City Commuters in China Get Small EV Sedan Sparkee

ZAP an automotive company incorporated in California and headquartered in Santa Rosa, California announced that Jonway Auto, its subsidiary in Zhejiang, China is launching a small EV sedan, Sparkee for city commuters in China.

Focusing on the growing demands for electric vehicles (EVs) in China driven by Chinese government policies, ZAP and Jonway Auto developed a small EV sedan designed for city driving.

Due to the high levels of air pollution in the large Chinese cities, the Chinese government has changed its subsidy policy to scale based on the range a EV can achieve, instead of the former policy which was based on the amount of lithium batteries used.

EVs with less than 100 km range receive a subsidy of 30,000 RMB (~USD$5000) and this scales up to 60,000 RMB (~$10,000) for EVs with range over 200 km.

Sparkee comes in two models, the lead acid version which has a lower range of 120km and the lithium version which has a longer range of more than 180km between charges.

Sales of Sparkee in China is intended primarily for the densely populated urban areas where many of the city governments have to pay penalties for exceeding pollution indices and government vehicles that have emissions are forced to stay off the roads on “red alert” days.

Jonway Auto is gearing up production to deliver several thousand of these vehicles for the Chinese market by June 2014 and will be working with local dealers who see a huge market.

Sparkee is priced between US$7000 to US$12,000 depending on the motor size and battery type as well as capacity.

Additional information about ZAP Jonway is available at http://www.zapworld.com.