Today was the Stanford EV Rally.. it had a lot of people there and a great time was had by all.
The Triac and it's cousin the pickup truck named 'Buckshot' were there http://greenvehicles.com
I got to touch them, not sit in them, not drive them, and I got to talk with a couple Green Vehicles people.
It looks even better in person than in the pictures. It felt solid, the interior looked real nice.. a strange thing is there's a 5 speed transmission with reverse.. uh, that's not exactly required for an EV, especially reverse since you can do that electronically. On the other hand a transmission is normal and comfortable to people and it can be useful in some situations even if in most cases the thing is left in 2nd or 3rd gear.
It is a two seater and very compact, that is the seating looked ample but I mean the whole vehicle is compact. There's a cargo area behind the seats. I don't remember if there's any kind of hatchback (I think not) and instead you access the cargo area through the seating.
He said they'd prefer to be doing a four wheeler but the investment required to pass DOT certification is a big hurdle. We also talked about ZAP especially a comment I'd seen in the Xebra_EV group on yahoo groups.. a couple weeks ago they showed the Triac at a public gathering in Oregon, and someone on the Xebra_EV group I think got to drive it, and then posted on that group the Triac is what they all had wished the Xebra would be. He was a little bit not liking being compared to the Xebra but that was the Xebra_EV group so of course a Xebra owner is gonna compare the Triac with the Xebra. In any case the Xebra and ZAP in particular did open the door for vehicles of this nature, a little regulatory hole through which an alternative vehicle can effectively make it to market.
The Buckshot is a three-wheeled pickup truck. The wheel arrangement is one in front, two in rear, unlike the Triac which is two in front. The pickup has a slight cargo area behind the seats and otherwise looks utilitarian in the cab. The bed has sides which fold down and I didn't check whether the bed lifts.
