That’s something you don’t see everyday 

"Kiltedpadre" (kiltedpadre) 01/05/2019 at 22:01 • Filed to: None

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I can honestly say I’ve never actually seen one before.

Anyone here need an electric smart knockoff?

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bhtooefr > Kiltedpadre 01/05/2019 at 22:11

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There’s something just off about the instrument cluster using Tahoma and Arial as the fonts.

(I’m guessing it’s running WinCE, which a few years back seemed almost like the official embedded OS of China.)

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Kiltedpadre 01/05/2019 at 22:20

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The hell? Huh. Wikipedia says that it’s a Chinese car they brought to California and put an electric motor and battery in. And you could have the luxury of a Chinese car for the low low price of... $32,995. Or about what a unicorn base model Tesla 3 costs in 2018 after you take inflation into account.

facw > Kiltedpadre 01/05/2019 at 22:33

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Former Dodge dealer where I used to live lost their franchise in the Chrysler bankruptcy sells Wheegos (they had been a Dodge dealer going back to the early days, and had sold horse drawn carriages before that).

https://pritchardautomotive.com//newandusedcars.aspx?ClearAll=1&MakeID=2430&~

I’m honestly shocked it still sells them (though all the ones on their page are 2010s, maybe they never updated their list, or never actually sold them?)

Svart Smart, traded in his Smart > bhtooefr 01/05/2019 at 22:39

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OMG this is amazing.

bhtooefr > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 01/05/2019 at 22:58

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And this thing barely made sense at all given that the Nissan LEAF was also available at the same time... for $215 less for a base model.

Granted, this thing had more range than a LEAF (due to a bigger battery, 30 kWh instead of the 24 kWh of the LEAF) , but still.

But yeah, there was a lot of desperation for a good EV that put shit like this into the market, in the wake of the original California compliance cars like the EV1 being taken back and crushed.

Kiltedpadre > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 01/05/2019 at 23:04

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I just can’t imagine looking at this thing new and thinking it seemed like the car to buy. It may beat the Leaf in terms of range, but I’ll take a Nissan over a converted EV Chinese smart knockoff.

Kiltedpadre > bhtooefr 01/05/2019 at 23:05

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Oh lord, I was so blinded by the wrap that I missed that there was weirdness in the gauges too.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Kiltedpadre 01/05/2019 at 23:07

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Leaf also beats it in both usable interior space and lack of looking like a complete tool

Kiltedpadre > facw 01/05/2019 at 23:09

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I’m curious which is the case. Hopefully if they never sold any unfortunate soul that buys them gets new tires in the deal.

The instrumentation would look at home in a powerwheel. I like that “pegging the speedo” occurs at about 42.

Kiltedpadre > facw 01/05/2019 at 23:14

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My uncle has a dealer that suffered a similar fate decades ago. It was a blacksmith shop started by my great great grandfather that also sold horse drawn carriages. They were the first Dodge and later Desoto dealer in the area. When the interstate came through Dodge told my great grandfather he should move to a new location closer to it and they’d build the building if he bought the land. He didn’t want to leave Main Street.

Now it’s one step above a buy here pay here lot with a service center attached. 

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > Kiltedpadre 01/05/2019 at 23:34

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This gets really nerdy on them.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Kiltedpadre 01/05/2019 at 23:38

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buy it and start a wheego owners club with Robert Dunn

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Kiltedpadre > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/06/2019 at 00:38

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I do tend to like weird cars, but I don’t think I’ll be joining that club.

facw > Kiltedpadre 01/06/2019 at 01:47

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Hmm, so as of the July 2018 Google Street View:

So that’s four of the six on the website accounted for. I’m guessing these didn’t sell well.

I wonder if Wheego gave them them some special arrangement though, I can’t imagine sitting on a car for 8 years is ever the right move for a dealer, no matter how much you’d lose by selling. Unless somehow they have an ongoing supply of 2010 Wheego WHIPs.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Kiltedpadre 01/06/2019 at 07:31

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Aging Wheels has an awesome Youtube channel, check it out, he’s done some hilarious videos on his ownership of his Wheego! (He also has a Saab 96 and a Trabant for reference, so clearly he’s awesome! :P)

MuchWagon > Kiltedpadre 01/06/2019 at 08:08

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Would be troubling if we did.

