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You said the Sparrow "was"... From the looks of their web site they are still building the things.

Care to share any more insights for those of us who might still be interested in some sort of EV?

If I ever get to go through one of those awesome mid life crisis thingees I'm getting one of these:

Merlin Roadsters

or one of these:

Merlin Coupe

I'm just a few more years, a little more disposable income, and a massive emotional breakdown away from buying one of these sweet little machines... (wow, I can finally say that about a product that -isn't- produced by Apple!)

-dameron

If I ever get to go through one of those awesome mid life crisis thingees I'm getting one of these:

Merlin Roadsters

or one of these:

Merlin Coupe

I'm just a few more years, a little more disposable income, and a massive emotional breakdown away from buying one of these sweet little machines... (wow, I can finally say that about a product that -isn't- produced by Apple!)

-dameron

While waiting for the Landshark to transition from 1/3 clay model to working prototype to production, you can pass the time tooling around in a Corbin Sparrow electric car. Or for pure brute speed order a Merlin Roadster from Corbin.

While waiting for the Landshark to transition from 1/3 clay model to working prototype to production, you can pass the time tooling around in a Corbin Sparrow electric car. Or for pure brute speed order a Merlin Roadster from Corbin.

Now you're speaking my language.

If you really want to turn heads, get a Merlin.

Keep in mind that Corbin Motors already has put solid, useful electrics on the roads. Can't say their vehicles would be very practical for everyone, but I've seen a few Corbin Sparrows in Boston and NYC, and it looks like they're the perfect urban-mobile.

These look really interesting, are affordable, and you can drive them in the HOV lanes. Not all the models are electric yet, but they seem to be working on it.

Check out the Corbin Sparrow. They are selling them as fast as they can make them.

these are. If you want to stick with pure electric, you might consider two more options:

The Corbin Sparrow II is a small electric three-wheeled thing built in CA.

And the Th!nk City, built by a company purchased recently by Ford, is available for demonstration lease in California now -- evidently for only $200 per month. (You're already familiar with such leases, since you've got an EV1.) Pretty sure it won't meet your top speed requirement, though.

Corbin Motors offers several alternatives to the standard vehicle. There aim is single occupancy, for people that primarily travel alone on their commute (most people do), very efficient and cool looking- and you can get them now!
cool furniture too!

Corbin sells an electric-only model, the Sparrow; they were in the Jet Li movie, "The One", in the final scene about "the cleanest city in America":

Sparrow's Specifications

* Onboard battery charger
* Three-wheeled vehicle registers, insures and parks as a motorcycle
* 1350 lbs. curb weight, 72-inch wheel base, 57 inches vehicle height
* 70 mph top speed, 20-40 mile range
* $14,900 retail price

The Sparrow II has a 30-60 mile range and a $16,900 retail price. Corbin also advertises a gas-powered car, the Merlin, with "a 300 to 400 mile range on a tank of gas and a projected 70 to 90 miles per gallon", but it won't be out until the fall of 2003.

First, the Corbin Sparrow really seems to taking hold in places like Los Angeles and to a lessor degree Atlanta.

However, the lowest emissions vehicle around is a bicycle. I mean this in all seriousness. The Bay area has a uniquely nice bicycling climate, and since you already have one car, you don't have to give up the occasional hauling-of-big-stuff cars are good at. And don't underestimate the health benefits of such daily exercise. I love it since you don't have to take extra time out of your day just to go to the gym.

In the Bay Area, there's even a service to shuttle bicycles over the Bay bridge for $1.

Get a motorcycle with a hack. A used GoldWing with a sidecar will set you back less than $20,000. It runs on regular fuel, and will likely get between 35-40 mpg. You can use the carpool lane solo. You should get almost 200 miles to the fillup and hitting 65 is no problem. Breaking the ton with a hack should be doable.

An electric car is not an alternative fuel unless all of the power from your grid is via solar or wind (I don't count hydro, as this usually comes from a dam that disrupted local flora/fauna).

