Neighborhood Electric Vehicles

The Council took another great action this morning. This one allows more low and medium-speed “neighborhood electric vehicles” such as the ZENN to be sold in more locations in the City. Before today, we treated these vehicles the same way we treat used cars. After this morning, they will be able to be sold in more and less-dense commercial zones.

I made a slight change to today’s action, which may have an important impact in terms of preventing confusion down the road. The original ordinance defined neighborhood electric vehicles as having a top speed of 20-25mph. However, the State Legislature, led by Representative Jim Davnie, has recently pushed the top speed up to 35mph. My change makes our definition of neighborhood electric vehicle consistent with the State’s, so that they can grow and evolve together.

I hope that people will take advantage of this Council action to start offering these innovative, zero-emission vehicles in more locations around town.