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Sparrow
An Electric Vehicle that's the Real Deal
 What has three wheels,
flies, and gets zero miles to the gallon? The
answer is a slick little electric vehicle being built in California
called the Sparrow. Manufactured by Corbin Motors the Sparrow is
poised to be the VW Bug of the 21st Century.
Mike Corbin is best known for the custom seats his company designs for many
brands of motorcycles. This led to creating custom luggage and somehow that
turned into designing what is referred to as a "Personal Transport
Module," or PTM.
Prototypes were shipped last year for testing and marketing and now that
modifications to the design are complete we can expect to start seeing these
cute little PTM's on the roadways soon.
 The Sparrow is a one passenger electric vehicle that goes about 60 miles on a
single charge and reaches speeds of up to 70 mph. It's not the kind of
vehicle you're going to take the family on a vacation to Yellowstone park in,
but it's as practical as having a motorcycle or scooter for around town
driving. Just a few applications the Sparrow is suited for include going to
and from work, running errands, visiting friends, running to the grocery store,
and making a run for fast food.
 It's anticipated that these
PTM's will arrive for commercial sale in Washington State
by early spring of 2000. There's only one place to get the car in the
state. Jim Pelletier, former owner of Renton Motorcycle Company, took the
franchise agreement with him when he sold RMC last summer. He has since
launched a company, Personal Transport
Northwest. While there is no actual showroom facility yet a website at http://www.personaltransport.com
provides information about the Sparrow and other PTM's planned by Corbin for the
next century.
The PTM turns heads anywhere you go. "I can't take it to the bank
without drawing a crowd," say Pelletier, whose 2000 model was delivered to
him prior to the International Motorcycle Show this past December. Those who were around in the
50's remember this same scenario when Volkswagen imported the bug into the U.S.
The Sparrow does not burn any hydrocarbons and has little pollutive qualities
to it. No matter what color you get it in, it's a green
machine.
It's also cost effective. In a typical metropolitan city like
New York or Seattle, the ratio of kilowatt per hour costs vs. miles per charge
is equivalent to owning a car that gets 160 miles to the gallon. In other
words, The Sparrow costs less than 20% to fuel in comparison to a car that gets
30 miles to the gallon. The numbers are even impressive when you match
them with your motorcycle's fuel economy.
Charge time for the Sparrow is six hours at 110 volts, or
only two hours at 220v. Since most American's work day lasts longer than
this there's time to charge it up while you toil.
As for the issue of speed and distance, neither is very
relative to the PTM when you consider the purpose of its design. It will
easily keep up with the speed limit of any freeway this side of Montana and
there are quite a few places you can take the sparrow on a 60 mile round trip,
work being one of the most obvious for many.
Two issues are still to be hammered out. The first is how insurance
companies will class the PTM. The Sparrow was designed with all the safety
requirements of a motorcycle which leads us to the next issue which is how
Washington State will classify it. If they go with motorcycle
classification it will mean a Sparrow driver can access the HOV lane. The
jury is out on these for now.
OUR TEST DRIVE
We were invited by Jim to come out to his Burien home and test drive the
Sparrow. Of course, the idea of getting into this rig leaves the driver
with a bit of apprehension, but that goes away after about 100 feet.
- Starting the Sparrow is interesting. To switch the PTM
on, turn the
key all the way to the right and wait for...the click. That means you're on,
but you won't actually hear much until you press on the accelerator.
- Power for the Sparrow is distributed directly to the back wheel.
Stepping on the accelerator hard from a dead stop will cause the PTM to lunge
forward due to it's distribution of weight. After a few times you get the
grace and hang of this.
- The positive steering system reacts immediately to the
driver's moves and at
high speeds it's better to relax your hands on the wheel rather than grip it too
tightly which typically causes one to overcorrect positioning.
- Since we're all so used to driving a car on the left hand side, new drivers
of the Sparrow have a tendency to stick close to the left side of the
road. After a while you begin to realize it's okay to move into the center
of your lane, just like you would on a motorcycle.
- The ride of the Sparrow is what you would expect from a small vehicle.
Suspension is slightly bumpier than that of a car, which has a lot to do with
the PTM's light weight and three point wheel design.
- Comfort is on the economical, however worthy side. Since you won't be
spending 14 hours a day driving your Sparrow, Corbin didn't throw in the six
point adjusting Cadillac seat, but the one in the PTM is adequate.
- Visibility is quite good and because of the broad exposure of the windshield
we didn't find this vehicle to carry any sort of claustrophobia with it.
- Sound wise it's about equivalent to that of an economy car. Although
the motor is electric the drive train does carry some volume with it. A
notch up on the factory installed CD/Radio makes this go away fairly easily.
- Taking hills was surprisingly good as the PTM held it's power with enough
torque to barely feel the difference in acceleration momentum.
- The rearview mirrors took a little getting used to and
we'd like to suggest to the design team to incorporate a wide angle plate
into the right side mirror, much like most newer cars have.
 Dash
items take little time to locate as it's laid out similar to a car.- You'll love the electric heater as it fires up immediately
after you turn on the switch. No waiting for a gas motor to warm
up. Our test model had a single speed fan and no thermostat so we were
plagued with having to turn it on and off in order to moderate the inside
temperature. Perhaps the final models will
have better adjustability.
Pelletier says it takes a few times out in the Sparrow to
really understand just how capable of a machine it is. We got the point
pretty clearly during our test drive. The Sparrow is the real deal for the
21st century and may rival many motorcycle and car manufacturers in the decade
to come. Serious buyers can arrange a private appointment to see the Sparrow in
person by e-mailing Jim at jim@personaltransport.com.
Pelletier already has taken a number of deposits, so it's not too soon to get in
line.
Tom Mehren/Winter 2000
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