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| | | Revolutionary electric vehicle to hit the road | | | | | February 1, 2010 | | 
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A start-up company has begun developing an electric car that has motors in each of its wheels, a breakthrough that could enable the car to travel 300 kilometers per charge, up to twice as far as some other electric vehicles using the same batteries.
The vehicle with the unique energy-saving "in-wheel motor" technology could go into mass-production in 2013.
According to Sim-Drive, the company established by Keio University Prof. Hiroshi Shimizu and others, 34 companies and organizations--including Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Isuzu Motors Ltd., a battery maker and local governments--have invested 680 million yen in the project.
Sim-Drive, which was launched in August, plans to spend about one year preparing the vehicle for practical use, and hopes to produce 100,000 units per year from 2013.
If the vehicle does go on the market, Sim-Drive will sell the vehicle and batteries separately to keep the car's price on a par with that of gasoline-powered vehicles.
Organizations involved in the project will be allowed to use the new technology.
Makoto Maeda, the vice president of Mitsu-bishi Motors, which started selling its electric car i-MiEV last summer, said to reporters Friday that the automaker would "very likely" use the in-wheel motor technology in the future.
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Submitted By: M.Alam Source:
www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T100125005 | |
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