Where'd all the EV's go?

"I don't know how you can spend your time off working this hard" -co worker

As I watch the gas prices climb, I'm looking at all the options...bio-diesel, hybrid etc. I live in a townhouse. I don't have to room to brew used cooking oil into fuel and I don't have the time to run down every Chan's Hunan take-out to look for cooking grease. I still haven't found a project or "starter" EV that I can afford. The technology seems to have improved since I last looked into it but the prices have skyrocketed. Everyone thinks I'm crazy but I smell something bad in the wind... it's now about July '05 and the hurricanes are ramping up.

One day I'm cruising the Yahoo! newsgroups looking for EV forums when I stumble on the C-Car group. What the hell's a C-Car? Then I get into the pictures...ohhhhh yeah. I remember seeing this tiny little wedge-shaped vehicle in Florida as a kid. Not very often though. They're called "Citi Cars" or "Comuta Cars". As I dig into the archives I find that they are affordable in the low thousands or even hundreds of dollars. Ok, fine. I can fix one up but what are their capabilities? I start asking around and the answers are kind of daunting:

35-42 mph (depending on the year and system voltage)
35-40 mile range.
3.5 or 6 hp motor (eesh.. still electric motor hp is calculated differently)

That's just not enough to get to the Metro.

A day or so later I receive an email from a fellow who is a parts and knowledge source for these vehicles. (Name withheld to protect the innocent) He tells me about the vehicles and asks me about my needs. He then tells me that he has a vehicle that'll probably do what I want. It's called a "Comuta Van". Van? Originally designed for the U.S. Postal service, it has a 3 speed transmission and here are the raw numbers:

50-55 mph
40 or 50 miles per charge.

Hmm...maybe maybe. Very affordable too. The catch? It's in Alabama and I'm in Maryland.