Spark-EV Zotye the first affordable highway speed EV available in North America?

Yesderday I started a topic regarding the Green Vehicles Traic, which appeared set to become the first affordable highway speed EV available.  Today I happened upon a story on AutoBlogGreen which makes it appear that they were beat to the punch.  Sort of.

The Spark-EV Zotye is an affordable ($25k) highway speed EV (75 mph, 110 miles/charge) already available.  Except the demand dwarfed their expectations.

"I recently wrote about a company called Spark EV that plans to sells Zotye, a $20,000, highway speed, electric SUV soon. Unfortunately, the order page says the company is not taking new orders even though it seemed the cars were for sale. What's going on? Too much demand! Michael Papp of Spark EV tells me his "back of my mind" goal for Zotye sales for this year was 250-300. Michael soon found demand would be a tad higher.

According to Papp, the company sent out 1,000 emails on January 11th, 2008 to everyone on the company's email list telling them the Zotye was available for sale. 10 days later 600 people were asking where to send their money. Some people simply sent the money (which the company returned). Papp said that no new orders are being accepted at the website "to slow this down. No matter how good the car is, how we perform in the beginning will define this company. We will get the first requested cars out, follow up, get feedback, and only then will we take more orders."

So they win the EV race, but are only selling a few hundred for the time being.  Nice to see that sort of demand right off the bat, but unfortunate that the company is unable to meet it.  But that's good news for Green Vehicles, Aptera, Mles, ZAP, etc.

Not to burst your bubble...but here's another (more recent) post from AutoblogGreen:

Thanks to our reader Mike, we have an update to share about the troubled history of Michael Papp electric vehicle company. Regular readers will remember that Papp is the man behind Spark EV, a company that has been accused more than once of shady dealings. It looks like the New Jersey law officials agree, and have decided to step in to put a stop to Papp's scam.

According to the Express Times, Papp was arrested Friday after failing to deliver 14 electric vehicles to Electric Cars of Houston (which had ordered 10) and Electric Transportation of Arkansas (four). Papp is charged with bilking them for almost $100,000, according to court records. The EVs were paid for in January and February, and Papp told the payers the vehicles would be delivered March 14. They weren't. After trying to track down what happened, the companies asked for a refund. Papp answered that he was filing for bankruptcy, so no go. Apparently, Papp is in Northampton County Prison and being held on $20,000 bail. We'll have more on this as things move forward, I can guarantee you that.

Also, a few months ago when that ABG post came out about the Zotye came out, I did a bit of research on it.  I came across an email thread about the Zotye and some interested EV folks to Michael Papp.  There was some question about whether or not the Zotye is actually electric because the Chinese company doesn't list any details online about an EV version of the car.  Also...in all of the images of the car, there's a tail pipe.  I'll see if I can find that thread again.

But regardless...I think with all of Michael Papp's troubles, I don't think we'll see any vehicles from Spark on the road any time soon.

Oh damn.  Thanks for the info stins.

In that case, screw the Spark-EV and the Zotye.  Green Vehicles still wins!

You're right, even on the Spark-EV website their picture of the Zotye has a tailpipe.  That's hella shady!

Dana1981,

I am new to Huddler.  I read you post about Spark-EV.  And, I read and replied to Stins post.  Stay away from Spark-EV and Michael Papp.  What Stins posted is correct.  From what I have been reading on the internet, alot of victims of Spark-EV.

Yeah that's what I've read too.  The guy has gone bankrupt now anyway, so I think Spark EV is probably closed down by now.