ZENN and the art of persuasion: Ontario to permit electric LSVs on public roads
The Ontario government, after much reluctance, has finally decided it will allow low-speed electric vehicles on public roads, assuming certain safety requirements are met.
New rules will be introduced later this winter, and will require all LSVs to have windshield wipers, heating, defogging, doors, three-point seat belts, brakes on four wheels, safety glass, and a “slow moving” identification emblem on the back. They must also meet federal standards for occupant protection, can’t drive on roads faster than 50 km/h, and can’t carry children.
A company like Toronto-based ZENN Motor appears to meet all those requirements, though there’s enough ambiguity around “federal standards for occupant protection” that it’s difficult to get excited until the final rules are released.
“Until they clarify the definition and standards applicable, then we don’t know what we’re measuring up to,” said ZENN CEO Ian Clifford.
Fact is, Transport Canada seems to have a hate-on for ZENN. The federal department, in an unprecedented and surprising move, posted video of LSV crash tests (including ZENN cars) on its Web site that appear aimed at tainting LSVs as unsafe for public roads. Clifford said the video appears without any context or explanation of how the tests were conducted. “They’ve never done something like this before,” he said. “It’s crazy, and it’s an old crash test.”
I would add that it’s unprofessional. Besides, I don’t think anybody believes that an LSV will stand up well if it drives at full speed into a brick wall or is sideswiped by an SUV. What most people do believe is that they’re not any less safe than driving a bicycle or motorcycle or scooter on a public road, which is allowed.
Tags: low-speed electric vehicles, LSVs, ZENN
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
December 6th, 2008 at 5:07 am
[...] ZENN and the art of persuasion: Ontario to permit electric LSVs on public roads [...]
December 6th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I have been to communities in the U.S., where LSVs are used. As a result there are no behaviours on the part of any group, such as the described crash test videos, that don’t appear biased, tainted silly, you pick the negative descriptive. Speeds on inner community roads should be controlled certainly slower – safer. No one said highway! The delay in Ontario strikes this regular voter as part of a campaign to prevent any kind of alternate powered vehicle other than the tradition car from moving people from A to B. I support the Zenn because it is here now. If adjustments to the product are needed or wanted, than this company’s product, production and systems that are up and running could be adjusted when assisted to do so in the same spirit other industries receive monies and other supports. To start any kind of talk once everyone finds a common opening on the schedule of all stakeholders to discuss developing something is also a naked code for more delay. When the Zenn can get on the roads of Ont they will adjust their future products because other competitors will force the matter due to the money to be made. As well as solid careers and jobs for their employees.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Thanks so much for this news. It’s been painful how slowly Ontario has been moving on this and it still looks like they are being far too paranoid about safety. It seems ridiculous to me to say that children shouldn’t be able to ride in these when they can ride around on the back of somebody’s bicycle. And I checked out your link that discusses the safety study that was done by the NRC. It looks like the writers of that report have picked up Transport Canada’s theory that the fact that LSVs look like cars will some how translate into other vehicle drivers behaving in some way that could possibly lead to more accidents and make driving in them even more dangerous than riding a bicycle. How absurd. They don’t give any examples of what this hypothetical behaviour might be. Or any real world examples. The report is shockingly unscientific. It is full of phrases like “may be dangerous…” or “risk is unknown” but then is followed by a confident list of what should be implemented to get the industry to spend all kinds of money on making improvements to prevent things that in fact have not been shown to be problems for sure! But the report is worth looking at for all the info they collected on the industry and pilot projects and insurance, etc. Thanks again for the posting. I’ll add a link to your post from my blog: http://causalitybrunch.blogspot.com/ in the next few days.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:12 am
As is often the case, government lags years away from the reality of the day. I can’t help but think that they are being extremely paranoid with regards to anything that challenges the status quo with the automobile industry and our cultural biases towards a very irresponsible vehicle culture. LSV’s are a disruptive force in the marketplace because they are both game changing and innovative.
Unfortunately, the game is supposed to rest firmly with the incumbents, and we are supposed to wait for them to supply innovation. And in today’s market meltdown, we’re also supposed to reward them for failure because they’re too big to go under.
So here’s a light, fuel efficient vehicle appropriate for urban commuting, and they blame ZENN for any real or imagined safety concerns? Why doesn’t the benchmark now change so that LSV’s become the standard from which LARGE vehicles are judged. Why should we use single occupancy SUVs (and other large vehicles) as the norm? Maybe now that LSV’s are available Transport Canada should issue a warning about the UNSAFE MAINSTREAM marketplace! Warning: Too many big, heavy, overpowered, underutilized vehicles on the market!
The world is upside down…
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
It seems the government has removed the offending video.
The website http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/lsv.htm now shows:
Dear Visitor,
Thank you for visiting the Transport Canada Web site.
The Web page you are looking for was not found.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Nope it’s still there. quite graphic.. http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/safevehicles/lowspeed/video/index.htm
Makes you wonder though if there’s not some merit to TC’s argument. Did you SEE the passengers?