Remember the WIRED article exposing the, let's say, odd things that have happened at electric car company Zap? EDN's technical editor, Paul Rako, has written an article saying that EV hucksterism needs to be everybody's business. Basically, he writes, don't buy the hype. "When unknown hucksters start peddling their BS it is time to take a deep breath and hope sanity prevails," he said. Rako singles out John Goodwin, who's creating Neil Young's LincVolt, as the best example of EV hucksterism. Really, more so than Michael Papp, who was actually arrested for his scam?

We certainly like to hear about new cars and technologies here on AutoblogGreen, and we do try to take that deep breath (and not just when we log into our Skype accounts), so I agree with Rako. Still, I'd take him a lot more seriously, if he hadn't called Neil Young a "former heroin addict." Whatever. Young also wrote some of the best songs ever, but what does all this have to do with anything?

[Source: EDN via EVWorld]

In typical fashion, Zap has responded to the critical exposé that was published Wired recently with, you guessed it, more press releases. The releases, of course, do nothing at all to address any of the issues raised in the article about the company's business practices. Zap has heavily promoted several amazing new vehicles, none of which have been delivered even in prototype form. One of the press releases does point to an article in Popular Mechanics titled "5 Electric Cars Making History, Not Hype." The author of that story apparently did little research on the vehicles. The first two are of course among our "favorites" here at ABG, the Xebra and the G-Wiz. None of the five vehicles come anywhere close to meeting U.S. automotive safety standards and only the Xebra is available here. As a three-wheeler, the Xebra is classed as a motorcycle and is thus not subject to the rules that apply to cars. We've seen videos of the G-Wiz being crash tested as well. A version of the Elletrica is available in the U.S. produced by American Electric Vehicle as the Kurrent. That vehicle is a neighborhood electric vehicle limited to 25 mph and subject to far less stringent safety standards. Ironically, that vehicle may actually be the safest of the bunch.

[Source: CNN Money]