Posted on 09/14/2023 4:04:25 AM PDT by cba123
When I first covered the ARK Zero electric microcar, its specs and pricing sounded too good be true. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” I quipped. Well I guess now I have to believe it, as the company says it has begun making deliveries and shared its first on-road photos.
According to the company, initial deliveries of the ultra-budget vehicle have begun in the UK and France.
Priced at just £5,995 (approximately US $7,500), the UK-based ARK Zero is likely the most affordable electric microcar in the west.
Technically classified as a quadricycle, it is designed to fulfill the car needs of urban dwellers, as long as they don’t need to go too fast or carry more than two people.
The small-statured four-wheeler has a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h) and an understated 2.2 kW (3 horsepower) electric motor. It’s the same style of rear axle-mounted electric motor used on Chinese micro-cars like my cute little Minghong or my electric mini-truck.
The seating looks like a tandem setup with a pair of seats placed one behind the other, fighter pilot style.
The specs aren’t exactly mind-blowing, but that’s likely because the Ark Zero appears to be designed to meet the lower-performance L6e category of quadricycles.
As an electric vehicle, owners will be able to take advantage of reduced maintenance costs and lower fuel bills, as CEO Yilmaz Bora explained.
(Please see full article at the link)
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Now I understand this is NOT for most FReepers. Not at all. Just no.
No, no, no.
NO!
But it is EXACTLY what I want.
(And I believe it will carry two adults, and one kid) And no tarrifs. Because it will be made right here.
Perfect.
(Excerpt) Read more at electrek.co ...
I’ve been riding motorcycles and scooters for 52 years in the USA. I have found no place where 28mph top speed on public roads will work. If the vehicle won’t go at least 35mph and won’t accelerate quickly to that speed, it will be a menace in traffic. The current crop of 50cc scooters are the bare minimum.
If the manufacturers can boost these to 35mph and a minimum of 20 miles reliable range, they can become relevant in the USA.
I can see one sitting in the fast lane on the freeway.
Wait still it starts delivering bombs.
Does it pass all the DOT safety requlirements?
5-mph bumper, crash test survival, etc.
Might double the weight . . .
That's a marvelous and very historical turn of phrase. Aside from the Twilight Zone and other such modern retelling, the old "first books" tell of curses and blessings being, in a way, the same side of the coin, and, as a very fine sermon I had heard so long ago, even the Beatitudes with their blessings contain by implications the curses.
Such that, when we hear "blessed are the peacemakers," we are suggested to imply "cursed are...."
The tale of your mom is wonderful. Thanks for that. Best wishes.
28 mph ?
I can just see these things with a line of 50 cars behind them going down an interstate or rural highway.
Where are you driving where the speed limit is under 30 MPH?
All city streets in Portland Maine have a speed limit of 25 mph unless otherwise posted. That applies to essentially four streets in Portland which are referred to as arterial streets. The speed limits on those streets are 35 or 40 mph. I am not including the interstate or the turnpike that runs through Portland in this description.
I suspect most cities and towns in the northeast are similar to this. We do not have high speed wide boulevards like the rest of the country.
The plug in hybrids have a much smaller battery than full EVs. They have the gas motor up front just like an F150 and I’m pretty sure the battery is under the bed.
The battery range is small, like 30 miles. But that’s perfect for a lot of milk runs, even out in the boonies where we live.
Be good to see the crash data, but it’s kinda moot since Ford discontinued it.
You can get a pretty nice golf cart that’s street legal for that price or maybe even less.
School zone. Awfully embarrassing to get popped for speeding in that thing.
There is a small set of roads here which cannot be ridden on by slower vehicles. However there is a huge section of roads which are not restricted that way.
Lots of roads have all sorts of vehicles.
Everything from slow push-carts with tiny little engines, motor scooters (Lots of them), rather small trike-things, larger bikes, larger combination vehicles, small cars, utility carts, small trucks, cars, medium trucks, bigger trucks, and a small amount of bicycles and some small amount of other things (which will be growing rapidly). All of which seem constantly to be contesting with each other.
There are some roads where bikes, scooters, are in the outside lanes, cars and trucks in the middle with lots in between. Everyone is going every direction, all the time.
It is really jarring at first. But pretty much everyone goes everywhere. Not a lot of rules, not a lot of police most places, most of the time.
That is how the traffic is. Even weirder is, the bigger the vehicle, the more rights it has.
Which sort of makes sense, but smaller vehicles are not really protected as much as larger vehicles. But they are more manuverable, so the (have to) avoid the busses and trucks.
But everyone is pretty much welcomed onto the roadways, other than the major limited-access roads.
So things just sort of flow. If I understand correctly.
Death trap on wheels.
No thanks, I’ll walk.
It's a scam. LOL.
I think the typos, are due to translation.
This is coming. Four months…
I think the vehicle is rated (quote/unquote since it is entirely unrated yet) for a certain draw, but it has a hundred km range I think.
So wouldn’t the a/c just need to draw less than the total?
It is a (very) tiny vehicle.
OTOH if it is just too small for that, gotta get something bigger.
We will see.
No, power demand on an A/C compressor is *right now* all the time.
Granted, it's a small vehicle with a small interior space, so the A/C components and power draw could likely be reduced. But then you're looking at custom made components (not off-the-shelf millions of units like in large-scale production cars) which would costs as much as the car itself again.
No, there's no way to run an effective A/C off the low power that car provides.
Well, that looks real safe...
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