ZAP Alias: An Affordable Electric Sports Car?

ZAP is a California company that has been making very small electric vehicles for a few years and selling them through a handful of dealers nationally. It’s a small operation, which means we’ll reign in our enthusiasm for the just-announced Alias electric sports car.

ZAP is planning to produce the Alias with help from Lotus Engineering — which also worked with Tesla Motors — and promises an affordable electric sports car that can hit 60 mph in under six seconds with the equivalent of 321 hp.

Because the Alias has three wheels, ZAP might be able to skirt safety requirements for cars and classify the Alias as a motorcycle. ZAP is hoping to keep the MSRP at $30,000, and folks can make a down payment on one — for $5,000 — via the company’s website. While you’re there, you can also buy a ZAP charger for your iPod.

The Alias will be on display at the National Automotive Dealers Association convention in San Francisco next weekend. Last year ZAP showed off an electric sedan, the ZAP-X, that was also developed with Lotus. We have yet to see that on sale or available for testing.

Comments

I would like to see more pics. The ZAP site only has one pic and for a 5k deposit, you might want to show more of the car.

It looks interesting. Like a cropped and chopped "Speed Racer."

This is great! An electric car, this could save us from diesel . . .

This is a good look...
http://www.zapworld.com/files/news/ZAP_AliasVideo.wmv

When I was an apprentice in Hobart, there were 1 or 2 English Morgan 3 wheeler cars and they were registered by the Tasmanian govenment as just cars, so I guess an electric car with 3 wheels may be treated the same way again...As an old man now, I hope I can see more electric cars being built,with all the advances of Super Batteries and Super Caoacitors being available to help the better end result...
Thank you,
David Ponsonby...

What a great little car, electric cars are our future.