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Zenn Motor is expanding its lineup to include a highway-legal electric car and an all-electric drivetrain for other automakers, the company announced Thursday.

Zenn (for "zero emission no noise") has been working on these particular products for some time.
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The ZENN '08 model in blue shadow.

(Credit: Zenn Motor)
In 2007, the company offered the public a low-speed Zenn car with a range of 35 miles per charge that was limited to the 25mph legal limit for cars in a certain class. In 2008, it improved its all-electric car by replacing the DC motor with an AC motor that had a range of 40 to 50 miles. The car still wasn't highway-legal, so it was geared toward clients such as universities, military bases, and retirement communities in need of something to shuttle people around the grounds.

Now the Toronto-based company says that the CityZenn all-electric, highway-legal car, which was thought to be in the offing for 2009, should be available for retail in 2010.

More interesting, it's promised to offer an all-electric drivetrain to be used in other cars with co-branding. It's called the Zennergy drivetrain and includes a unique power source from Texas-based company EEStor.

Zenn's partner EEStor has been developing a new type of ultra-capacitor for electricity storage for years. Both companies claim the system can deliver more power and offer a longer range than the typical lithium-ion battery used in electric cars.

People have been skeptical about this "super battery" that EEStor refers to as Electrical Energy Storage Units' (EESUs) and has been promising to Zenn, to GM for its Volt, and to Lockheed Martin.

In April 2007 Zenn spent about $2.5 million for a 3.8 percent share in EEStor, and as an investor has the right to obtain the first units it produces. In 2008, Zenn told CNET it expected prototypes of the EESUs to be sent over to them by the end of the year.

Now it seems Zenn has its prototypes, but is waiting for EEStor to complete a "full-scale production facility" in order to make its product commercially scalable, according to the company's latest statements on the matter.

But Zenn is still pretty mum on the details of what's going on at the company.

In its annual shareholders meeting on March 25, which was broadcast to the public as a podcast, Zenn discussed a stock option plan and shareholders rights plan. It didn't offer much info on how things are actually going with the EEStor project other than to say it's in talks with a partner that it will announce soon. Rick McGraw, Zenn's chairman, asked investors to trust him that an excellent management team has the situation in hand. Said McGraw:

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Many of this project and initiatives while considerably advanced are not 100 percent complete and as such certain details cannot yet be fully disclosed to you and other interested stakeholders without potentially compromising. I know there's a thirst for update, but just recognize that their are limits to what we can say and discuss for a whole bunch of reasons.

Zenn CEO Ian Clifford offered a true-believer-style pep talk:


With the commercialization of EESTor's game-changing electronic storage technology Zenn will take the central role in enabling electric drive around the world with a business model that can best be described as an Intel Inside energy solution custom tailored to work with any and all OEM platforms. We'll partner with the automotive industry and governments around the world to ensure that electric vehicles are available to all consumers both as new highly capably vehicles and conversions of existing internal combustion vehicles to Zennergy drive.