slow ride...take it easy: an update on ZAP

Following up on a post from a few weeks ago...

From Tom Loftus and Brandy Warren in the C-J...

The phrase "slow lane" is about to take on a new meaning on some Kentucky roads.

Gov. Steve Beshear issued an executive order yesterday allowing low-speed electric vehicles on many of the state's roadways, acknowledging that he was acting in part in an effort to lure an electric car manufacturing plant to Kentucky....

Kentuckians with three- or four-wheeled electric vehicles will be able to get them licensed and drive on roads with speed limits of 45 mph or less...must meet federal safety standards for low-speed vehicles but placed no other significant restrictions on what the regulations should contain.

Beshear said one reason for his decision was to try to persuade a California-based electric car company called ZAP and its Kentucky partner, Integrity Manufacturing of Bullitt County, to locate a plant to make the cars in Kentucky....

But Aaron Bragman, an auto industry analyst in the Detroit office of Global Insight, an international economic-forecasting firm, said Kentucky should be skeptical.

"ZAP is really good at making big speeches and press announcements, but to date has not been very good at execution, follow-through and delivery to customers," he said.

He said the three-wheel ZAP model known as the Xebra had gotten poor reviews for "how it functions and its abilities to meet its stated performance."....