Scratching my head today as I look at the 5 per cent jump in the share price of ZENN Motors, the Toronto-based maker of low-speed electric vehicles. I guess the market is excited about the announcement today that ZENN vehicles have been cleared for sale in Canada by Transport Canada. Cleantech.com has the story here.

I’m perplexed because it’s like jumping a hurdle only to reach a wall. It’s like a wireless carrier being able to sell Apple’s iPhone in Canada but not have it operate on its network. The only province in Canada that currently lets low-speed electric vehicles on the roads is British Columbia. Ontario, a key market, continues to drag its feet. Meanwhile, ZENN has an enormous U.S. market to sell into — all those gated communities and urban dwellers represent a large chunk of potential purchasers. Even if Canadians could truly drive a ZENN car in Ontario, the market is somewhat limited compared to the United States.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see these little cars zipping around the streets of Toronto. I’m angry at the Ontario government for not moving swiftly on this front. I also think ZENN’s LSVs play an educational role around the idea of plug-in cars — both for the public and for utilities that need to understand the impact on the electricity system. But come on, today’s announcement doesn’t justify the excitement. ZENN’s financial success will be proven in the U.S. market — Canada is a nice have that won’t have much of an impact on the larger picture.

Scratching my head today as I look at the 5 per cent jump in the share price of ZENN Motors, the Toronto-based maker of low-speed electric vehicles. I guess the market is excited about the announcement today that ZENN vehicles have been cleared for sale in Canada by Transport Canada. Cleantech.com has the story here.

I’m perplexed because it’s like jumping a hurdle only to reach a wall. It’s like a wireless carrier being able to sell Apple’s iPhone in Canada but not have it operate on its network. The only province in Canada that currently lets low-speed electric vehicles on the roads is British Columbia. Ontario, a key market, continues to drag its feet. Meanwhile, ZENN has an enormous U.S. market to sell into — all those gated communities and urban dwellers represent a large chunk of potential purchasers. Even if Canadians could truly drive a ZENN car in Ontario, the market is somewhat limited compared to the United States.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see these little cars zipping around the streets of Toronto. I’m angry at the Ontario government for not moving swiftly on this front. I also think ZENN’s LSVs play an educational role around the idea of plug-in cars — both for the public and for utilities that need to understand the impact on the electricity system. But come on, today’s announcement doesn’t justify the excitement. ZENN’s financial success will be proven in the U.S. market — Canada is a nice have that won’t have much of an impact on the larger picture.

It’s been a long time coming, but Ballard Power is finally reading the tea leaves and realizing that the dream of a fuel-cell car powered by hydrogen is a dream that only a million-dollar prototype can occupy. The Vancouver-based fuel cell company, an industry pioneer and leader, confirmed today that it was in talks with part owners Daimler AG and Ford Motor Co. about, well, it didn’t say exactly. But we know it’s generally about “strategic alternatives,” and it’s likely about selling off the auto unit so that Ballard can focus on forklifts and power generation. I guess the market has been wishing for this for a long time, because the confirmation sent Ballard’s stock up 13 per cent today.

Now, how do we read this? Perhaps it’s not the death of the fuel-cell car, particularly if Daimler or Ford do take over the business. It kind of makes sense, at least at this point, that the auto companies embrace and drive forward the fuel-cell approach from hereon in. Failing that, the market is not going to happen. Ballard has done a good job lowering the cost of its fuel cells, though there’s still a long way to go. But there are other factors beyond its control — infrastructure, storage, standards, regulation, progess with competing technologies. The auto manufacturers are in a better position, given their scale, to influence these factors.

I can say one thing, however. As an avid reader — and generator — of news related to clean technologies, there is considerably more hype and excitement these days about the potential for electric vehicles powered by batteries/ultracaps than fuel-cell vehicles powered by hydrogen. The recent announcement from Shai Agassi re: the $200 million in private equity raised for his Project Better Place is a case in point. This is a big chunk of change aimed at supporting a major shift in the way we buy, sell and power vehicles, not unlike earlier ambitions for fuel-cell vehicles. The difference, however, is that momentum is on the side of battery technology and the infrastructure to support it needs to be extended and upgraded, instead of created from scratch. This isn’t to say Agassi’s vision of the future is a slam dunk — I’ve got some problems with his mobile phone analogy and the issue of lithium availability, which I’ll be addressing in a later post — but I do think the battery approach bypasses a couple of steps that makes hydrogen fuel-cell an inefficient choice for mass transportation. I also think millions of “smart” electric cars plugged into the grid can offer an extremely valuable way of managing electricity supply and demand and smoothing out peaks.

I’d be more than happy to host comments on the fuel-cell versus battery/EV debate on this post. I always love a good scrap.

Is EEStor’s ultracapacitor-based storage device for real? Will it meet its ambitious — some would say unrealistic — claims? And even if it does, can we realistically expect the product to just instantly change the market? After all, developing a game-changing technology is one thing, but the process of changing the game takes a lot of time and money. Given that we haven’t heard a lot about EEStor, other than the few articles that have appeared over the past two years (including my own), and other than the speculation that continues to be rampant on the Net, I think it’s fair at this point to expect a status report from the company. I know Dick Weir, EEStor’s CEO and co-founder, never wanted the publicity — but the cat has been out of the bag for long enough now. Time to fess up.

Personally, I’ve been hopeful over the past two years that EEStor is indeed for real. But I’m beginning to have my doubts now. I just confirmed that Morton Topfer, former vice-chairman of Dell and director with AMD, left EEStor’s board about five months ago. Not sure why… but it begs the question. Also, a well-placed person within the Kleiner Perkins circle told me recently that he’s not convinced EEStor’s energy storage system will work as claimed.

The problem with silence is that it leaves people like myself speculating. Why do we speculate? I don’t know about you but I can’t help it. I want EEStor to work, and I crave more information. But still we have no Web site. No comments from Kleiners or the CEO. Nothing.