If there’s one thing that we never expected to see, it’s the sight of an 8-wheeled electric vehicle attempting to break the land speed record. But that is exactly what the Eliica is attempting to do. Designed by a team at Keio University in Japan, this fully electric lithium-ion vehicle may be short on subtlety, but it has a range of 200 miles and can hit speeds of up to 230mph!
The Eliica (which stands for Electric Lithium-Ion Car) is the brainchild of Hiroshi Shimizu. The project’s goal is to test the capabilities of electric vehicles and exceed 250mph, the current record for a street-legal gas powered vehicle. The car’s most notable feature is the fact that it has 8 wheels, each of which houses an 80hp electric motor. Furthermore, the Eliica has a 0-100mk/h acceleration speed of 4 seconds – that’s better than the Tesla, a Corvette, and even a Porsche.
Two vehicles exist at the moment, each costing a total of $320,000. The team has recently announced that they intend to build 200 units and are currently looking for corporate sponsorship.
7 Responses to “TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The 8-wheeled Electric Eliica”
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And here you can find a nice video about this wonderfull full electric car:
http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=6119
This has been around for a while — I saw video of this car at least 5 years ago.
It looks like a 1960′s French Citroen on steroids.
Fantastic, go on boys, go on.
Jahn Makender
This is a great review of the Eliica. I run a blog on electric vehicles and we reviewed this car back in November. If you’re looking for some cool videos of the Eliica, then check out our blog post on it at:
http://www.zoomilife.com/2008/11/12/the-8-wheeled-eliica-electric-car/
OMG no way dude! Those Japanese are COOL! I love it!
http://www.privacy.de.tc
Wow what a car, and it gets 200 miles, that’s greater that great… You guys guys. I love the Idea of a Electric Car getting affordable for the average consumer. So get busy guys, and lets sit back watch the OPEC Nations squrm a little.