Other issues are toxic battery components, higher power generation requirements for stressed electric grids, when new power generation systems are frowned upon, and so on.

Electric cars are welcome and allowed in Canada. There’s nothing stopping you from driving a Tesla or Chevy Volt here. But then they’re real cars with crumple zones and other safety features.

The Zenn on the other hand in a “Neighborhood Electric Vehicle” (NEV). Most NEVs look like golf carts with turn signals – because that’s exactly what they are. You can make one look more or less like a car, but the similarities end at the looks: It’s doesn’t have the safety requirements or crash testing of a real car. Put it on the road with full-size traffic at speed on main city routes, let alone the highway, and you have a death trap.

They’re limited to 40kph. Main streets here in Winnipeg for example tend to be 60kph, with people travelliing 10% faster. Put a Zenn on on of these routes during rush hour, and it would be causing accidents left and right as people tried to get around it. (And of course highways are right out.) Nor can you get around Winnipeg without travelling on these roads.

I bet if the maker of the electric car were to invest Down Under, they would be much better off.