Eco Auto Inc

By Ray Sikorski | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor 7/9/07

Bozeman, Mont. - "So here's a guy in a diesel," says Ron Gompertz, looking over his shoulder at the truck looming next to us. It's not really necessary to look, because the growling diesel engine is nearly drowning him out.

"You wanna drag?" he asks me.

The question is an interesting one, not so much for its illicit overtones, but because it's being posed by the driver of a tiny, 1,200-pound Zenn electric car, which boasts a top speed of 35 miles per hour. The presumed competitor is a Ford F-250 Super Duty diesel pickup truck, which towers menacingly above us in the left lane.

The light turns, Mr. Gompertz hits the accelerator, and a surge of electrical zeal sends the little car flying down Bozeman, Montana's Main Street and around the next corner just before the next light changes.

"He just ran a red light to chase us," Gompertz says, brimming with glee. "Watch him as he pulls up ? he'll probably look down at us and make fun."

Gompertz owns Bozeman's EcoAuto, which sells the two-seater Zenn cars, electric scooters, and gas-powered, Mercedes-built Smart micro-cars. The race seems very amusing to him, but now the gurgling behemoth is hovering just above my shoulder. I take a timid glance up at the driver. He's not making fun ? just staring.

"This is the Montana culture," says Gompertz, a native of New York City. "Macho mobiles. This is the contrast. Look, he's got his big bars there [in front] to kill things with. It's Mad Max Road Warrior. ... This is the part of the Montana culture I don't get, the Neanderthal kind of thing....." continued

Complete story Link: Christian Science Monitor - Electric Cars in Big Sky Country.

Electric-car owners step off the gas.

By TED SULLIVAN Chronicle Staff Writer

Sick and tired of relying on foreign oil, Steve Titus fought high gas prices his own way: He developed a solar-powered electric car.

"The bottom line is it gives me energy independence," the Bozeman resident said. "I don't have to rely on oil anymore."

He can drive his vehicle, known as the Solar Bug, which he designed and manufactured himself, up to 20 miles a day on free energy provided by the sun. If he needs to plug in for a charge, it costs him a little more than a penny a mile.

Titus and six other electric-car owners, enthusiasts, developers and dealers drove their vehicles in downtown Bozeman on Friday in a parade-style display to promote electric vehicles. The cars, which travel from 25 to 45 mph, also will be shown today at Livingston's Northern Rockies Sustainability Fair.

Titus began developing his vehicle 15 years ago as a hobby, he said, and then began manufacturing and selling the vehicles for $10,000 as part of his company, Free Drive EV Inc. The vehicle is actually an electric all-terrain vehicle with a body built around it. Solar collectors are on the roof of the car to recharge the batteries.

"It's a renewable-energy car," Titus said. "I was tired of going to the gas station."

Like other electric-car owners, Richard and Rachel Weaver said they're proud that they are doing their part to help the environment. They also said their electric cars reduce noise pollution.

"They're quiet," Richard Weaver said. "I haven't used gas in over a month."

Weaver drives a small, electric pickup truck. He said it works to haul items while doing landscaping and maintenance work like a regular pickup truck.

"We use it for all our errands," Weaver said.

Ron Gompertz, owner of Eco Auto in Bozeman, said environmentally friendly vehicles and energy-saving devices are the wave of the future. He said global warming is a legitimate crisis. He said he believes the green economy will burst much like the computer, Internet and high-tech booms from the late 1970s to today.

"I think the green boom is the next giant economic boom," Gompertz said. "Clearly, people want to do the right thing and they want to save money."

Bozeman and Montana residents, whom have long been known for their large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, could be at the epicenter of the green boom along with Portland and Seattle, Gompertz said, because the area has a growing base of electrical engineers and people who want to protect the environment.

And with no need for maintenance checks and oil changes, he said, electric cars make sense.

"If we keep doing what we're doing and people become more familiar with electric cars, people will buy them," Gompertz. "More and more Americans are sick of paying $80 for gas once or twice a week. We don't need to be dependent on Venezuela and Middle Eastern oil."

KIDK TV

Idaho Falls TV News Coverage - Local news story from Idaho Falls on smart cars.

Little car, big assets

By Justin Post of The Montana Standard - 05/21/2007

Mark Reavis gets into his car like a pair of pants - one leg at a time.

