
As oil prices continue to climb, consumers are increasingly looking to high-mileage alternative vehicles as a solution to their transportation woes. ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) Corporation, the country's most visible importer of tiny, electric commuter cars, offers seductively green options like the three-wheeled Xebra, the Obvio 828, and the ZAP-X: all purported to travel significant distances (from 40 to 350 miles) on a single charge, with price tags as modest as $10,000.
But let the buyer beware: An article by Randall Sullivan in this month's issue of Wired reports that the ZAP Corporation has swindled investors, failed to deliver on orders to franchises (in some cases reducing them to bankruptcy) and padded the pockets of its executives—all while continuing to tug environmentalist heartstrings through a savvy PR campaign that includes a bevy of attractive women called ZapGirls and appearances at high-visibility events like MacWorld.
ZAP representatives have since severed relations with Wired and declined to comment on many of the issues raised in the article, while launching a PR counter-campaign in favor of electric cars.
An unattributed article at ZapGirls.org called "Electric Cars and ZAP Under Attack" suggests that media outlets are rejecting electric cars in favor of big oil. In the case of Popular Science (and, it's safe to say, all reputable publications), that's far from accurate. We continue to cover all new promising, energy-saving automotive technologies [see the related articles box], but it's also our journalistic responsibility to call foul when the organizations we look to for solutions go awry.
Will hybrids make up more than 40 percent of the cars sold in the U.S. by 2015?
Will Chevrolet begin selling a vehicle based on the Volt sequential plug-in hybrid concept by the end of 2010?

Comments
Randall Sullivan the esteemed Wired article that is pumped onto this page by oil interests was written by someone known to plagerize and use any source that meets his criteria no matter how illegitimate.
For example:
Randall sullivan wrote a book called LAbirynth, its about Thug life in the streets of La and mainly covers the rap music industry and crooked LAPD back in the day of Tupac and Biggie.
http://www.amazon.com/LAbyrinth-Detectiv...
in his book randall explains and reinforces prior interveiws with a prison inmate whom allegedly worked very closely with sug knight a rap label representitive. the inmate mark hylland who insists he was present when suge knight put the hit out on smalls. hylland according to sullivan, says he met knight in a denny's parking lot where knight opened the trunk and passed out cash to a crooked lapd officer whom then gave it to hylland to pass to the man who would buy the gun used to kill biggie smalls.
Recently The La times released an apology to sean "diddy" combs whom was accussed of taking part in the set up of tupac shakur's assault
"“The Los Angeles Times apology is, at best, a first step,” according to a statement from Howard Weitzman, attorney for Combs, “but it doesn't undo the false and defamatory nature of the story, or the suspicion and innuendo that Mr. Combs has had to endure due to these untruthful allegations and the irresponsible conduct of this particular reporter. We have nothing further to say at this time.”
The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, among other problems.
The Web site claimed the documents were fabricated by a prison inmate with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.
The Times said its March 17 story was based on FBI records, interviews with people at the scene of the 1994 shooting, and statements to the FBI by an informant.
None of the sources was named."
That inmate one Mark Hylland is the same inmate who told Randall sullivan about the biggie murder set up.
This Goes to show that Randall will acuse someone of murder just because a crazy ex druggie Wannabe rapper told him it was so.
im wondering if most of his sources that are disapproving of zap are as valid as the inmate's claims.
This guy will write anything for a quick buck, how can you trust anything that he wrote.
LA times apologie
0 out of 3 people found this comment helpfulhttp://www.ocregister.com/articles/story...
Randall Sullivan the esteemed Wired article that is pumped onto this page by oil interests was written by someone known to plagerize and use any source that meets his criteria no matter how illegitimate.
For example:
Randall sullivan wrote a book called LAbirynth, its about Thug life in the streets of La and mainly covers the rap music industry and crooked LAPD back in the day of Tupac and Biggie.
http://www.amazon.com/LAbyrinth-Detectiv...
in his book randall explains and reinforces prior interveiws with a prison inmate whom allegedly worked very closely with sug knight a rap label representitive. the inmate mark hylland who insists he was present when suge knight put the hit out on smalls. hylland according to sullivan, says he met knight in a denny's parking lot where knight opened the trunk and passed out cash to a crooked lapd officer whom then gave it to hylland to pass to the man who would buy the gun used to kill biggie smalls.
Recently The La times released an apology to sean "diddy" combs whom was accussed of taking part in the set up of tupac shakur's assault
"“The Los Angeles Times apology is, at best, a first step,” according to a statement from Howard Weitzman, attorney for Combs, “but it doesn't undo the false and defamatory nature of the story, or the suspicion and innuendo that Mr. Combs has had to endure due to these untruthful allegations and the irresponsible conduct of this particular reporter. We have nothing further to say at this time.”
The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, among other problems.
The Web site claimed the documents were fabricated by a prison inmate with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.
The Times said its March 17 story was based on FBI records, interviews with people at the scene of the 1994 shooting, and statements to the FBI by an informant.
None of the sources was named."
That inmate one Mark Hylland is the same inmate who told Randall sullivan about the biggie murder set up.
This Goes to show that Randall will acuse someone of murder just because a crazy ex druggie Wannabe rapper told him it was so.
im wondering if most of his sources that are disapproving of zap are as valid as the inmate's claims.
This guy will write anything for a quick buck, how can you trust anything that he wrote.
LA times apology
0 out of 2 people found this comment helpfulhttp://www.ocregister.com/articles/story...
If Zap could truly live up to its claims everyone would have one, unless the stonecutters are at it again.
2 out of 2 people found this comment helpfuli've seen his exact comments on another blog as well. and many other comments seem to be coming from zap employees or a pr firm hired by them to defame anyone that reveals their company for the fraud they are.
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful