Got mine from ZAPI in the US. Cost was about US$772 for the controller and US$200 for the postage. I also purchased the handheld console for programming for US$300, that isn’t essential but I thought it would be a good buy so I could do some fine tuning. I’d be happy to lend it to anyone here in Perth if they needed it.

My unit is a 120V 600A unit, other prices I was quoted were

400A = $548
500A = $676
600A = $772

 

Contact details for the guy at zapi are

Email: markw@zapiinc.com

Office: 919.789.4588

Fax: 919.789.4583

Mobile: 919.757.3673

The prices were from a while ago so may have changed by now. Total cost to me after everything in Australian dollars was $1600 although it should be quite a bit cheaper now with the Australian dollar as high as it is.

Only problem is that they have a 14 week lead time on all orders.

I was quoted a bit over $2000 plus GST for a curtis here in Australia without postage or any programmers etc.

Part of the reason is because the ZAPI isn’t sold here. Another is that the Curtis is up to 144V and the zapi is only 120V max, although the curtis is 500A and the zapi 600A. I guess the Curtis would give a higher max speed but the zapi slightly better acceleration. Also some of the early zapi’s were only 96V and a batch had some problems. Also the regen on the zapi isn’t like the regen on an AC controller, I think it only gives back something like 20% so isn’t necessarily all that big an advantage. Some reports I’ve been given indicate that the current curtis’ are quieter than the early ones but I’ve never seen one in the flesh so don’t know.

 

Personally the zapi sounds better to me but there probably isn’t all that much to it,