified as a motorcycle. Since it was a motorcycle there were no safety or speed restrictions. This is my ZAP: http://evalbum.com/993 The ZAP had a breakneck top speed of 35mph and you could get up to 40mph with a good wind behind you. You also had a 25 mile range that was way more than I needed in a town 7 miles long and 2 miles wide. I loved driving electric so much I became a dealer. The vehicle was very flawed and gas prices dropped and that was the end of my dealership.
Even though the dealership failed, I still look back on the experience as one of the best experiences of my life. I remember talking to one of my fellow dealers and saying “Can you believe we are looking at multiple electric cars, all in one place and anyone can buy them?” It was amazing to us after the hope and then disappointment that was the EV1 experience. Seeing the look on my customers faces as they took their first drive in their all electric cars made me tear up.
My dream then morphed into having an electric that I would be able to drive from town to town. Then came the Leaf.
Yesterday I drove from Leavenworth Kansas to Topeka Kansas to visit a friend. My friend also happened to be an old customer from my ZAP days. I dropped my car off at Capitol City Nissan in Topeka for a charge. My friend and I had coffee with a rep from Westar (our local electric provider) hung out and talked EVs then it was time for the return trip home. I was brought back to the Nissan dealership in a ZAP.
We may not be all the way there yet. There will be problems with this car (no car is perfect right off the line) and improvements and modifications will be made. Most will love the car and some will give up on it but we have come a long way and I’m very happy I am able to be a part of it.

 

[KJD]

You have a good perspective Mark. Sometimes we forget how much progress has been made.

Here is a picture of my first EV. The first battery pack lasted exactly 6 months.
http://www.evalbum.com/1414" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[mhigley]

My first batteries in my ZAP lasted six months also.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Great post Mark!

I had a ZENN mostly because WA (where i live) and Montana were first two places where NEVs could go 35 mph legally. I drove it 3½ years as my sole source of commuting (other than the one day a year i rode my bike) and put over 12,000 miles on it. My first motor lasted 4 months before it burned up. then went the controller, then the charger and within weeks after that the batteries. I do have one over on you since my first set of batteries lasted 8 months. the 2nd set (supposedly the same) lasted 5 months before going downhill fast. I milked them for another 3 months before getting 3rd party set which was not recommended for EVs but had a time crunch so went and got the best ones I could get locally in a few days. During that time we were sharing one car between two commuters and lucky that it was before SO's transfer to Centrailia which happened a few months later.

But the batteries i bought were deep cycle flooded type and had to constantly monitor the SG, water, etc. it got to be a hassle. Now daniel, a Priuschatter had a Xebra and put LI into his car and had great success with it. Also LI had dropped a lot in price so I was actively investigating that option when the LEAF was announced. In fact I was probably less than a week away from finalizing my order. I then decided that two seat (for a 3 member family) restricted to town EVing had finally run its course and was time to move on.