  The Eliica is a demonstration car made in Japan that is totally electric; it is powered by lithium-ion batteries, and uses eight 60kW in-wheel drive motors to provide the equivalent of 800 horsepower. What makes this car amazing is its performance. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4 seconds ... that's quicker than a Porche 911. Even more incredible, its top speed is between 370 and 400 km/h! Professor Hiroshi Shimizu, of Japan's Keio University, led the team that built the car; he says "We built this particular car to show just how fast, stable and fun an electric car can be."  The Eliica is just over five metres long, bullet-shaped, and runs on eight wheels and carries its batteries, software and motors in a narrow chassis, giving it a low centre of gravity. When you release the brake, push the 'Drive' button, and floor the accelerator, the result is a smooth, rapid acceleration that has been described as 'neck-snapping'. It's performance rivals that of high-end gasoline-powered sports cars. The drawbacks? The car's batteries are good for about 300 km before a 10 hour recharge is needed. The price is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $400,000, about two-thirds of which is the cost of the batteries. Surveys in urban areas around the world have shown that many people drive their cars less than 50 km per day, and most people drive less than 100 km per day. Electric cars available right now can meet these needs, but often at the cost of poor performance. Lithium-ion battery technology, particularly for use in cell phones and laptop computers, in constantly improving; nevertheless, the cost of these batteries will need to decrease a great deal before they can be used in an electric vehicle that all of us can afford. This may well happen over the next 5 to 10 years. |