We saw tons of these in Rome on our recent family trip. Their biggest plus must be the small footprint for parking on those crazy streets.
My teenaged son’s assessment: “Ugliest car ever.”
Slight hijack… Why do we call it “milage” and then list it metrically? Is there a metric equivalent to “milage”?
Regarding Zap and other EV companies, what if you’re someone (like me) with no electrical or mechanical expertise, who wants to buy one of these things, but who doesn’t live near the factory or any dealers? Who do you go to for repairs on such a thing?
I’ve driven one. When I got in, I thought, my, this interior is surprisingly comfortable and spacious! But then I put the key in the ignition, and yes, it was one of the worse driving experiences I’ve had in my life. The short wheelbase means that you hit each roadbump in rather short succession. I felt like a play ball in a flipper, bouncing around over speed bumps and such…the so-called “suspension” did not really help anything.
Plus, its acceleration pick-up was somehow messed up so that whenever you tried to accelerate there was this lag until it gathered speed with a bounce - made me feel rather sick, it did. This issue has allegedly been fixed in the newer models.
I’ve also tried driving the roadster, which had the same pick-up issues, felt like a sardine can space-wise, and had a ridiculously high price point. It has since been discontinued, as well as the four-seater (who nobody bought because it was butt-ugly and also comparatively expensive), so don’t get your hopes up about them.
There’s a Subway shop here that uses a Smart car to deliver sandwhices.
Kinetic energy is proportional to mass, but it is also proportional to the square of the velocity. This has always been intriguing to me. The speed of your car has a much greater effect on total energy than the weight of your car.
This explains why braking distance is so much greater for a small increase in velocity.
It also means that just by driving fast, a relatively light vehicle can easily build up more KE than a big lumbering SUV has.
It’ll be a beeyotch to park all the same if it’s got a turning circle like a dump truck.
Can we contrast this with the Kia Rio?
Well, this is really weird, but I finally positively identified the first Fit I’ve ever seen on the road today. I’ve probably seen them before, but they look pretty similar to various Toyotas and Mazdas. I’ve actually been searching for them since they came out and it is really surprising to me that it took this long. I would think they would be super popular in this town. Priuses are a dime a dozen. I think that I might try to get a used one down the road, as it would be an excellent road trip car for me. Fold flat front seat means you can sleep in it, plus carry something 7’10" long!