Dec 30 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Scott Learn The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

With two adults on board, the three-wheel Zap truck conquers Portland's Mount Tabor with no problem, nears 40 mph on the downhill side of Northeast Glisan Street and burns not a single drop of gasoline in the process.

It also rides rough during a reporter's test drive, gets a Dodge Ram nearly stuck to its back bumper as it struggles to hit 30 mph on an uphill stretch and almost runs out of juice just as it lurches back into the EcoMotion dealership on Sandy Boulevard.

EcoMotion, Oregon's first all-green auto dealer, is trying to help resurrect the electric car. Three months in, it's clear the dealership has picked a tricky time to do it.

Higher gas prices and concerns about global warming have piqued interest in green transportation. And electric cars are getting huge buzz, with actor George Clooney and other celebrities dropping roughly $100,000 to get into Tesla's all-electric roadster, set to debut next year.

But as a test drive shows, today's affordable electric cars are far from Clooney-ready, making them a tough sell even in eco-friendly Portland.

Call it the Model A stage: They're slow -- in part because of federal red tape limits top speeds to 25 mph for some models, in part because of battery capacity. They're novel for drivers, bankers and insurance agents. And they're small, appealing to a niche market.

They're also low-maintenance, exhaust-free and eligible for tax credits.

EcoMotion is trying to draw on that upside to expand local demand, targeting business users and, with growing success, green-minded drivers who stick to city streets, while waiting on a new generation of highway-legal electric vehicles that seems tantalizingly close.

"We thought people would be busting down our doors," said Richard Snyder, EcoMotion's CEO and a former Crown Pacific executive. "It's picking up all the time, but that's taken a while. We're at the front end."

Snyder's boss, the investor behind the new dealership, is Portland-area homebuilder Don Morissette. His marching orders were to find a way to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

The discussion quickly moved to electric cars. Snyder remembers his excitement mounting as he flipped through the May 2007 edition of Vanity Fair, which featured electric vehicles.

"There were all these great looking cars, Teslas and Tangos and UEVs," he says. "It was like, 'We want all of that.' But out of a pack of 10 cars, only two were actually being manufactured."

That dearth infuriates electric car boosters, who accuse General Motors and other big car makers of ditching perfectly good battery-powered cars in the 1990s for fear of sabotaging the gas car gravy train.

General Motors bailed on the EV1. Toyota's discontinued RAV-4 EV remains a hot commodity in California's used-car market and easily zips at freeway speeds. (Watch the 2006 documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car," for more.)

But Snyder and crew were dealing with the here and now. To supplement electric cars, they decided to sell used "Smart Way" cars certified as low-emission gas sippers by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

They also ordered a suite of all-electric cars and scooters powered by traditional lead-acid batteries, most manufactured in China, none freeway legal, none from traditional automakers.

In September, they opened their doors.

To a visitor, the dealership's product mix gives it the feel of a Hollywood movie set. Out front, by the picture windows along the street, are the all-electric vehicles, cute as buttons, popping with surprising colors and curves.

Backstage, packed tight in the warehouse of the former Chevy dealership and flooring mart, are used Volkswagen diesels, Toyota Priuses, hybrid Hondas and PT Cruisers.

"If you come in to shop, you may conclude that you're not ready to go all electric," says Edie Lander, EcoMotion's general counsel. "But maybe you'd like a similar vehicle that's still green, or maybe could run on biodiesel."

That backup business model is helping a lot, Snyder says. The dealership is selling 20 to 30 Smart Way vehicles each month, up to double the electric car total.

With the electric cars, some of the challenges are maddeningly bureaucratic.

Take the Chinese-built electric sedan produced by Miles Automotive, headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. It looks like a small Subaru wagon. It feels solid. It's the Cadillac of today's relatively affordable electric cars, the dealership says, with a base price of $17,200.

But it's limited to 25 mph tops -- even though it could go much faster and has passed safety tests in Europe -- because of U.S. laws adopted in 1998 to govern retirees taking golf carts onto city streets. The speed restriction is a problem, because 35 mph keeps you comfortably moving on almost any city road.

Montana and Washington state have passed laws exempting sturdier electric vehicles such as the Miles sedan. But Miles officials said they won't allow higher speeds until the federal government agrees to the state overrides.

Meantime, EcoMotion is working to sell the car to fleet users, such as government agencies, universities or businesses with big campuses, that don't want cars to go fast anyway.

So far, the dealership has only sold three electric scooters -- September in Oregon isn't a great time to debut scooters. Some of the highest-priced and most exotic-looking all-electric cars haven't moved at all.

EcoMotion's unexpected success: the Zap Xebra, a tiny, four-door sedan.

It's made in China, and has only been in production since June 2006. It sometimes has waves in its body panels. And the dealership has to tinker with it, including making sure it's sealed tight against Oregon rains.

But it's a three wheeler with a center headlight, so it's classed as a motorcycle, putting it outside the 25 mph cap. With the help of six lead-acid batteries, it hits the 35 mph sweet spot.

The Zap sedan and truck are the dealership's biggest electric sellers, up to 10 a month, making EcoMotion one of Zap's leading sellers of late. (A Salem dealership was Zap's first customer in 2006.) Fifty more are due to arrive in January.

The cars seem to be drawing true believers, Snyder said, people who want to reduce their emissions now. It's pretty cheap: $10,000 for the sedan. In-town commuters like it. Many buyers are using it as a second car.

Among the customers is Carla Grant, an organic gardener from Northeast Portland who bought a "kiwi green" Zap truck for $12,500 to make her gardening rounds.

She wanted a low carbon footprint. Her husband agreed after watching "Who Killed the Electric Car," which also blames consumers for being too picky about what they drive.

In her research into electric cars, "I'm like, 'Why doesn't everyone know about this?' " Grant said. "It's not new. It's been around for ages."

In practice, the truck has limitations, Grant said: It's run out of juice on the road a couple times. It can start to lose power after about 15 miles, 10 miles below the manufacturer's stated range. She's lucky to hit 25 mph if the battery is low and she's going uphill.

But in most conditions it hits 40 mph, she says. Her clients usually don't mind her plugging in at their houses to top off. And it's a great conversation starter, especially with kids.

Plus, it costs her less than $10 a month for the electricity.

Snyder figures EcoMotion can expand that urban-car market and position itself as the place to go for new or used green cars when beefier models hit the streets.

Exactly when that'll happen is up in the air. The auto industry is famous for both releasing sizzling prototypes of electric vehicles and for delaying getting them to market.

The Chevy Volt, a plug-in, battery-powered car with a gas engine that also helps charge the battery, is due by 2010, highway-ready and with an all-electric range of 40 miles. But the executive in charge recently told Forbes magazine his confidence in meeting that deadline was only 5.5 on a scale of 10. Toyota is wavering on its plug-in Prius hybrid.

Miles Automotive plans to present its highway-ready XS 500 sedan in early 2009, with a maximum range of 120 miles and speeds of up to 80 mph. But spokeswoman Kara Saltness said the price has to hit the low $30,000s, "or we won't be bringing it to production."

Honda and others are testing fuel cell cars, which convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity. Zap has plans for a souped-up three-wheeler that it says could hit highway speeds.

Morissette, EcoMotion's owner, says he's encouraged by increasing sales of the Zap car, which is likely to remain far cheaper than the full-scale vehicles. Once those highway-authorized cars are ready, EcoMotion could get rights to sell some of them new. It could pick up others used, say Volts or fuel-cell Hondas.

Morissette says he's willing to be patient with his investment, to a point.

"We're not in it for charity -- we want to make a profit," he says. "But we continue to be excited."