Have you heard of the CityZenn Zenn car? You’ll

the electric car

What do you think of when you think of “electric car”? Does an upgraded golf cart come to mind? Think of an oddly shaped three-wheeler covered in solar panels?

When most people think of a fully electric car, they usually imagine some sort of science experiment. You can think of a contest between two competing teams of scientists or college students who are trying to make a vehicle that runs entirely on “solar power.” Most people don’t think, “I’m going to go out and buy one of those.” People don’t want to ride around in a golf cart or a car from “The Jetsons.” Not only is it impractical, but many of these “experiment cars” are outrageously expensive.

The new electric car

Well, now there is a “car of the future”, and it is not a distant science experiment. It’s here and will be available for purchase by “ordinary people” in early 2010. This revolutionary new vehicle is an electric car that is “normal.” It looks like your car with a combustion engine. It travels as “far” and as “fast” as your car with a combustion engine. It can be refueled as quickly as your car with a combustion engine. And what’s even better, it costs almost the same as your car with a combustion engine.

What is this new miracle of science? It is the cityZenn Zenn car, from Zenn Motor Company. Thanks to new battery technology, cityZenn will be able to travel up to 250 miles between charges. It will reach a maximum of 80 mph and will be rechargeable in less than ten minutes with a special charger. Also, it will sell for between $25,000 and $30,000.

This breakthrough in electric car technology came from a company called Eestor Inc. Before Eestor, batteries were either bulky with low energy density or prohibitively expensive. If an electric car owner wanted to drive twenty or thirty miles, he had to load the trunk of it with hundreds of pounds of lead-acid batteries. Eestor’s new “batteries” are affordable and contain large amounts of energy. Until now, electric cars have only had a range of twenty or thirty miles. Thanks to Eestor’s energy storage capability, that range has been increased to over 250 miles.

an exciting future

This is exciting new technology and the next year and a half is going to be very interesting. The cityZenn will launch first in Europe and soon after in the United States. If you’re interested in the Zenn car, Zenn currently makes a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) that’s available for around $13,000.