Electric cars rolling on streets of Los Gatos (California)

http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_7565353?nclick_check=1

The Green Vehicles store in downtown Los Gatos has been attracting a lot of gawkers and quite a few buyers since it opened for business in mid-October. And according to owner Ehab Youssef the best is yet to come. By the end of last week, he expected the first freeway-ready electric vehicle to be on the showroom floor.

It's called the Triac. It's a two-door, two-seater and it will go 70 mph with a range of about 120 miles.

"We've had huge demand," Youssef said. "There are close to 200 people on the list for the freeway vehicle. People can sign up to drive it and then order it and take delivery in 30 to 40 days." The Triac sells for $19,900.

The other cars for sale at Green Vehicles are known as neighborhood electric vehicles because they can only be driven on surface streets. Youssef has sold more than a dozen of those in six weeks - some were pre-ordered before he opened up shop.

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to hit the streets to get the ball rolling, but at close to $100,000 a pop for their initial models, it would be a few years until they introduced their more affordable family cars. This is exciting!

I've always wondered why, since we have the technology already for electric cars, somebody hasn't been jumping on that bandwagon...?

I owned a Ferrari once. 8mpg on a good day.

for crash-testing:

"According to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cars made for model year 1997 and after must pass both the tests frontal crash testing and side impact crash testing."

http://news.carjunky.com/how_stuff_works/how_crash_testing_works_abc156.shtml

Doesn't apply to NEVs (Neighborhood Electric Vehicles) but obviously does here. Crashtesting for a commercially-released car can easily run upwards of $50M, which has successfully helped Detroit prevent upstarts like this from getting a toe in the door.

How did they get around this requirement, or did they? I'm skeptical--this has been a big hurdle in the past. :shrug:

http://www.greenvehicles.com/default.asp

All they have listed are neighborhood EV's (max speed 40mph) and electric scooters (ditto).

:(

I can't find any web hits for a "Triac" electric car either. Unfortunately, "Triac" is a type of electronic component used in power supplies, so that certainly muddies up the search results.