ZENN Motor Company

Automotive companies of Canada

As a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of electric vehicles, Zenn motor company’s goal is to provide drivers with a quality urban transportation solution that positively impacts our environment and greatly reduces operating cost.  Working with our internationally respected partners, we bring the world’s finest zero-emission vehicles to you - setting the standard for what electric vehicles can be. The culmination of this passion for quality is the ZENN™, the luxury Neighborhood Electric Vehicle.

Ever sat in traffic, moving ahead by inches at a time, breathing in toxic fumes from the diesel-powered pick-up truck in front of you and thought ‘there must be a better way?’ Ian Clifford did.

Now here’s the difference between you and Ian: he started a car company.  More specifically, he started an electric car company with the sole objective of making the world a better place.

Ian Clifford is not an engineer.  Actually, Ian was a professional photographer, turned internet marketing company founder, turned electric vehicle champion.

The ‘ah-ha’ traffic moment came to him in 1995, while on his way to digIT Interactive, an internet marketing company in Toronto he had co-founded.  He began to search in earnest for an electric vehicle to drive and soon found that this quest would prove difficult.  The then recently introduced all-electric GM EV1s and Toyota RAV 4s were not available in Canada.  He instead turned his attention to the 1959 Henney Kilowatt car: an almost 50 year old electric vehicle created by the Eureka Vacuum Cleaner Company and Henney Coachbuilders.

He flew to Hartford, Connecticut to meet a long-time electric vehicle enthusiast, Jack Gretta, who was selling one of his two Henney Kilowatt cars.  A quick test drive proved for Ian what he already instinctively knew: Electric vehicles are a viable solution to not only his, but many others’ daily driving needs.  Plus, electric vehicles are incredibly fun-to-drive, with powerful acceleration and an unusually quiet ride – this should be an easy sell, right?

Once home in Toronto, Ian quickly put the 50-year-old Henney through its paces, and the Henney lost.  The old car needed some repairs.  Jack suggested a forklift repair service and Ian had his second ‘ah-ha’ moment; Electric vehicles are everywhere in the industrial world.  The technology already exists to support these alternative energy cars.  The repair service sent out Probyn Gayle, a talented tinker-inventor, who became the Chief Technology Officer at the company Ian was about to form – Feel Good Cars, Inc.

After selling digIT Interactive Inc. in early 2000, Ian was ready for a new venture, one founded on a philosophy of capital growth tied to social and environmental responsibility: the essence of the ecopreneurial spirit.  Along with Probyn, Ian drafted Marek Warunkiewicz, a marketing and branding expert to help build a company that was about creating a sustainable business that declared open war on climate change.  In keeping with this philosophy the company name, Feel Good Cars, was inspired by the guilt-free experience of driving an electric car.

Their plan was to convert the French economy car, the Renault Dauphine, from a gas car into an electric one.  During the 50’s and 60’s over four million internal combustion Dauphines were sold worldwide.  It was a fairly straightforward matter to restore the car bodies, remove the internal combustion components and substitute a lead-acid battery energy system.  The company called them ‘Dauphine Electrics’ and their target price was about twenty five thousand dollars.

Canada Business Directory @ January 17, 2009