You Can Get a Triac In July

May 14, 2008

Green Vehicles has announced a July delivery date for the new Triac — the highway capable electric car that is now poised to beat both the Tesla and the Aptera to market. The makers are accepting pre-orders with a 10 percent fully refundable reservation fee.

The Triac relies on lithium-ion batteries, which Green Vehicles promises will last for at least 2000 cycles, would last a driver about 5 years. It will top out at 80 miles per hour and has a range of about 100 miles on a full charge — but will charge from both 120V and 240V power sources. The Triac even has a five-speed transmission. And, most importantly, in my mind, Green Vehicles has upped the safety factors: a safety cage designed by the same guys who handle safety cages for race cars has been added to the original design.

The price tag comes to $19,995, according to AutoblogGreen, which is where my question starts: will we be able to easily replace the battery? I wouldn’t want to put down $20,000 for a vehicle that will be unusable in 5 years. And allow me to qualify “easily replaceable”: a new battery can’t cost more than the value of a 5 year old car, nor can the service to install it. It’s a good deal for a car — not needing to buy any gas and all — but I want to make sure that it’s affordable in the long run.