You may also want to consider one of the many turbo-diesel cars available. Gas mileage comparable to the motorcycle with more crash-worthiness.

In addition, there are many other CNG vehicles available than the Honda. At least there were. Two that I know of are the Ford Crown Vic. and the Ford Taurus. It's possible these are only available for fleet sales.

Check out corbin motors for an interesting vehicle called the sparrow. It looks like there are TEN dealers in your area.

Finally, being in San Fran. with only ~50 mile round trips, what prevents you from using mass transit?

Not quite up to your specs, but these are pretty cool.

The car is a sparrow . Check out the web site, there are some other cool cars, even a roadster!

The car is a sparrow . Check out the web site, there are some other cool cars, even a roadster!

I want their Merlin Roadster.

Moophus,

I've had my eye on those vehicles for 2 years :)

The car you are looking at is called the 'Sparrow'. . It is manufactured by Corbin Motors of San Francisco (actually, their main factory/headquarters is in Hollister, CA, 30 miles south of San Jose; but few people know where Hollister is). It's a one person vehicle. It has a 60 mile range and can go up to 60 mph. Cost is $14-16,000 It's available in North America, Europe & Asia.

I've sat in a Sparrow, but I've never driven one. It's a comfortable, but spartan interior.

Corbin Motors deal mostly with motorcycles, but has this small electric vehicle business on the side (and good luck to them!).

Their main showroom is located 1.5 blocks from the 'South Park' area in South of Market in San Francisco. They are surrounded by a bunch of former dotcom buildings (and a few surviving dotcoms, like mine :) .

Moophus,

I've had my eye on those vehicles for 2 years :)

The car you are looking at is called the 'Sparrow'. . It is manufactured by Corbin Motors of San Francisco (actually, their main factory/headquarters is in Hollister, CA, 30 miles south of San Jose; but few people know where Hollister is). It's a one person vehicle. It has a 60 mile range and can go up to 60 mph. Cost is $14-16,000 It's available in North America, Europe & Asia.

I've sat in a Sparrow, but I've never driven one. It's a comfortable, but spartan interior.

Corbin Motors deal mostly with motorcycles, but has this small electric vehicle business on the side (and good luck to them!).

Their main showroom is located 1.5 blocks from the 'South Park' area in South of Market in San Francisco. They are surrounded by a bunch of former dotcom buildings (and a few surviving dotcoms, like mine :) .

Nevermind, eevolution is Atlanta-based, though they're just a Corbin dealer.

What makes you think Corbin's in Atlanta? Last I heard (a couple years ago in a San Francisco Chronicle story) they were in Hollister, CA, the hinterland of silicon valley. Their website seems to confirm. I've seen a couple parked in SF, never seen one moving.

I saw a web interview about the sparrow once (wish I coudl remember where), man that thing looks cool. They also make other electric cars...

Check out Corbin Motors' Sparrow. It's a electric one-seater that costs about $14,900. It looks like something from a Richard Scarry book! ;-) It comes with a CD player and because it's small enough to be classified as a "motorcycle", DMV registration costs are cheaper and you can use motorcycle lanes and parking spots!

I've seen two in real-life. There's also a Corbin Motors showroom in San Francisco.

http://www.corbinmotors.com/sparrow.htm

looks electric only to me...

You can preorder the good looking Corbin Merlin now. Scheduled for production in late 2001, Merlin will be available as a year 2002 model with an estimated price tag of $17,900.

Its a 1 person vehicle, meaning that if you are driving you are 100% occupancy, so you get to use the carpool lane, and can bypass bridge tolls. Also since its so small, insurance is cheap (same as motorcycle insurance because it can't cause any damage to other cars) It also parks in motorcycle slots.

Here in California, every new supermaket, mall & anything with a big parking lot has special parking spots with EV chargers. So getting your amps is not hard unless you go on a long drive out of town. The Sparrow is basically a nice urban commuter car which uses no fossil fuels. Obviously its not a "family car"

That's what this is for...