Dynasty is a Canadian company that builds light, low speed, battery powered cars. Their Dynasty IT vehicle has a range of 50km and a top speed of 40 km/h. Because Transport Canada refused to follow the lead of 44 American states and authorize the vehicles for non-highway use on roads, the company has decided to relocate to Pakistan. There, they will manufacture cars for the American market. The ZENN is in a similar predicament.
There is a real trade-off between producing light vehicles and producing ones that do well in crash tests. That said, we do permit people to ride absurdly unsafe motorbikes - even on the highway. It is incoherent to ban one and permit the other.
Perhaps it would make sense to create a special legal category for small, light vehicles of limited range, intended primarily for urban use. By all means, those purchasing them should be informed that they will not fare as well in a crash with a huge truck as someone in a larger, steel-framed car. That said, the economic and environmental advantages may justify the risk in the eyes of many.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
It is not “incoherent” to permit one and not the other. Everyone knows the dangers of motorcycling, but these electric quadracycles will be advertised as cars.
Besides, these mini cars are garbage, and Smart is already producing an electric version of the fortwo for the English market, we ought have that rather than the plastic death traps.
“ZENN—that stands for zero emission, no noise—promises to fight on. Ian Clifford, its boss, points out that there has not been a single death related to LSVs in the United States, where 44 states allow them and some 45,000 such cars are in use.”
Tristan,
The Smart ForTwo has a mass of 730kg. That compares with 653kg for the Dynasty IT and 773.4 for the Zenn.
What makes it safer?
Renault seen investing up to $1 bln in electric car
Sun May 11, 2008 9:03am EDT
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - The head of an Israeli-backed electric car project estimated on Sunday that its partner, the Renault-Nissan alliance, would likely invest $500 million to $1 billion in the swappable-battery electric cars.
Arguments about heavy cars being safer often miss much of the point - they are safer if you are inside them, and far less safe for whom or whatever is hit by them. Since heavier and heavier cars has meant that deaths of cyclists and pedestrians have been rising quite rapidly, the introduction of lighter weight cars in cities seems like a Very Good Thing.
Further, I think we can presume that anyone wanting - for example - to drive around the snowy, moose-ridden Canadian rockies wouldn’t choose a non-4WD car with a maximum speed of 44km hour.
One option that would reduce the dangers of light cars, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and conserve fossil fuels would be to reduce speed limits.
That would also help to encourage a transition to cars with dramatically less powerful engines. Nobody would need 100 horsepower if highway speeds were capped at 55 mph, as they were after the Arab Oil Embargo.
I am not an expert on car safety. However, the ForTwo gasoline version is legal on Canadian roads. So, presumably the people we pay to know these things think its safer.
“Nobody would need 100 horsepower if highway speeds were capped at 55 mph, as they were after the Arab Oil Embargo.”
This is a fundamental error. For starters, speed limits here are far lower than in Europe, and yet on average horsepower is much higher. It’s just a fact that some european cars get better economy at 140km/h than a comparable north american one does at 110, and that is perversely because the European one has less horsepower.
I am always an advocate of driving slowly - I personally drive at an average of 45-50mph because it is the most efficient speed for the car I access. And by most efficient I mean precisely, the cheapest.
However, there is no need to lower the speed limit in order to increase the mandated efficiency of cars. Whereas in the early 90s aerodynamics was king in styling departments, now vehicles are not nearly so optimized to move through the air cleanly.
The basic problem is demand - people want cars that are powerful and have “image”. Image is almost always incompatible with economy because it means things like grills and aggressive front ends, etc..
Electric vehicles
Charge!
May 8th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Renault-Nissan’s ambitious plans for all-electric cars
COMMITMENT is one of Carlos Ghosn’s favourite words. He makes commitments himself and he expects his senior managers in the Renault-Nissan alliance to do the same. His latest, and one of his boldest, is that Renault and Nissan will lead the car industry in developing profitable zero-emission vehicles.
I am not an expert on car safety. However, the ForTwo gasoline version is legal on Canadian roads. So, presumably the people we pay to know these things think its safer.
If the ForTwo can be safe at this weight, presumably the electric vehicles can be as well. The batteries would be heavy, but they could probably have lighter engines.
“presumably the electric vehicles can be as well.”
Yes, they can, but they arn’t. Presumably. If transport Canada is doing their job.
Safety, however, is overrated. We allow people to drive around in cars from the 1970s - those are unsafe. But it’s normal.
Driving in Canada
SIR – Your story on electric cars in Canada implied that Transport Canada is responsible for vehicle licensing in Canada (“Not on our roads”, May 3rd). This is a provincial-territorial responsibility. Nothing in Transport Canada’s proposal to clarify the definition of low-speed vehicles (LSVs) stops provinces from licensing them for city use, and some are reviewing their laws to allow such vehicles on their roads or are conducting pilot programmes to determine their safe use.
Transport Canada will conduct crash tests that mimic collisions typically observed on city streets with low-speed limits in order to evaluate the protection offered by LSVs. Furthermore, the electric car manufactured by ZENN Motor Company that you mentioned would not be classified as a LSV under the law and would need to be fully certified for safety as a passenger car.
Kash Ram
Director general
Road Safety Directorate
Transport Canada
Ottawa
Quebec authorizes use of electric cars on roads
The Canadian Press
June 18, 2008 7:01 AM ET
MONTREAL — They may not be going very fast, but electric cars will be allowed on some Quebec roads as part of a government-run pilot project to encourage their development.
Transport Minister Julie Boulet announced on Tuesday that two Quebec-made electric-car models will be authorized to use roads with speed limits below 50 kilometres-per-hour.
She said the project will allow transport authorities to develop traffic laws and equipment for electric cars to become more widespread.
Electric cars legalized in Vancouver
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Vancouver city council voted Tuesday afternoon to give a green light to low-speed electric vehicles.