And then we have the Zenn all-electric cars, which the company’s specifications page says have a top speed (albeit limited by regulation) of 25 MPG, a range of 35 miles, and a base price between $12,750 and $14,700, depending on the model.

Which begs a couple of questions: What is the market for such vehicles in the US (or Europe, or Australia, or …)? How great an impact can/will they have on reducing our gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions?

I have to admit, I’m not sure how to view such vehicles, often called NEV’s (neighborhood EV’s). While I know full well what the per-mile benefits are, in terms of marginal consumption and emissions, I have a very hard time estimating how popular they would be under various gasoline prices.

The biggest hurdle for would be adopters is confidence that they could live with the speed and range limitations. My wife and I could do a pretty fair amount of our driving with such a vehicle. Most of our usual trips to local stores and restaurants, dentist and doctor visits, could easily be covered with a 35-mile round trip. But some of our travel would be either too close to the 35-mile limit to risk, or would be beyond it. Appointments with my allergist and our trips to area sporting events (not entirely lacrosse, mind you) would force me to use a “regular car”, even with no battery life given up to heating or cooling the passenger compartment. (Even if the 35-mile range would just cover the trip, the 25 MPH limit would be a show stopper because of the highway travel involved.) Trips to visit family in Pennsylvania would be completely out of the question.

We’re not a typical household, as we both work from home offices, though. I suspect that a lot of American families have one or more people who live close enough to work or school that they could get by with a Zenn car, with minimal impact to their lifestyle. But that’s a necessary, not sufficient, condition for they widespread adoption. The people making the buying decisions have to perceive that they could live with such a vehicle. Even at the relatively low price, buying a Zenn car is quite a gamble; if you wanted to re-sell it 6 months after you bought it, how hard do you think it would be to find a buyer?

And, as always, there’s the issue of alternatives. My beloved Scion xA cost me $14,200 last June, with automatic transmission. Currently, Toyota sells a Yaris three-door at a base price of $11,300. I suspect that the majority of American drivers would prefer to go with something like that, even with much higher gasoline prices than we’re seeing right now, and be free of the speed and range limits.

And that, in turn, leads to the next question: How much do the Zenn cars’ number have to improve for them to go from being a classic niche product to a widely accepted mainstream option?