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ZAP Attacks

post #1 of 20
11/24/08 at 7:13am
Thread Starter 

Many of you know about the negativity around ZAP, in fact there is an entire forum on whether or not Zap deserves the bad rep that seems to follow it, especially after the famed wired article.  But are they really making mistakes or are they having bad luck?

 

I assume some of you also know about the lawsuit between Zap and Daimler-Chrysler.  Basically, Chrysler was going to sell Smart Cars in the US and then backed down when they claimed not enough demand...so in steps Zap.  They start getting them ready and had more than $2 billion in orders.  They entered an agreement to purchase the European Smart cars they needed to convert to US standards from Chrysler who immediately after produced reports of a $5 billion loss in Smart Cars and shut down all the plants, firing all the employees, and costing Zap quite a bit of money.

 

So here is the latest:  the new plant planned for Kentucky has hit a sizable road block.  The $176 million plant has lost $125 million of its support.  Or at least that is what Zap is saying.  Apparently they had a so called 'verbal agreement' with GE Capital for bond money in the amount of $125 for the plant.  Of course GE Capital is denying an agreement saying their procedures only allow for "deploying capital wisely."

 

Is this coincidence or does Zap need to seriously rethink the way they do business?  It seems to me that almost every incident involving this company could have been avoided with proper legal care and caution.  I work for a company who sells electric cars, and I know from experience it is a tough world.  Our business has been taken advantage of more than once, by investors and distributors, but one would think that the difference between a family owned dealer and an international company would be something of responsibility and accountability.  I have confidence and support for Zap, but patterns are most often important.

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post #2 of 20
11/24/08 at 8:31am

Well the deal with the Kentucky plant was that it's a project of Integrity Automotive, which is a joint venture between ZAP and Integrity Manufacturing.  In fact, Integrity's Randall Waldman is the guy trying to build the plant, and ZAP has been very hands-off about it.  They basically say it's great if he can build it, but it's up to Waldman.

 

So Waldman claims he had a verbal agreement with GE, and GE says there was no such agreement.

 

"On Thursday, Waldman said he was retooling his headquarters in Shepherdsville in Bullitt County to produce 25 Xebra cars and trucks daily by January. He also said he would continue to seek backing from investors."

 

So now this is rather odd.  He's going to produce 25 Xebras per day, but in the 3rd quarter ZAP only sold 240.  That's 60 per month, or 2 per day.

 

"The business plan from the beginning was fishy," said Aaron Bragman, an analyst with IHS Global Insight, a Boston-based market intelligence consulting firm. "The volumes that ZAP and Integrity were quoting was outrageous. They were going to build a plant employing more people than (Ford's) Louisville Assembly (Plant). It just did not make sense."

 

It might make sense if the primary focus of the plant were to build ZAP Aliases, and if ZAP was confident about high sales numbers for that car.  But the whole plan does seem rather off, because they were initially saying the Kentucky plant would build 300 vehicles per day.  ZAP sales would have to skyrocket for that to make sense.

 

While the whole deal sounds a bit like the SmartCar fiasco, this time ZAP isn't in the driver's seat, so they certainly don't deserve all the blame if this project falls through.

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post #3 of 20
1/13/09 at 2:33pm
Thread Starter 

Integrity Automotive seeks Federal Dollars to help launch the ZAP! plant...$200 million to be precise. (article)

 

It makes sense, I've seen so many other companies getting the federal funding and the funding is there for electric vehicles manufacturing, if I remember correctly the act was put in place in 2004...

 

Anyways, I hope that this will give ZAP a boost!

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post #4 of 20
3/6/09 at 8:16am
Thread Starter 

here is the latest update on ZAP ventures in Kentucky.  It appeasr Integrity Motors is over but ZAP still has sites set on Kentucky with the incorporation of a new firm called ZAP Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky, Inc.

 

Here is the article.

 

Thought I'd throw this article in here too.  It would be really cool if they were able to go far in this venture as well.  Can you imagine seeing special edition replicas of the original Detroit Electric cars?  Although I doubt anyone would actually drive them, they will probably just have them as collectors items.  But this is definitely a relationship to keep your eye on.


Edited by srj0385 - 3/6/2009 at 04:33 pm
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post #5 of 20
3/6/09 at 8:42am

Thanks for the update on this srj.  That's really disappointing about Integrity, but I'm glad to see that ZAP is still going to try to make a Kentucky manufacturing plant a reality.

 

And I think the Detroit Electric replicas are a really cool idea.

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post #6 of 20
3/10/09 at 12:56pm
Thread Starter 

So I'm a total dork, I usually double check the dates on these articles, but I must have missed this one.  The Detroit Electric thing was from last year, and that isn't going anywhere, in fact the ZAP rep seemed to have no clue about the whole thing.  Silly me, I'll be more careful in future.

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post #7 of 20
3/15/09 at 9:05pm

Will Zap recover and once again sell in Santa Cruz?  After a business that sold Zap!! had a dispute and no longer sold Zap, *poof* - gone.  Exciting to hear about Kentucky and Detroit, but the 2 remaining 2002 Zap PU models are not around as much here.   Ocean Honda had a grand opening today nearby, and that got me wondering- where is the EV market going?  Any word? 

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post #8 of 20
6/4/09 at 12:49pm
Thread Starter 

Oh dear...

 

The good news, US future for Zap vehicles:

Quote:

Electric vehicle major, ZAP has completed an engineering project to develop a four-wheel electric pickup, with majority of the parts and components supplied by US companies.

 

The BAD News, a large vehicle recall:

Quote:

Apparently even the limited safety requirements applied by the U.S. government to vehicles classified as motorcycles were a bit too much for Zap Xebra. The Chinese-built electric vehicles are classed as motorcycles because they only have three wheels, which means they are not subject to crash safety standards. However, motorcycles still have to meet minimum braking performance requirements according to federal motor vehicle safety standard 122. Xebra's built during 2008 have failed to meet that requirement in testing and are being recalled for a fix. According to NHTSA, 738 vehicles are involved in the recall, but no fix has yet been identified by Zap or the manufacturer, Qingqi Group Motorcycle Co., LTD. Fortunately, the Xebra only has a top speed of 40 mph and most of these electric vehicles are used for duties like parking enforcement and as utility vehicles around campuses. We've contacted Zap for a comment on the situation but have yet to get a reply.

 

Of course Tesla recently recalled several hundred of their vehicles because of a bolt that could become loose.  and Zap has this to say about the recall:

Quote:
ZAP has been working to respond to and insure a brake modification to meet the stopping distance requirement. The motorcycle guidelines are designed for freeway speeds, while the Xebra was designed to travel at city speeds. No incidents or injuries related to this braking compliance have been reported to us.

We have been examining the manufacturing procedures and technical support to establish methods so our authorized service centers have a modification to bring the brakes for the 2008 Xebras into compliance. We have had ongoing discussions regarding this with NHTSA and an independent testing lab and have proposed several minor modifications to the braking system as the most efficient and effective solution. We are now waiting on the testing of these modifications and hope to hear back within the next several days that they have certified the modifications.

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post #9 of 20
6/4/09 at 4:05pm

That's unfortunate.  I guess that's the problem with having to meet motorcycle standards with a three wheeled car.

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post #10 of 20
6/5/09 at 11:07am

Autobloggreen posted this:

 

Quote:

Campbell told ABG:


ZAP has been working to respond to and insure a brake modification to meet the stopping distance requirement. The motorcycle guidelines are designed for freeway speeds, while the Xebra was designed to travel at city speeds. No incidents or injuries related to this braking compliance have been reported to us.

We have been examining the manufacturing procedures and technical support to establish methods so our authorized service centers have a modification to bring the brakes for the 2008 Xebras into compliance. We have had ongoing discussions regarding this with NHTSA and an independent testing lab and have proposed several minor modifications to the braking system as the most efficient and effective solution. We are now waiting on the testing of these modifications and hope to hear back within the next several days that they have certified the modifications.

Probably not a great win for ZAP considering all their other bad press issues over the last year (meaning the whole vaporware talk).

 

I hadn't heard about the Tesla recall.  What happened there?

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post #11 of 20
6/5/09 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 

Here is the Tesla Info:

 

Quote:

As the staff of Tesla Motors has learned all too painfully over the last several years, mass producing a car is no trivial task even if "mass" is only a few hundred. Now that Tesla is churning out Roadsters at a more or less steady pace it seems that the inevitable has finally happened. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered the first safety recall of the Roadster. A total of 345 Roadsters built between March 2008 and April 2009 will have to return to home base for some repairs. It turns out that in assembling the electric sports cars, the bolts that attach the rear hub to the suspension flange may not have been properly torqued. As a result, the rear wheels can come loose which is highly undesirable scenario under the best of conditions. In a car which has the performance capabilities of the Roadster, it can be deadly. If you happen to be one of the several hundred owners of a Roadster and you haven't yet gotten a message from Tesla, you might want to give them a call ASAP.

Update: We heard from Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad who told us that Tesla will be making house calls to the affected owners to check out and repair the Roadsters. The problem was found after an owner complained about the handling and the car was investigated. The root cause was an issue at the Lotus factory in England where primary assembly is done and as usual with recalls, there is no charge to owners for the repair.

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post #12 of 20
6/6/09 at 11:43am
Thread Starter 

Wanted to add in this little tidbit too.  I have been getting pretty frustrated with some of the recent mistakes made by ZAP, but it looks like they are trying to resolve these issues.  They are also planning to use Investor Relations Group to at least guide them in public relations.  This combined with a US manufacturing ability could spell some success, maybe better quality control and more corporate responsibility.

 

Maybe this will be a good move for them to be more public with their progress so that the only media regarding ZAP is no longer bad media...at least we hope.  If nothing else, there has already been a jump in their stock prices, and the timing would appear to be connected to this new relationship, because their stock hasn't really moved since last year.

