Wheego Debuts $32,995 Whip LiFe EV, Says Customer Deliveries to Start in Weeks
By Scott Doggett November 18, 2010
By Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor
Wheego Electric Cars unveiled its $32,995 two-seat subcompact Whip LiFe highway-capable EV at the 2010 Los Angeles International Auto Show today, and the Atlanta startup announced that it will begin shipping to its 22 dealers nationwide starting this month.
The Whip LiFe can travel about 100 miles fully charged and has a top speed of 70 miles an hour, according to Wheego. The model is equipped with driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, air-conditioning, and power windows and locks.
Its 30-kilowatt-hour lithium-iron (chemical symbols Li and Fe - LiFe) battery pack can be charged from a standard 110-volt outlet, or an optional cord for a 240-volt outlet or with any J1772-standard charging station, Wheego CEO Mike McQuary told reporters who gathered to take a close look at the EV of Chinese origin that closely resembles a Smart ForTwo.
But, McQuary said, charging the vehicle using the included 110-volt charger would take 20 hours. Unfortunately, the model's pre-incentive price is $215 higher than the much larger and better equipped Nissan Leaf EV.
After criticizing Nissan for initially limiting the Leaf to select markets, McQuary said the Whip LiFe "is going to be available everywhere in America starting when we ship next month," adding that 22 dealers - 20 traditional car dealers, as opposed to Best Buy stores, he emphasized - "are set up right now and are qualified and they're spread throughout the country."
"We've got a Subaru dealer, we've got a Ford dealer, we've got several Chrysler dealers that were helping to fill the void of having had their franchise pulled away," McQuary said. He said the roughly 200 people who have to date placed orders for the EV can expect to receive them within eight weeks.
McQuary said he isn't particularly concerned with selling a great number of cars - not initially, anyway - but rather customer happiness is the company's prime objective.
At Wheego, he said, "we're going to have our own technical and service support desk where people can call us direct to the manufacturer and get answers to their questions...If we haven't heard from a customer in a month, we're going to pick up the phone and we're going to ask them if everything's going OK. Because again, we want to make sure we have the happiest drivers out on the road."
Trying to distance his startup from established Japanese automaker Nissan, maker of the Leaf, which is scheduled to go on sale later this year, McQuary stated:
"If you email [Nissan CEO] Carlos Ghosn with a problem with your Nissan, I guarantee you he's not going to call you back, he's not going to send you an email back. You do that with me, within 24 hours you'll have a response from me trying to sort your problem or at least direct you to somebody who can do that."
In fairness to Ghosn, who could not be immediately reached for comment, perhaps the time constraints on the chief executive of Nissan (and Renault) are much greater than those on the CEO of Wheego.
McQuary said that while the body, steel and chassis of the Whip LiFe come from China, 75% percent of the vehicle's content is American.
"We have 30 different suppliers that supply parts for this car," he said. "Twenty-seven of those are U.S. suppliers...This is an American-made car with American parts. It's assembled in Ontario, California."
Because the factory in China where the Wheego body and chassis are made is enormous, McQuary said, "We are not capacity-constrained in any way. Right now, if this car was wildly successful, I'll admit that I'm capital-constrained. I would have to go out and raise a bunch of money if this car took off. Right now we think we could sell a couple of thousand of this car next year without any issue."
Looking ahead, McQuary said Wheego's next model will be a five-seater and the company is "also looking at doing a light-duty pickup truck."
Good luck.
On a subsequent test drive, Wheego President Jeff Boyd apologized to Green Car Advisor for the Chinese-built car's fit and finish, particularly its cheap-looking hard-plastic and vinyl interior, and said improvements are planned. Indeed, an upgraded version of the model was on display.
The car's electric drive system, featuring a battery that's larger than that in the much bigger Leaf, makes up for the interior, he said,
Boyd also said Wheego - which installs the LiFe's electric drive system at a plant in Southern California - intends to add a four-passenger crossover and a mid-size pickup to its EV fleet sometime next year. Both vehicles would also be sourced from Chinese carmakers and electrified in the U.S., he said.
The car has a very gentle, predetermined regenerative-braking setting so it doesn't slow as quickly as some EVs and hybrids when the accelerator is released. Seating was okay for a short drive, but Boyd might want to think about upgrading both the sticky vinyl upholstery and the bolstering.
We were unable to evaluate the instrumentation because it hasn't been programmed, but the bright LCD screen showed a speedometer, voltage meter and power indicator, and Boyd said the final version will allow drivers to cycle through tons more info.
In a short drive in downtown Los Angeles, the LiFe performed well, showing off a nicely tuned suspension and steering setup and plenty of power for acceleration and traffic dodging.
We can't even guess, though, at how things will hold up on a long drive or after months of daily use, always a problem with a new manufacturer with no history.
Senior Editor John O'Dell contributed to this article.
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