Tazzari Zero

Tazzari cast aluminium for a living. The group, in Imola, is a foundry and engineering business, whose castings, km77 says, go to premium brands, and its website claims more than 60 years of history.source 1source 2source 3 In 2006 the brothers Erik and Rafael Tazzari set up a division for electric vehicles, on Erik’s initiative, and called the project ZERO; its stated priorities were “sport, fun, ecology”.source 4source 5source 1

The design was shown online in 2008.source 6 In July 2009 The Truth About Cars previewed it as a two-seater with a glued frame of cast aluminium, developed with the University of Bologna, which also designed its battery-management system, and a motor in the middle driving the rear wheels. It would cost about €20,000, and a former Pirelli manager planned to import it to the United States in 2010, at first as a 56 km/h (35 mph) neighbourhood electric vehicle to save the cost of crash tests. Its writer, before he had driven it, liked its looks and likened it to an NSU TT.source 1 The Zero made its formal debut at the Bologna Motor Show in December 2009, priced at €20,300 plus VAT, with £18,000 planned for Britain and US$29,900 for America.source 7source 6source 1 Production began in January 2010.source 2source 4

Race, Rain, Standard, Economy

The motor, a three-phase asynchronous unit of 15 kW (20 PS) and 150 Nm, sits ahead of the rear axle and turns the back wheels through one reduction gear.source 7source 6source 8 The nose holds the battery, of lithium iron phosphate cells, about 12.3 kWh and 142 kg by German Wikipedia’s figures, which charges in about nine hours from a household socket or to 80 per cent in under an hour on three-phase current.source 8source 2 The maker claimed up to 140 km (87 miles) in Economy mode and a maximum of 100 km/h (62 mph); the other modes were Race, Rain and Standard.source 6source 8source 2source 4 There were two boots, of 30 and 150 litres, electric heating and windows and central locking, but km77 noted no ABS, no stability control and no airbags.source 7source 8source 2 It found that the modest motor gave solid, decisive acceleration, thanks to the car’s light weight and the electric motor’s instant torque.source 2 That weight is given as 542 kg (1,195 lb) with the battery, 545 kg, or 617 kg.source 7source 8source 1source 2

Its legal class is less clear. Spain registered it as a cuadriciclo, a quadricycle, and in the United States it was to be sold as a neighbourhood electric vehicle.source 2source 7source 1 Italian Wikipedia calls it a heavy quadricycle but labels that class L6e, which is the light one; with 15 kW and 100 km/h it cannot be a light quadricycle, and the question is unresolved.source 6

Seven hundred, then silence

In May 2011 Quotidiano.net reported more than 700 Zeros in use, with Germany and Asia its main markets, and a target of 1,000 by the end of the year; the group’s revenue had passed €6 million in 2010.source 4 The plans were many: a numbered special edition that spring, an open Zero Speedster 150 Italia in the national colours for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, an M1 homologation in England so that 16-year-olds could drive it, and a four-seat Zero XL for 2012.source 4 The Speedster appeared, its roof removable or replaced by fabric, with stronger A-pillars and a roll bar across the car.source 6source 4 Whether the XL or the English version ever went on sale is not established. In 2014 the Zero earned one star in Euro NCAP’s tests of quadricycles.source 7 English Wikipedia calls it a concept car, which it was not: it was built and sold from 2010, by the hundred.source 2source 4

When the Zero ended is not known. Tazzari still trades as Tazzari EV, and its website now offers other models, the Zeromax, the Zeromax Cubo for city deliveries, and the Zero 4 Opensky and Zero 4 Buggy.source 3 The electric microcar from Imola may also have a Chinese descendant, the Arcfox Lite.

The Arcfox Lite may be the Zero’s Chinese descendant, but no one has said so on the record. Its line runs back to the Beijing Auto EX concept, shown at the Shanghai show on 20 April 2015 with production promised for 2016; it measured 2,880 by 1,560 mm, exactly the Zero’s length and width.source 9 CarNewsChina wrote that the EX was based on the Tazzari Zero. Asked about its cooperation with Beijing Auto, Tazzari answered that it preferred “to not disclose any information at this time”.source 10source 11 The ArcFox-1 concept at the Beijing show of 2016 was larger, at 3,027 mm, and CarNewsChina found it “bigger and better, but still clearly inspired by the Zero”; at the Guangzhou show that November, nobody on the stand had heard of Tazzari.source 10source 11

The production car was badged simply “Lite” when the official photographs came out on 22 August 2017, and went on sale late that year as the first model of Arcfox, a brand of BJEV, the electric arm of BAIC.source 12source 13source 14 It was a three-door two-seater, 2,986 mm long, with an aluminium-alloy frame and a body of carbon-fibre-reinforced composite and plastic panels said to be 40 per cent lighter, and, unusually for a Chinese electric car of 2017, it was not built on a petrol car. A 37 kW (49 hp) motor and a 16.4 kWh battery gave 110 km/h (68 mph), and LED panels front and rear could show the driver’s own words and pictures.source 12source 13source 14 After subsidies it cost from 93,800 to 106,800 yuan.source 13 It sold slowly: 472 in 2017, 588 in 2018, 599 in 2019 and 12 in 2020, about 1,670 in all.source 14 English Wikipedia lists the Zero as related, without a source; no source read confirms a formal licence, so the family tie is likely but unconfirmed.source 15

No survivor count, owners’ club or sale at auction has been found. In the pictures here, Zeros work in car-sharing fleets, Smiles in 2009 and Zencar on the Avenue Louise in Brussels in 2011, and one with a university laboratory in Lille in 2014.