As the owner of what appears to be Butte's smallest street-legal automobile, the big man's new vehicle has been the subject of gawking and fingerpointing in recent months.

"I"ve actually had people stop me in the middle of a turn, on the road, and say "what the hell is that?'" Reavis said. "Some guy (a stranger) even stopped me and made me give him a ride. He said 'I love these cars.'" The Butte resident purchased his tiny 2005 "Smart" car last winter from Eco Auto in Bozeman and joins an elite group of less than a dozen owners between Idaho and Montana, and roughly 700 throughout the United States, said dealership owner Ron Gompertz.

"The Smart car for me is the anti-Hummer and it talks beyond its efficiency at the gas level," he said. "Everything about it is environmentally friendly and we're finding people are passionate about this car." Manufactured in Germany by Mercedes-Benz, the vehicle's body panels - which are interchangeable - are made from recycled plastic and finished with non-toxic water-based paint.

And instead of shipping their products to the factory, contractors hired to build parts for the Smart car must set up shop inside the plant in an effort to reduce pollution, Gompertz said.

"It's a cluster-style factory," he said. "It's a very forward thinking concept and it really is a revolutionary vehicle on so many levels." For Reavis, whose last car was a Ford Explorer, purchasing the environmentally friendly car translates into a savings at the fuel pump, where costs are hitting new highs all the time.

The rig, which gets about 40 miles per gallon around town and roughly 60 on the highway, costs $20 to fill up. The three-cylinder, six-speed car has a top speed of about 85 miles per hour and is popular on the streets of European cities like Paris and Rome where fuel and parking are more expensive than in the United States.

The car is 8 feet long and has two bucket seats with enough room for two adults to sit comfortably - even someone like Reavis, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall.

"There's nothing funnier than seeing Mark get into a tiny Smart car," joked Gompertz. "I could not believe he actually bought one." Despite its small size, he said the cars are safer than most would assume, he said.

A high-tensile steel frame, however, surrounds the driver and passenger and helps to protect them during an accident, he said.

The Smart car caught Reavis' attention this winter when he and his wife, Dori Skrukrud, were driving in Bozeman. The couple took the car for a test drive and said they were impressed with how it handles in the snow and on icy roads.

"I loved it the minute I saw it," Skrukrud said. "To me it's like a puppy that's never going to get big." Reavis, 49, works as Butte-Silver Bow's historic preservation officer. He said people often razz him about purchasing such a progressive car when his job focuses on the past.

He said the car fits into his philosophy on life, however.

"My credo is live in the past, work in the present and think in the future," Reavis said.

Smart cars originated in the early 1990s as a joint venture between Swatch - the company that built those trendy watches in the 1980s - and Mercedes Benz. The two combined the first letters of their names with the word "art" for the name Smart.

The vehicles cost between $23,995 and $29,000.

Science teacher sets pace with electric car

By CLAIR JOHNSON Of The Gazette Staff - 05/22/2007

Rick Jones is proof that living "greener" is getting easier for the average Montanan - and it can be a lot of fun.

Jones drives an all-electric car that emits zero pollution and whose top speed is 25 mph. He charges his car, in part, with electricity generated by a solar-energy system at his house. The solar-energy system also feeds the grid when the Jones family doesn't need the power.

He pays for curbside recycling and hauls cardboard to a recycler. None of that seems to have cramped his style.

"It's been a change," Jones said. "It's a mind-set."

Jones, who has a master's degree in geology, teaches environmental science at the Senior High ninth-grade academy at Lincoln Center. He worked as a mining geologist until he became increasingly concerned about the environment and "just couldn't do it anymore," he said.

Jones hopes his "minor efforts" may give other people an incentive to make changes, too.

One of those changes has been the driving. In 2005, the Joneses bought a new Toyota Prius, an electric hybrid that gets up to 50 miles per gallon. "My wife drives the Prius," he said. "That was the first step toward this."

Jones drives to work downtown from his Heights home in one of two ZENNs in the state. The ZENN (Zero Emissions; No Noise) is an all-electric two-seater manufactured in Canada by ZENN Motor Co.

