Unplugged and Driven

Electric-car Pioneer Gary Starr is wired again

Photograph from Unplugged Article - Gif image - 160 Kb

GARY STARR'S flashy black Tropica draws admiring looks and envious glances everywhere he goes, but the saucy little roadster's beauty is far more than skin deep. The prototype for a whole new breed of vehicle, it's the world's first affordable electric-powered sports car for mass production.

"The Tropica will do for the electric automobile industry what the Model T did for the gas automobile industry," Starr predicts. "It Is the first economical, fun, electric vehicle to be produced." That potentially shining future was a big part of the reason Starr walked away from U.S. Electricar earlier this summer. "I wanted to help establish a consumer-based electric vehicle," he explains, "and they were firmly set on another path," selling fleets of gas-powered vehicles converted to solar/electric power to utilities and other corporate customers.

Although he retains a sizable financial interest in the company he founded, and continues to do consulting work for Rlectricar, the amicable corporate divorce is final and Starr has aligned himself with Renaissance Cars of Palm Bay, Fla., which developed and is now ready to manufacture the Tropica plus three closely related models that share most of the same engineering but differ in body design.

Lacking such conventions as a transmission differential, steering column, carburetor, or fuel tank, the Tropica is powered by a bank of 12 six-volt batteries that can be charged from a standard 110-volt outlet. At full charge (six to eight hours) it will range up to 60 miles at speeds into the mid 50s, and a 90 minute recharge will restore 80 percent of the Tropica's power reserves. But none of this is apparent; what most notice are the car's sleek curves.

"People just love it," Starr bubbles, caught up in the enthusiasm of entrepreneurial evangelism. "'They don't know It's electric: they just think it looks cool." Moreover, the casual observer can hardly be expected to know the final zinger that Starr has ready to reveal: when the Tropica goes into full production in Florida this fall (at 100 units a month to start), the projected price for the sporty new car is a modest $15,000. A grudgingly admiring analysis by Car & Driver in April pegged operating costs at 1 to 2 cents per mile, plus around $800 to replace the battery pack somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 miles.

AN EXECUTIVE WITHOUT PORTFOLIO, Starr, who is a youthful 38, sits on the Renaissance board of directors, and Is concentrating on marketing the Tropica on the West Coast and abroad, using the widespread contacts he has developed as an ardent advocate of alternative energy-powered vehicles for the past dozen years. But with 20 dealers (two in California) already placing orders (2,600 are already in), Starr is soft-pedaling the sales aspect while drumming up investors to boost production.

Meanwhile, he is also promoting yet another alternative mode of transportation, a battery-powered, electric- drive bicycle. Developed by Alameda inventor Jim McGreen, the ZAP power system Is charged by conventional electricity and can propel the cycle up to 18 mph without pedaling (although self-propulsion remains available at the flip of a fingertip toggle switch). Battery/motor retrofit kits are selling briskly at around S600; a fully equipped bicycle is $950. Students, seniors, and environmentalist commuters are expected to make up the domestic market for the ZAP system, but that's small potatoes. "'The real market for this is International," Starr says as his gaze rises to the western horizon. He's thinking of the million of cyclists in China, and behind his smile, it's clear, a great many non-polluting wheels are spinning. Bruce Robinson