Japan EV - ELIICAAnyone catch this weeks daily planet.
They showed one of the latest EV's the ELIICA..
Uses Lit ion batteries!
What in the.. %8#@^?
Right. That thing you see in the photo is an electric car. But unlike our little Indian electric car Maini Reva (which is quite cute alright) this one can go at around 400 kph, accelerate up to 60 mph in 4 seconds (that's faster than a Porsche 911) and touch 100 mph in 7 seconds. It is the prototype Eliica electric car, and it has eight wheels, if the speed has not freaked you out yet.
BY BM
Jokes apart, this article finds its space in DWS only because its shock value. So electric cars are not your average little slow coaches anymore, got it? This electric car is a prototype, but we know the way with prototypes. Once a big manufacturer feels brave enough to get into manufacturing it in large enough volumes, the price falls like a brick. When there is public demand for electric cars, the governments will have no option but to lower tariffs and bring them within the reach of the public.
The name Eliica is short for Electric Lithium Ion battery Car. If you can believe it, this electric car is a professor-students creation. A research project, though they have great dreams of bringing it into the market. Made in Japan, Professor Hiroshi Shimizu, of Japan's Keio University and team have done a brilliant job here. They have done similar stuff before too which has shocked everyone before, so this car is not too out of the ordinary for them. Prof. Shimizu believes that increasing pollution and tougher laws will soon make such cars practical.
Earlier this year, at Italy's Nardo high-speed test track facility, the Eliica recorded a top speed of 370kmh. Shimizu says the car would break 400kmh on a smoother surface.
"We need to reach 400kmh to make an impact on a gasoline car-dependent world," Shimizu says. "When you're dealing with technology that is thought by most people to be too heavy, slow and lacking range, you have to do better than just equal the current crop of supercars. You have to outclass them and make a statement.
"We built this particular car to show just how fast, stable and fun an electric car can be."
The Auto Express Magazine