Ed and I went down to the Linden Hills Co-op, where Twin Cities ZENN is located to test drive a ZENN.
The ZENN is a fully electric car that’s powered solely on batteries and charged with a normal power outlet. They’re manufactured in Québec and sold all over the United States and the world but they’re illegal for use on most roads in Canada for the time being. (British Columbia just recently created law to allow them.)
Even though I had seen a video of a ZENN before driving it, when I turned the key I felt like the car hadn’t turned on yet and I cranked on the key an extra time. When it’s not moving it’s completely silent. When driving, I’m not sure if I’d say it’s a “zero noise” vehicle as it sounds like a small golf cart. Comparatively very quiet though.
It’s governed to a maximum of 25 M.P.H. to fit as a neighborhood electric vehicle. It’s meant for city driving. There is a law going through that if passed would change the limit to 35 M.P.H. The ZENN can run 35 M.P.H. with a software change.
I thought the speed would be very limiting but our trip had no problems. I was surprised that it had no problems accelerating as well. The only issue was being slower than other drivers on Lake Street near Uptown but it wasn’t a problem for me. Something I could get used to pretty quickly. It’s faster than most bikers who sometimes slow up that right lane of traffic too.
Ed posted a video of a stretch of Lake Street where I was going 25 M.P.H.:
We had a fun trip going around Minneapolis where I honked frequently. The horn seemed to be significantly louder than most car horns. Contrasting that with the fact the car barely made any noise seemed to take a lot of people off guard. That is, the people that weren’t already staring at us already — it turned a lot of heads.
Ed and I said that if we didn’t work in the suburbs it’d be a smart choice. They’re priced well and there’s barely any regular maintenance. No oil changes and no gasoline to buy. Just a battery replacement every few years or so and paying for the minimal costs of electricity to charge it. The ZENN takes about 8 hours for a full charge and 4 hours for an 80% charge. The range of the ZENN is about 35 miles on a full charge, plenty for a in city commute.
We had a fun time and took a bunch of photos. If your normal commute is within the city, I think it’s definitely worth taking one of these for a test drive.
Twin Cities ZENN
2813 W 43rd St
Minneapolis, MN 55410
612-279-2467
