Media Credit: Micheal Leese Sporting her 2006 Zap! Xebra named "Zippy," Western senior Marilyn Anderson beats gas prices in her electric vehicle. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Micheal Leese Under the bed of the Xebra hides the batteries that powers the electric vehicle. After 40 miles of use, the car needs to be plugged in to an outlet overnight to charge. [Click to enlarge]

When driving down the street, Western senior Marilyn Anderson typically gets stares from all around.

"I get people that point, people that laugh, and I even got, 'What the heck is that?" Anderson said. "But it's all good. I've started not paying attention. I don't even notice anymore."

Her 2006 Zap! Xebra creates the attention. She shares the car with her father, Norm Woodward, of Bellingham. The Xebra is an electric car with three wheels, technically making it a "trike" by Washington state law.

Woodward says he also gets a lot of attention while driving the car.

"Every intersection, every corner, every time you drive by, someone looks," Woodward said. "I've even seen people snapping pictures with their cell phones."

Fed up with increasing gas prices and the overall cost of driving a fossil fuel powered car, Woodward bought the Xebra from Grants Pass Electric Vehicles (GPEV) in Grants Pass, Ore.

"I figured I'd done enough damage with my Mustang GT," Woodward said. "It was time to retire the V8 and give something else a try."

Anderson, a 28-year-old mother of four and accounting major, borrows the car from her parents to drive to school and run errands.

The idea to purchase a small vehicle came from Anderson because she wanted to ride a scooter to school. Her father talked her out of that idea and started looking into electric cars, she said.

Woodward searched online for various models and talked with GPEV owner Sean Rarey about the best available model. Together with Rarey, Woodward decided to upgrade a truck model of the Xebra, known as a Xebra PK, to give it more power and speed. After the modifications were finished, the upgrade team at GPVE named the car "Zippy."

Because Zippy was a demonstration car and had been driven 1,000 miles, Woodward was able to save money on the price of the car. With upgrades included, Woodward paid the stock price of $13,000 for Zippy, compared to $16,000 it would have cost if it weren't a demonstration car. They purchased the car in early March last year.

To drive the electric car, the state required Anderson and Woodward to get a special endorsement on their driver's license showing they know how to operate a three-wheeled vehicle. Anderson just took the final test and received her endorsement on April 14.

Anderson said she was tired of driving her 1998 Chevrolet Suburban to school every day. In town, Anderson said the Suburban gets nine miles per gallon.

For this car, refueling consists of plugging it into the wall and charging overnight.

Zippy can last about 40 miles before it needs to be recharged, Anderson said.

Batteries for a stock Xebra last about six years, Woodward said. But the car was upgraded, he expects the battery to last around three years. Batteries for stock models cost around $1,200, while Woodward's will be closer to $2,000.

It is estimated that an electric vehicle puts out 2 percent the amount of the pollution that a normal car does, including the pollution put out by a power plant to charge the car, Woodward said.

The car is driven about 25 miles a day. By looking at his monthly electric bill, Woodward did the math and figured it costs about 65 cents a night to charge the car. Comparing this to the $4 Woodward estimates it would take to drive a car 25 miles a day with current gas prices, Woodward said the car saves them about $3 a day.

Zap! Xebra's are imported from China. Woodward said Xebra's are easy to work on and upgrade, although the craftsmanship of the vehicles, such as the quality of sheet metal and welding, don't meet the same standards as typical cars.

"The workmanship is pretty bad on 'em," Woodward said. "But I knew all that going in, and I was prepared to do a little work on it."

Woodward said he has put 30 to 40 hours of work into the car, including replacing the suspension and fixing the speedometer.

Because the truck Xebra model only has two seats, Anderson said she wants to eventually buy a different model that can fit all of her children comfortably.

A stock Xebra can reach up to 38 mph, Anderson said. But with all of the modifications done to the car, Zippy can go between 40 to 45 mph.

Along with a few stickers advertising GPVE, Zippy has a sticker on the back window with Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" urinating on the word "gas."

"I have a sign that I want to put on my truck that says, 'You're laughing because I'm different, but I'm laughing because you're all the same,'" Woodward said.

Rarey opened Grants Pass Electric Vehicle in January 2007 with the goal of informing people that they don't need to use fossil fuels to travel around town.

"In my mind, every single vehicle that is running people around without using fossil fuels is a big victory for us," Rarey said.

GPEV sells an average of four Zap! Xebras a month, Rarey said. Xebras are the only model of car that his business sells because he said he feels it's the best one for driving in town.

Rarey expects electric vehicles to become more popular in the future.

"Down the road, electric vehicles will take over, but the more of us who take charge and stop using fossil fuels now, the faster it will happen," Rarey said. "As Americans we owe it to ourselves to at least examine the options available and help move the country toward that end."

Like Rarey, Woodward expects an increase in electric vehicle use in the near future.

"People turn around and stare at my car because it looks so different," Woodward said. "But in five years they won't even give it a second look."

Article Tools