Jones bought the car from Eco Auto in Bozeman after seeing it while driving through town. "My wife and I thought a lot about it over the weekend," he said. "My wife said, 'It's cheaper than a mistress.' "

The ZENN lists for about $13,000. The sticker, which is still in the window, boasts 247 miles per gallon based on a conversion formula of 1 gallon equaling 33.5 kilowatts, or about 10 charges.

Jones figures it costs him between 9 cents and 27 cents a day to charge the ZENN. Six 12-volt batteries power the car, which has a range of up to 31 miles. The car can be 80 percent recharged in four hours, and fully charged in eight.

The ZENN meets safety standards, weighs 1,705 pounds and is a front-wheel-drive automatic. The car rolled off the assembly line in November, and so far Jones has driven it 315 miles.

The boxy, bright-blue three-door hatchback is ideal for urban diving, Jones said.

Because the car goes only 25 mph, Jones has an orange triangle, sign indicating a slow-moving vehicle, on the back. He has plotted alternative routes around town to bypass busier, faster streets.

"I try really hard to avoid Main and Sixth," he said.

Does his wife do the same when she drives the ZENN?

"Heck no. She just goes," Jones said. "But me, it's la-de-de. I'm just tooling."

Jones said his wife drives the ZENN to her spinning class while he drives it to work. They take it shopping and "to get a Blizzard now and then," he said. "Anything we can do in the Heights and downtown, we do with this."

Because the electric car is so new, Jones had to shop around for an insurance company before finding coverage for about $500 a year.

The Montana Legislature this year also passed a bill, which the governor signed, allowing for the operation of "medium-speed electric vehicles" that go 35 mph.

The Montana law may authorize Jones to drive 35 mph, but import agreements limit the ZENN to 25 mph, he said. If those import rules change, Jones said it's a simple computer adjustment to reprogram the ZENN to go faster. "It's quite capable of going 92 kilometers, which is about 55 mph," he said.

Jones got tax breaks on both the ZENN and the Prius, but that was only a small part of the reason for buying the eco-friendly cars, he said.

The two cars are among six vehicles in the Jones fleet.

"It's hard to say I'm environmentally minded when I have six cars," he admitted. "There's purposeful driving."

Parked in the driveway are the "ski vehicle," a 1995 Saab with 202,000 miles, and a 1966 Volkswagen Bug convertible, which Jones learned how to drive in and keeps under a cover. He parks the ZENN outside and plugs it in with an extension cord off the garage. On the street is a 1983 pickup truck with 197,000 miles, which Jones uses to haul cardboard to a recycling center.

"The most expensive ones get the garage," Jones said. "Everything that's paid for is outside." The Prius gets parked inside the garage next to a 2002 van the Joneses take camping.

The Joneses also are changing the way they consume energy at home. In March, they installed the solar-energy system. Jones said the system has reduced their carbon-based power needs by about 40 percent.

Red Lodge-based Sundance Solar Systems installed the 2-kilowatt system in March. Henry Dykema, owner of Sundance Solar, said the grid intertie enables solar power to flow to Jones' home and into the grid. Solar panels on the garage roof generate the power, which goes through a device that converts the electricity into a household AC current. There are no batteries, and the power is not stored, he said.

When the Joneses are using power at night to cook or watch television, they use electricity from the Northwest Energy grid. "The meter goes like everybody's," Jones said. When they're away or not using much power, solar power feeds into the grid.

A special net meter installed by NorthWestern Energy tracks the flow of electricity and gives Jones "credit" at retail rates for solar power he puts on the system. The meter runs forward and backward depending on whether electricity is flowing into the utility grid or out of it.

"We've used 186-kilowatt hours and generated 132 kilowatt hours," Jones said. "Jones Electric is on line."

The solar system cost about $15,000, of which about $7,000 came from a grant through the Universal Systems Benefit program. The program, established when the Montana Legislature deregulated Montana Power Co. in 1997, levies a fee on NorthWestern Energy customers. Residential customers pay about $1 a month. The money raised supports a range of energy programs, low-income, conservation and renewable generation opportunities, including net metering.

Dykema applies for the residential net metering program every year and receives enough money to install about four residential solar systems, he said.

Even with the grant, the payoff for a residential net metering system takes time.