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post #13 of 20
6/6/09 at 1:56pm

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by srj0385 View Post their stock hasn't really moved since last year.


I am sure glad Santa Cruz is not alone.  Zap seemed to be dropped like a hot rock- no new ones since '05, no Alius, no Xebra sedan or PU.  I thought our town was being left out of the 3-wheel game.  We have 10 Scoop Coupes running around  as rentals, a few older Xebra, a few Piaggos, 2 Messerschmitts and 1 City-el; very few 3 wheelers.

 

Terrific to now about safety issues for me. Piaggo (gas) 3-wheeler has disc brakes, and I saw a guy miss a Stop sign and slam on the brakes- like hitting a wall: 10' stop- impressive!  If they really shipped as told- that 3-wheel EMC3 Commuter (gas) also has discs I think.

 

I am not as thrilled about my 3-wheel City-el (electric) drum brakes after seeing that Piaggo!

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post #14 of 20
6/6/09 at 5:27pm

Yeah I've noticed that disk brakes are much better than drum brakes on my scooters too.

 

I thought it was odd that ZAP's stock was around 13 cents for ages, then suddenly over a period of 2 days it jumped to the 35-40 cent range with no press releases or news or anything.

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post #15 of 20
6/10/09 at 3:44pm

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by srj0385 View Post

Here is the Tesla Info:

 

 

Wow, that is definitely not a good thing to have your rear wheels come loose.  Lucky for Tesla (and of course, all the Tesla owners) that no one got in an accident as a result.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by srj0385 View Post

Wanted to add in this little tidbit too.  I have been getting pretty frustrated with some of the recent mistakes made by ZAP, but it looks like they are trying to resolve these issues.  They are also planning to use Investor Relations Group to at least guide them in public relations.  This combined with a US manufacturing ability could spell some success, maybe better quality control and more corporate responsibility.

 

Maybe this will be a good move for them to be more public with their progress so that the only media regarding ZAP is no longer bad media...at least we hope.  If nothing else, there has already been a jump in their stock prices, and the timing would appear to be connected to this new relationship, because their stock hasn't really moved since last year.


Yeah, the very widespread..."skepticism" about ZAP will hopefully provide a lot of lessons to Investor Relations Group.  Of course, I'd really like to see them do well.  Ultimately the more successful EV manufacturers we have in the world, the better.

 

Looks like ZAP's stock has stayed above 30 cents (other than yesterday when it was at 29 cents) since June 1st.  Time will tell though.

 

ZAP's stock chart for December 10th, 2008 to June 9th, 2009

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post #16 of 20
6/12/09 at 7:11am
Thread Starter 

More news about investment in ZAP and their movement toward Kentucky...

 

Quote:

SANTA ROSA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/11/09 -- Electric transportation pioneer ZAP (OTCBB: ZAAP) (www.zapworld.com) has closed on a $2 million private placement from the Banks Group LLC.

Jeffrey G. Banks, the Group's principal and a current investor in ZAP, said, "I strongly believe in ZAP's market attractiveness, especially as they begin transition into domestic production. Given the company's knowledge, experience and leadership position, there is no doubt in my mind that we've made a predictably smart EV investment." He added, "ZAP has sharpened their focus on market segments that are growing, offering a much greater potential for both near and long-term success."

"Mr. Banks' confidence in our business plan and affirmation through his investment speaks loudly about our opportunities in electric transportation," said Steven Schneider, CEO of ZAP. "ZAP continues to innovate and lead the movement in electric transportation."

Funds from the private placement will be released in stages through 4th Q 2010 and used for general and administrative operating expenses and to continue its accelerated R&D on new electric vehicles in the planning pipeline. It is anticipated the R&D will be seen in new vehicles to be produced by Zap Motors Manufacturing's new production and assembly facility in Kentucky, an applicant for a $200 million loan under the US Department of Energy - Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing and Incentive Program.

For more news and information on ZAP, please visit www.IRGnews.com/coi/ZAAP.

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post #17 of 20
6/18/09 at 3:29pm

Some more good news for ZAP recently.  They announced that they've begun shipping their Zaptruck XLs to several US military bases in the US and in international locations, and that they've named Gary Dodd, "a respected manufacturing executive formally with Toyota," as president of global operations.  As a result, their stock jumped another 10 cents, to about 46 cents per share.

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post #18 of 20
6/24/09 at 10:48am
Thread Starter 
Yesterday, Tesla got a piece of the pie for their factories, I am crossing my fingers that some of that is going to ZAP too!
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post #19 of 20
6/24/09 at 10:50am
Thread Starter 
Yesterday, Tesla got a piece of the pie for their factories, I am crossing my fingers that some of that is going to ZAP too!

Although this doesn't sound too good...
Quote:
The government is expected to announce recipients for the remainder of the $25 billion program next year.
If that is the case, then the Alias is pushed back again!
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post #20 of 20
6/24/09 at 11:56am
Ah bummer.  I wonder why such a long delay?
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