Renaissance cars for sale
About these listings
Every Renaissance listed on MotorLoop.
Overview
Renaissance Cars built the Tropica, an all-electric two-seat roadster introduced for the 1995 model year from a base in Palm Bay, Florida. It ran two DC motors at the rear wheels on twelve six-volt batteries, charged from an ordinary household supply in six to eight hours, with an estimated 60 to 80 miles of range and a 60 mph top speed.
Only around 20 were built. It never reached series production, so a Tropica is a rare survivor from the brief mid-1990s window when American electric cars looked like they might arrive early.
History
The company was founded by Bob Beaumont, who two decades earlier had founded Sebring-Vanguard and built the CitiCar — making the Tropica his second attempt at putting an American electric car on the road.
The cars listed between 17,000 and 19,000 dollars and Car and Driver reviewed the Tropica positively at the time. A second financing round failed, and the company was sold to the actor Don Johnson, who renamed it Xebra Motors and the car the Model Z Roadster.