"If you do the numbers, there's not such a huge or great benefit," Dykema said. The average consumer uses about 750 kilowatt-hours a month and the residential system generates between 200 and 300 kilowatts. The system saves a consumer about $25 a month, he said.

If saving money is the only reason for installing a solar system, the system isn't practical yet, Dykema said.

"It's coming, though. It's coming," he said. "You have to be someone like Rick Jones, who cares about doing the right thing. He's putting his money where his mouth is."

Smart Shoppe-The Medicine Shoppe uses Smart car to make deliveries

By Chris Steinbach Times-News writer - 05/22/2007

TWIN FALLS - People stare when Kent Jensen or one his employees at The Medicine Shoppe make deliveries.

"You drive somewhere and people follow you and stop you when you get out and ask all about this," Jensen said.

"This" is one of the two Smart cars he bought from Eco Auto in Bozeman, Mont. Like Mercedes Benz, Smart is a division of the company that has been known as DaimlerChrysler.

Jensen bought the first of his two 2005 Passions in March. He bought the second one last month. He paid about $23,000 apiece for the cars after watching Steve Martin drive one as Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the 2006 remake of "The Pink Panther."

"I thought it was so cool, those little cars," Jensen said. "If everybody drove one of these we could tell the Middle East to drink their oil."

The cars, which weigh about 1,600 pounds and are only eight-feet long, have three-cylinder engines and room for two passengers. They can reach speeds of 85 mph and get up to 60 miles per gallon.

"Besides looking cool, these make sense," said Jensen, who has owned his pharmacy for 10 years. His cars have stereos with CD players, air conditioning and plenty of head and leg room.

But the car wasn't wide enough for an automatic car wash. "This side over here did OK," Jensen said of the driver's side of the car. "But the other side, the brushes didn't hit it. They had to do it by hand."

That's a minor inconvenience when compared to the money he is saving on gasoline. And the cars have attracted plenty of attention for the pharmacy at 615 Filer Ave.

"Unless we go to bikini delivery girls, I don't think we're going to do anything that will cause a bigger stir," Jensen said.

Smart car drives auto design into the future

by KRISTIN KNIGHT - Ravalli Republic

What weighs 1,588 pounds and fits into the back of a pickup truck? It's not a four-wheeler or a snowmobile - this thing is meant for road cruising only. It's the smart 'fortwo,' a next-generation automobile designed to be the new city car.

You may have seen Robert and Carol May motoring around town in their spiffy red auto. In fact, the couple have been questioned at nearly every corner by intrigued onlookers.

"I don't think I could've gotten more attention if I landed in a flying saucer," said Robert of his experience driving to town for the first time.

"We were eating at Spice of Life and three squad cars showed up and surrounded the smart," Carol said. "I think probably everyone on duty was there that night. They were really interested."

* "One guy said, 'Oh yeah, I saw you come into town,'" Robert said.

Though the smarts are ever-present in Europe, where the Mays first fell in love with the car, they are a rarity in the U.S. The Mays own the first smart car in Ravalli County. It is one of three in the state of Montana.

They purchased the car from Eco Auto Inc. of Bozeman, but Robert drove all the way to Los Angeles to pick the car up from the G&K Automotive, Eco Auto's importer.

"The first-generation smarts were not meant for the U.S.," Robert said. "So G&K Automotive went through the process of getting it modified for U.S. regulations. I wanted to see the facility."

The two-seater has now sold more than 750,000 units worldwide since its introduction in 1998. It is considered to be the most fuel-efficient gas-powered car on the planet, getting 40 miles per gallon in town and 60 on the highway.

For the Mays, less is more. The 3-cylinder, 61 horsepower engine is all it takes to get them around.

"For a lot of the day-in day-out driving, a lot of our cars are overqualified," Robert said. "To go to the post office and back, with one or two people, this is all I need."

The smart is a joint venture between the Swatch Watch Company and Mercedes-Benz, thus giving the car its name: S-Swatch, M-Mercedes + ART.

"It's a little art car," said Carol.

She and Robert make up a designer and architect team, respectively, and plan on utilizing the car as a piece of art in their house once it's finished.

The car is engineered to be one of the safest small cars on the road with a 3-star crash rating.

"The silver part of the car is a Tridion hemispherical steel safety shell," Robert said. "It absorbs the brunt of an impact and is like putting on a helmet."

