Seattle Girl LOVES her ZENN Car

[Deb S.]

Greetings SEVA Members Et. Al>

I just bought a ZENN NEV and I LOVE it!
(Yes, that's me you see scooting around Freemont/Ballard, in the little green car)

Being capped at 35 mph not a problem- I avoided Aurora and I-5 a lot anyway, before.

I am excited about the hear and now about this car; I am excited about future possibilites with this and other NEVs/ Electric Cars.

Looking forward to some EV Geek Talk with other local enhtusists

Deb S.

[Paul]

I'm glad to hear its working out for you. I think allowing the speed increase (top speed raised from 25 to 35 mph) really helped make them practical. For your application would you agree?

[Jim]

My Zenn. a 2007 model with a 5 HP DC motor, was upgraded to 35 MPH by reprogramming the GE controller with a laptop computer. I like the ability to go a little faster because I no longer am holding up traffic on city streets every second I'm on the road.

Unfortunately, with the DC motor, there is a down side. Driving the vehicle at 35 MPH could cause the motor (which is marginal even at 25 MPH) to overheat - reducing its' lifespan considerably.

This may or may not be a problem with the 2008 Zenn, which uses a more powerful AC motor. I haven't read any reports - pro or con.

There is a company in California, Hi Performance Golf Cars, that offer an AC conversion for the 2007 Zenns, including the AC motor and AC controller. The conversion can be done at their location, or a kit can be shipped to the Zenn owners home. The cost for the kit is about $3000.

One advantage of the AC motor is that it is less likely for the Zenn to slow down very much while going up a hill.

[0meridian]

My wife and I saw you in Ballard one afternoon while we were riding our motorcycles.
I almost fell off my bike trying to get my wife to notice your car.
When we stopped at the next light she said that your car was cool.
Her seeing an electric car on  the road helped her think my converting a car to be less crazy and even practical.
Thank you for being  on the road.

[ebikeswest]

We live above Crown Hill and there was someone here who also had a Zenn car, just like ours(green 2010).  We love our car too but will be replacing the Discover batteries with flooded agm's.....got 5000 miles out of the original ones.....dont see the other Zenn car in our neighborhood anymore, so we are curious what happened to her/it...she bought hers on Craigslist...she was a fisherwoman or something, so maybe she is out to sea, but hope she is still driving hers.........mark and lydia