Czar Nicholas II of Russia
Car Czar Consulting says: Japan’s Eliica may look like science fiction, but with the engine power in its wheels — all eight of them — a top speed of 230 mph and a range of 200 miles on a single charge, this electric car has potential in the real world.
Meanwhile, Nissan has initiated its new electric Leaf vehicle marketing in earnest.
Plug it in!
Nissan starts year-long Leaf blitz
Nov. 16, 2009, autonews, LOS ANGELES — Claiming that Nissan will be rewarded for blazing a trail into mass production of electric vehicles, CEO Carlos Ghosn kicked off a year-long marketing blitz for his five-passenger Leaf here today to an audience of environmentalists, government regulators and media.
Sitting in the hot California sun in a dark suit and no necktie, Ghosn assured an audience in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium that electric-vehicle sales will quickly catch on with consumers. He referred to a goal set this year by President Barack Obama to see 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.
“You’ll have much more than 1 million cars by 2015,” Ghosn said. “The response will be bigger than we think.”
Ghosn predicted that mass-market sales will spur advances in battery technology, which will in turn stimulate more sales and bring down vehicle costs.
He said the purchase cost of the hatchback Leaf, designed to have an all-electric range of 100 miles, will be within “1 or 2 percent” of the cost of competing non-electric cars. But company officials are still working out details about how the Leaf will be transacted at Nissan dealerships — including whether customers will purchase its battery as part of the sticker price or whether they will lease it separately for a monthly fee.
Leasing it would allow customers to upgrade their batteries during the life of the car. “We want to lease the battery. We don’t want to sell the battery,” Ghosn said.
Nissan Motor Co. is preparing to launch a $2 billion construction project in Smyrna, Tenn., that will produce 150,000 Leafs a year, along with a new lithium-ion battery plant to manufacture 200,000 electric-vehicle batteries a year.
One-car tour
To build up awareness for the car, which reaches retail stores in one year, Nissan officials are mounting a 21-city U.S. tour, using the solitary light-blue Leaf prototype that Japanese engineers have permitted to come across the Pacific Ocean. Because the interior is white, program managers will not be allowing crowds to climb into the car at events.
Nissan plans to ship the Leaf prototype around the country on an almost daily basis to display it to college campuses, shopping malls, government offices and other venues.
Ghosn said the tour “is important for us to change people’s perspective.”
“This car should sell without advertising,” Ghosn said, adding that the company expects to make a profit off the vehicle.
In recent weeks, Nissan’s electric-vehicle plan has expanded. Ghosn revealed in Tokyo last month that Nissan plans to produce three electric models, including a small commercial van and a compact Infiniti model.
French automaker Renault SA, of which Ghosn is also CEO, will simultaneously develop electric vehicles.
But speaking in Los Angeles today, Ghosn said that Nissan plans four electric vehicles and Renault also plans four models.
He said the two automakers are working toward together having overall production capacity of 500,000 cars and batteries a year among the United States, Europe and Japan.
Eliica Eight-Wheeled Electric Super Car Raises The Bar
AutoExpress, It doesn’t require plutonium to power its flux capacitor. It won’t travel through time when it reaches 88mph. And unlike the Doc and Marty McFly’s DeLorean of Back To The Future fame, it needs nothing more than a power point to keep it running.
Called the Eliica – short for Electric Lithium-Ion battery Car – this radical 800bhp eight-wheeler from Japan is proof that electric vehicles can be fast and fun to drive, too. Boasting a four-second 0-60mph sprint and seven-second 0-100mph time, the Eliica is faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo.
So what is it like on the road? In this world exclusive, we took the controls to find out. As soon as you climb into the snug cockpit, you realise this car is built for speed. It’s more than five metres long, shaped like a bullet and carries its batteries, software and motors in a narrow chassis bed, giving it the lowest centre of gravity of any prototype we’ve come across.
In tests, the Eliica has recorded a top speed of 370kph (230mph), although its inventor Hiroshi Shimizu claims it could clear 400kph (250mph) in the right conditions. “When you’re dealing with technology thought by most to be slow, heavy and lacking range, you must do better than any supercar,” he said.
At our drive at Keio University near Tokyo, we punched the ‘D’ button on the dash, pointed the car down the road and flattened the gas pedal. With a faintly audible whirr of eight 100bhp in-wheel motors, the 0-60mph sprint was smooth, effortless, quiet – and surreal. The mind-boggling acceleration was on a par with that of a 500bhp GT racing car. Yet the lack of a transmission meant there were no jerky cog swaps as we were thrust back in our seat by an incredible 0.8Gs.
With that ultra-low centre of gravity, the car handles surprisingly well, and has virtually no body roll or nose-dive. It turns in sharply with well weighted steering through the front four wheels, and gives adequate feedback. And it does not feel as big or as heavy as its length and 2,400kg kerbweight suggest.
The only downsides, apart from the tiny cockpit, are that it takes 10 hours to recharge, and a production version would cost £170,000. To bring Shimizu’s research back to the future, he needs a major firm’s financial power behind him and the whole electric car movement.
