Ford e-Ka beats Ka hands down. July/Aug 2000:
Ford's e-Ka 125 mile per charge, 80 mph(restricted) gets rave reviews from UK and worldwide motoring media! But the public will have to force Ford to mass-produce it. The e-Ka simply outclasses the old-tech petrol-powered Ka: 88bph compared to 59 bph, 140lb of instant torque compared to the KA's almost pitiful 77lb peak at 2500rpm. And the e-KA reaches 62mph in 12.7 secs... Two years ago Nissan introduced the Altra EV - Lithium Ion batteries, 125 mpc and similar performance to the e-Ka. But like so many state-of-the art EV's it's only available - and publicised - in the US and Japan. We desperately hope Ford aren't TH!NKing of watering down the e-KA and producing yet another silly little 60 mile per charge eco-shopper. Please - let's have mainstream looks that attract mainstream buyers. ( ie. savings on fuel, maintenance, car value depreciation avoided, tax, insurance, MOT).

In his almost ecstatic review(2nd August 2000) Autocar's Jesse Crosse states that "the e-Ka will never hit the streets in this form...". Why this oh-so-familiar concept-car cop-out clause? Also: like so many EV reviewers Mr. Crosse seems strangely keen to persuade the reader that the e-Ka is a "good proposition as a second car". Second? The reality for many electric converts in the States is that the EV becomes the Most Frequently Used Vehicle: often the petrol-powered vehicle is so seldom used that it is traded in. For those occasional longer (100+ mile) journeys a regular ICE vehicle is rented - resulting in big savings. Maybe this is precisely the 'ICE' meltdown/ EV-genie effect that the oil-rigged motoring lobby fear most of all.... Anyway - this is Jim Carlucci's fully-charged response to Autocar's August review (Yes, Autocar, UK's leading mainstream motoring mag, did indeed print this subversive little Carlucci contribution - 90% intact - in its August 16 edition. What's more they were also bold enough to top it with an e-Ka/Ecobasic photo-collage. Wow - are minds and doors opening at last?..):

Sir/Madam,
Yet again a carmaker produces a fantastic, zero-emission, long-range, penny-a-mile electric car - the Ford e-Ka - but then tell us oh-so-predictably that it's "unlikely ever to appear in its present form"!
When will carmakers finally give up this King Canute charade and realise it's now time to actually start selling the kind of cars *we want to buy* - not just the ones that *they* want to sell?
Similarly, following rave reviews of Fiat's near 100 mpg Ecobasic concept car, another distinguished weekly motoring magazine(Autoexpress) reports being inundated with letters from readers basically all screaming the same message: "Let's have this car NOW!. Not in 5,6,7 years' time!"
Instead of producing endless non-descript mediocre cars THEN being forced to spend hundreds of million of pounds a year on advertising, marketing, image-building, "sexifying" etc. why not just give us the right 21st Century cars in the first place? Cars that sell themselves. If carmakers refuse to change their neverending "jam-tomorrow" strategy, if the eco-tokenism persists, I suggest we should all start thinking about boycotting *car-showrooms* - NOT the petrol-pumps!
Yours, Jim CARLUCCI

EVUK footnote:
1: See detailed, spin-free E-Ka review - plus picture of a literally green e-Ka.

2: Question re UK Government's "Cleaner Vehicle Task Force" :Ý given the fact that Ford Chairman Ian MacAllister is also co-chair of this DETR and Prescott-backed initiative, we'd love to know why Ford and MacAllister are not now moving heaven and earth to get the universally-applauded e-Ka into UK showrooms?? Anyone who's had the stamina and self-control to wade through the Task Force's Final Report ('Forward' co-authored by Ford Chairman....) may be tempted to ask/scream the same question.