ZAP gets $79m order from startup distributor

Shares of electric car maker ZAP are up 13% this morning (BULLETIN BOARD: ZAAP) on news that the company has received a $79 million order from new Chicago-based retailer The Electric Vehicle Company (EVC).

EVC plans to focus on sales of electric vehicles to municipalities, distributors, university campuses, auto and recreational dealers, foreign countries and the military.

The company says it wants to develop the first retail chain focused on the sale of all-electric vehicles.

EVC is being funded by two hedge funds, Diversified Equity Funding, L.P. and Diversified Strategies Fund, LLC, both of which have an investment in ZAP. The two funds have committed the funding necessary to develop the marketing organization. The hedge funds are also to provide financing for the purchase of ZAP vehicles by fleets and municipalities.

The order is subject to meeting the performance criteria of EVC and certain terms of ZAP.

"We believe this order, which constitutes thousands of vehicles, is the largest order for consumer electric vehicles in history," said Steve Schneider, CEO of ZAP. "Many municipalities have been talking recently about mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, so we are grateful to be involved in this historic effort."

ZAP, the only full-line electric vehicle company in the US, made news recently with the sale of its XEBRA electric cars and trucks, the first vehicles designed for the US market by a Chinese automobile manufacturer (see the Cleantech Group's ZAP solar car interesting, says automotive analyst.) ZAP also recently announced an automotive business plan to design a new generation of high performance electric vehicles designed by Lotus (details in Look out Tesla... ZAP building electric supercar.)

ZAP has been involved in advanced transportation technologies since 1994. It has been at the forefront of fuel-efficient transportation with new technologies including energy efficient gas systems, hydrogen, electric, fuel cell, ethanol, hybrid and other innovative power systems.