Kiltedpadre > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 01/06/2019 at 09:13

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I saw one of his on the Wheego awhile back. I really need to watch more of his stuff.

bhtooefr > Kiltedpadre 01/06/2019 at 10:56

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OK, so what those are is the Low Speed Vehicle (or maybe medium speed vehicle) version of the Wheego Whip. (The vehicle in the OP was the LiFe version, which was a “real car”.)

In the late 1990s, the NHTSA enacted a regulation, FMVSS 500 Low Speed Vehicles, essentially intended to allow 25 mph versions of golf carts to be used on the roads, almost entirely intended for things like Florida retirement communities and m aintenance/security people on large campuses. Think things like this, one of the GEM cars (I believe this is a DaimlerChrysler-era one, but they’re still around under Polaris ) :

Also, note that this was right in the midst of California’s original ZEV mandate, so you had things like the GM EV1 , the original RAV4 EV , and a few other compliance EVs like the Ford Ranger EV , meant to fulfill that mandate, which were produced at massive losses, and almost all were leased . There were also a few more experimental EVs done by EV specialist companies, sometimes conversions of existing cars, sometimes goofy-ass shit like the Corbin Sparrow (apparently Mike Corbin is trying to make a second-generation Sparrow, so there’s actually a website for that, even though the first-gen was discontinued in 2003, and then resurrected by another company in 2005 ) :

So, then, in the early 2000s, the automakers decide to, for the most part disappear their expensive compliance cars and where possible crush them, instead of letting them be privately owned . By that point some of the experimental EVs died off, too. And right after this, in 2004 , there’s an oil crisis, everyone panic.

The trick is that most people who wanted to make an EV had no idea how to make a car that met safety regulations. So, some designs had three wheels (like the Corbin Sparrow pictured above , that was resurrected as the Myers NmG , and the ZAP Xebra , a Chinese three-wheel Daewoo Matiz clone converted to electric) to fall under motorcycle regulations, avoiding almost all safety regs.

However, if you wanted four wheels , there was a thing around “neighborhood electric vehicles” - this is just electric FMVSS 500 Low Speed Vehicles. Sometimes it was beefed up golf carts, like the GEMs, sometimes it was French light quadricycles converted from diesel to electric, like the ZENN , sometimes it was 1980s Soviet kei cars (yes, that was a thing ) converted to electric, like the OKA NEV ZEV (and yes, you can buy one new today, or you can buy a kit car version if you want to go faster... actually, I think I need to write this fucker up, and I kinda want one tbh even though it’ll be horrifying ), and sometimes it’s Chinese (or Indian) stuff actually built from the ground up as an EV (and often detuned to be legal in the US), like the new unsold Wheego Whips that facw found.

Y ou also had some attempts at... not really cars by the American definition , but legally certified as cars, with things like the TH!NK City (a Norwegian car with Ford investment) and the Wheego Whip LiFe linked in the OP. They were “freeway capable”, but really, you wouldn’t want to take them anywhere near any freeway.

But, really, all of that stuff was in the early 2010s, and the LEAF and Volt existed. OK, sure, a Wheego Whip LiFe (or a Coda, which had far more of a claim of being an actual car performance and capability-wise ) had longer range , but you could get a Nissan LEAF, from a real established non-Chinese automaker, with far better quality,   for the same money, at the same time. That basically killed almost all of this shit off.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Kiltedpadre 01/06/2019 at 11:00

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Definitely!

Kiltedpadre > bhtooefr 01/06/2019 at 13:01

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Thanks for the extra info. I was aware of some of the regulations that had let these through and some of the efforts to make the concept more workable with three wheelers that bypassed some of the safety regulations. Definitely not to the extent that you do though, and I always enjoy learning about these types of exercises.

I’m not curious enough to throw money at a Russian kei car kit, but I’d definitely hop in for a ride/drive if I was given the chance.

On the other hand the Corbin Sparrow is a vehicle that peaks my weird car interest. If the right opportunity came about at the right time I would consider buying one. I’m also one of the folks that would’ve actually considered an Elio down payment if it had ever actually looked like it might’ve made production.