Archive - Feb 2008

Google has become an outspoken proponent for plug-in vehicle technologies so it shouldn't be any surprise that a camera phone picked up the sighting of a ZAP Xebra electric city car (with stripes) on the Corporate Campus in Mountain View.

It's nice to know that people at Google still remember ZAP. If you have been a long-time ZAP follower you might recall Google's pre-IPO PR campaign where co-founders Sergey Bring and Larry Page were splashed across the national media zipping past cubicles on their ZAPPY electric scooters. Imagine our excitement to see our latest ZAP trolling the Google Campus, although it has probably grown a thousand times since 2000.

With the Smart Car due to launch in the US here in 2008, aren't you the least bit curious who took delivery of the first one? Well the answer may surprise you. The Smart Car is not new to the United States at all.

Smart has been seesawing whether to enter the US market since the release of the fortwo coupe in 1998. Initially they "test-marketed" the car in the US and found publicly that US consumers were more interested in SUVs. Then, they established a Smart USA operation and nearly completed the full engineering of an SUV Smart formore that they announced would be unveiled in 2004 at the Detroit Auto Show.