Electric Vehicle Firm to JV with Chinese Company

14 August 2000

California Electric Vehicle Firm ZAP Signs Agreement with Company in China

    SEBASTOPOL, Calif. - ZAPWORLD.COM announced today that it has an agreement to form a joint venture with Ningbo Topp Industrial Co. Ltd of China (Ningbo). The purpose of the joint venture will be for manufacturing and distributing electric vehicles in China, starting with the ZAPPY(R) scooter.

    "I see a great future with ZAPWORLD.COM (ZAP) because China is not a good environment for driving cars," said Mr. Zhang Sam-Yu, Managing Director of Ningbo Topp Industrial Co. Ltd., who also refers to himself as `John Zapper.' "Furthermore, China is a very bad place for pollution--we need to improve the air quality."

    Photos of a ZAPPY electric scooter customer in China are available at www.zapworld.com/news/chinazappy.html.

    Under the terms of the joint venture, the joint venture company will purchase key components from ZAP, assemble and distribute the ZAPPY in China, and pay ZAP a royalty on each electric scooter sold in China. Additionally, ZAP will receive a share of the profits from the joint venture.

    "Over the past three years, ZAP has sold about $1 million of product to Asia. Everyone tells us to look at China as a potential market," said ZAPWORLD.COM spokesperson Alex Campbell. "The difficulty has been to find the right partner. We have been doing business with Ningbo for about a year now and believe they will be successful in developing the electric scooter business in China. One of our goals with this joint venture is to penetrate the Chinese market, starting with our popular ZAPPY scooter."

    Due to the rising popularity of its electric and inline scooters, ZAP has escalated production at its Sebastopol facilities. The company recently announced orders in hand had reached $1.5 million, an all time high. Last month ZAP's KICK scooters took part in a nationwide promotion with the clothing store Old Navy and the company has received orders from several large sporting good and other chain stores.

    In addition to electric scooters, ZAP offers bicycles, motorcycles, sea scooters and other electric vehicles.