Close on the heels of the Volt and the Leaf, a little company called Wheego is gearing up to ship their adorable electric vehicles out to their proud new owners at the start of the new year. The company got EPA approval for their Wheego Whip LiFe EV and is now awaiting the go from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The LiFe two-seater has a price tag of $32,995 (only $25,495 after the $7,500 tax credit) has a range of 100 miles per charge, is made of 75% U.S. content and is assembled in Ontario, California. Sounds like a sweet, American-made green transportation machine to us.
Autoblog notes that the LiFe’s body is based off of the Chinese-made Shuanghuan Noble but the company explains that only the chassis comes to them from China. It is then reinforced for US crash test standards and the transmission, motor, batteries, wiring, software and controller — which are all US made — are installed. The car runs on a 30 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery pack, tops out at 65 miles per hour and Wheego says it takes 5 hours to fully charge. The LiFe is perhaps best fit for an urban setting — it is small and not all that powerful — and with dimensions just a tad larger than a Smart Car, will surely be a city-parking dream.
Wheego had originally thought that they’d be the first affordable EV to hit the market but it seems that the “ok” from the powers that be — the EPA and the NHTSA — was what was holding back their shipments. Unlike the Leaf and the Volt, the LiFe is shipping on a first come, first serve basis. That means no starting markets centralized in EV friendly territories – if you’re in Podunk, Wyoming and you’re ready to charge an EV in your garage, you can reserve a LiFe to call your own.
Via Autoblog Green
