The Tango

ELECTRIFYING TIMES reporters and photographers recently attended the EVAA Electric Transportation Industry Conference - Battery - Hybrid - Fuel at the Convention Center in Sacramento, California.

The Exhibition Hall afforded 500 attendees and press, including Electrifying Times staff, the opportunities to witness and test-drive several battery, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles that will be available to the public in the near future. The ETI Conf. provided personal interviews with industry leaders and their clean green transportation technology and vehicles.

Several major announcements were made at the Exhibit Hall a during Media Day on Wednesday Dec 12th, 2001. Toyota announced the RAV4-EV sports utility vehicle would be made available to the public, for sale or as a lease transaction. The previous 700 RAV4-EV's were only available to fleet customers.

DaimlerChrysler unveiled the Natrium, a new fuel cell vehicle, based on the deluxe Town & Country minivan. 

eMotion,  a Georgia based new company, unveiled the Smart Electric, based on the DaimlerChrysler Smart car. Don Panoz, chairman and founder of eMotion indicated the assembly plant will be located in Hinesville, GA and plans to have 2500 Smart EV's on the road in and around Atlanta as station commuter cars by 2006. (Interview with Don Panoz. PDF)

And last but not least a Spokane, WA based, Commuter Cars Corp. unveiled a peppy new commuter EV called the Tango. The Tango is 6" narrower than the Honda Gold Wing motorcycle and seats 2 people (one behind the other). The Tango doubles the capacity on freeways, quadrupling the capacity of parking, standing 1/4 mile in 12 seconds at over 120 mph and travel from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. The Tango has a 80 miles range and due to its low center of gravity, can out perform most sports cars in autocross. With high-tech batteries, range could exceed 150 miles per charge. The Tango's on-board charger is designed to charge to 80% in under 10 minutes if 400 amp AC.