Ebikes On Promenade

Spotted some electric "bicycles" and scooters, and pseudo EV cars. The cars were the new vehicles made by Zap, called the "Zap Car".

The Zap Car's are being offered by a dealer for Zap. He currently has a car lot space to show the cars in Venice and a space in downtown LA.

The electric bicycle scooteer guy is importing scooters from china. He claims that they are packaged with components that he has specified. He is branding the bikes under the name Skeuter. He has show room space in the Culver City area and is looking for dealers to sell his bikes.

According to Zane, his bikes are all 48 volt brushles motor systems. The "bicycle" versions come with a chain and pedals, if you want to put them on. He claims they have regenerative braking capabilities. He said their is a "dynamo in the rear wheel hub. I was unable to get more clear information on what activates the regenerative braking and other concerns about its functionality. He claims to have several thousand dollars in a parts inventory, including batteries, chargers, controllers, the platic components, lights, and intrumentation. I was not able to clear information if all the parts of the bikes were available by his company.

The exact offering by both companies seems to be unclear at this time. And it is unclear what future will be like in getting parts for these vehicles, and which parts are avaialbe through after market channels. It seems that some of the parts are similar to bicycle or motorcycle parts. Some parts, like the tires on the Zap Car apparently are the same (12 inches in diameter) as trailer tires. They apparently are radial tires rated for at least 40 miles per hour.

The SKeuter guy has 12 volt, 20 amp hour, batteires for about 30 bucks each.

According to Dave, the Zap Car dealer, the Zap Car is runnin off 6, 12 volt, deep cycle sealed lead acid batteries. And the motor is a brushed with a maximum of seven gross brake horsepower.

All of these vehicle require a 110v ac outlet. I believe the scooters chargers can also be charged off 220 volt ac out lets, according to Zane, the scooter guy.

The two videos below are short pans of the scooter and car displays at the 3rd Street Promenade on December 2nd, 2006.

And they report that they will be on there again on Sunday, at the 3rd street promenade, to display their vehicles, answer questions, and allow people to sit in and look at their vehicles.