The eBox has been around a while, but I haven’t written an article on it yet. Mainly because the eBox is not necessarily a complete car, but an AC Propulsion electric drivetrain that is installed in a Scion xB. AC Propulsion is responsible for drivetrain technology used in the GM EV1, Tesla Roadster, Venturi Fetish, and the West Philly Hybrid X Team’s Attack, to name a just a few. Visit the AC Propulsion site for a complete list of cars utilizing their product now.

The eBox continues the AC Propulsion legacy of superior electric drivetrain technology as the only car you can actually buy from AC Propulsion itself. With a 0-60 of 7 seconds, a top speed of 90 mph, and an ev range of 120-150 miles, the eBox is one of the most advanced electric cars on the market. All of this is installed in a Scion xB that you have to buy beforehand, and give to AC Propulsion for the conversion. So the Scion will set you back $15,000 and the conversion is a pretty steep, $60,000. Undoubtedly, if AC Propulsion made this a larger operation, the price of the conversion would go down.  This is the car that Tom Hanks so proudly touted a year ago:

The Scion xB body is anything but aerodynamic. Its funny to see so many electric car makers sacrifice appearance for a lower drag coefficient. The drivetrain of the eBox has so much power, it compensates, but at a price.

It is unfortunate larger auto companies don’t put money into EV projects like this one. The GM EV1 (Who Killed the Electric Car?) is a close drivetrain relative to the eBox and was discontinued in 1999. Unfortunately, we really haven’t seen any mass produced ev’s close to the standard set by the EV1 and Toyota Rav-4 EV of the 1990’s. The eBox is the closest thing we have on the roads today.