IT: The Electric Car
I stumbled across a neat electric car outside Urban Fare on the way to grab some dinner this evening. It is called, uh, IT, and it’s a sporty four-door Low Speed Vehicle made right here in BC by Dynasty Car Corporation.
I took some time to talk to the Sales and Marketing Manager, Richard Clarke, to get an idea of the car’s capabilities. In particular, the car:
- Is built from glass-fibre
- Has a top legal speed of 40kph, although it was unclear if this was the car’s top speed or the top speed the car is legally allowed to drive due to its classification as a Low Speed Vehicle
- Sells for $20K
All in all, it looks like a nice unit but it still suffers from a few minor drawbacks:
- Despite a fairly roomy area for cargo, a removable/foldable back row and front passenger seat would enable IT to carry a lot more cargo
- The car is restricted to a maximum speed of 40kph on roads with a posted maximum of 60kph – and must have its hazard lights on, as well as a hazard triangle on the rear bumper. Additional crash testing is required to certify the car – something which is costly to obtain and might require something other than a glass-fibre body to guarantee certification.
What surprised me most: I’d never heard of these guys. On further consideration, I realized I had seen them in use around UBC by Plant Operations but didn’t realize it was a local company. Isn’t this the kind of thing that BC should be touting both domestically and internationally? Sometimes our desire to be polite seems to get in the way of us recognizing our own strengths – this kind of entrepreneurial company shows that BC kicks butt, and we should be giving companies like this the encouragement and support they need.
I used to work at ICBC, and I remember seeing the Transport Canada regulations governing this type of vehicle. One of the reasons it’s restricted to 40 km/h is because it’ll require alot of extra stuff to meet the crash safety standards of regular cars – which would obviously jack up the price, increase the weight, cut down on mileage, etc, etc. It’s a compromise – we’re seeing the same thing with the three-wheeled vehicle regulations (some of those three-wheelers are more like motorcycles, others are more like cars).
This is definitely a product with a niche market. I’m not sure what BC can do – the regulations that cover this vehicle are made at the federal level (all new vehicle regulations are in Transport Canada’s realm), and its limited range means that the only real fleet users in BC will be places like UBC. Also, the price is pretty hefty. For C$20,000, you can get a Toyota Echo or Corolla, can’t you?
Hrmm… Thanks for the story idea.. 🙂 I’ll see if Dave can use this on the TV show.
damn, i thought those things on UBC campus were Cushmans.
$20K…no WONDER I see more Segways around here.
Interesting car, but it might be a good idea to install solar panels on it for those that live in urban dwellings (such as apartments) that do not accommodate people to plug-in their electric cars.