Robert explained that because the smart is so short in length, the odds of a car hitting the wheels in a side-impact collision are great.

"If a car hits the wheels, it sends the energy of the crash into the superstructure of the smart car," he said.

Sure it looks small, but take a seat inside the vehicle for a new and unique driving perspective. The interior feels surprisingly large, and because the car has such a short nose, it seems like you're going much faster than you are because you don't see the hood.

"The view from the front windshield is almost panoramic," Robert said.

Even though the smart's engine is governed to 86 miles per hour, Robert still received his first speeding ticket in 18 years while driving the smart.

"It feels like a mini-Porsche," he said. "It's zippy and sporty."

The side panels of the smart are made of recyclable plastic, and can be changed out for another color in just half an hour at smart centers in Europe.

"Long-term, I'd like to get a second set of panels," Robert said.

He explained that, in addition to the panels being recyclable, the paint used is water-based.

"They try to be as environmentally friendly as possible," he said.

But that's not the only reason the Mays fell in love with it.

"It's just fun," Carol said. "It looks like a car that 13 clowns would climb out of."

"It's sort of an anti-status object," Robert said. "It's an exotic car, but I get way more attention in this than the Porsche I used to have."

The base invoice price for a 2005 smart fortwo coupe is $22,650, and optional equipment is available. The destination charge is $750 for delivery to Montana.

Montana the first to recognize new electric vehicles

By WALT WILLIAMS Chronicle Staff Writer

HELENA - Two incentives aimed at making the state's roads a little greener have passed muster with lawmakers, and one established Montana as the first state in the nation to recognize a new category of electric vehicle.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed into law Monday a bill that will let "medium speed electric vehicles" travel up to 35 miles per hour on city and county roads. Such vehicles were previously lumped with golf carts and as a result were prohibited from traveling faster than 25 mph.

Also Monday, lawmakers in the Senate approved, 28-21, legislation creating tax credits for drivers who fill their gas tanks with biodiesel, though the bill has a way to go before becoming law.

The electric car bill was sponsored by Sen. Bob Hawks, D-Bozeman, and sought by several Bozeman-area residents, including Ron Gompertz, owner of Eco Auto.

Most city streets have a speed limit of 25 mph, but quite a few go up to 35 mph, Gompertz said. However, electric cars such as the ZENN (Zero Emission, No Noise) car were prohibited by law from going faster than 25 mph because they were put in the same class of vehicles as open-air golf carts, despite having many more safety features.

"So (the new law) makes driving an electric car like these cars practical for the first time," he said.

ZENN cars and similar vehicles use no fuel. They are battery powered, with their owners plugging them into an outlet when they are not in use. Such cars are made not for cross-country travel but for driving around town or making relatively short trips outside of town. They are manufactured by small, independent companies rather than the big automakers, so the new law should be a boost to the industry, Gompertz said.

Lawmakers in Washington state have passed a nearly identical bill but it has yet to be signed into law. Schweitzer?s signature Monday makes Montana the first state in the nation to recognize medium-speed electric vehicles as something new and different.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Together with "An Inconvenient Truth," Chris Paine's "Who Killed the Electric Car?" has been released on DVD. This is the fascinating and frustrating story of the birth and death of General Motor's EV1, the first modern electric car to be marketed by a US auto manufacturer. A must see for anyone interested in sustainable mobility. Please rent it or come by Eco Auto for a free loaner.

Ian Clifford, ZENNcars (formerly Feel Good Cars) C.E.O., with Chelsea Sexton, Executive Director, Plug-in America and former General Motors EV1 Specialist and Chris Paine, writer/director of the film, "Who Killed the Electric Car? at the ZENN factory.

Eco Auto cover story in the Big Sky Sun

The Smart car is hot! Recent features in the national media have raised the profile of what the New York Times called "The most unexpectedly entertaining driving experience I've had in my life."

The ZENN electric car recently earned a gold medal for best urban vehicle at the 2006 Michelin Bibendum competition for sustainable mobility. Here's ZENN posing in front of the Eiffel tower after winning the competition.

Eco Auto news is always in search of newer news on alternative personal transportation options, electric vehicles and low emmissions cars. Please send comments, corrections, suggestions and contributions to Ron Gompertz.