Zoomi Life

It’s possible to be so goofy-looking that you’re actually cool. The Eliica is a Japanese electric car prototype that’s been around since 2003. It’s so goofy, it’s cool. The Electric LIthium-Ion CAr (ELIICA) was designed by a team at Keio University in Tokyo, led by Professor Hiroshi Shimizu.

The car accelerates faster than the Tesla Roaster, going from 0-62 in 4 seconds. The current version was designed in 2005 and has some added technologies to give it longer range and better handling. The car can go as fast as 230mph and the team’s goal is to get it up to 250mph. That would break today’s record for street-legal speed (in any vehicle, gas or electric).

The car’s unique design incorporates eight wheels, four in front and four in back, with the axles one in front of the other rather than dueled. All four tires in front turn simultaneously for a good steering radius and the team has expressed the idea of possibly setting up the four rear wheels for turning in future models to allow for easy parallel parking (a big deal in Japan).

The car is 17 feet long, but weighs in at only 5300 pounds. For all its size, it only seats four, but has a really cool door design. The front doors open forward, like normal car doors, while the rear doors are gull-winged like the Dolorean.

Each wheel is powered by a separate 60kW motor putting out about 80hp each and the battery bank takes about ten hours to charge to full. The vehicle employs a regenerative braking system. It has a range of up to 200 miles per charge.

I should point out that there are two models of this car and I’m mixing and matching the numbers here. The longer range vehicle has a top speed of 120mph rather than 230 and is called the Acceleration Model. The Speed Model is built for racing and record-breaking, not for street use.

Development costs so far have topped $400,000 and if the car ever goes to market, it could retail for around $255,000USD depending on several market factors. It’s not likely this car will be seen on the streets, however, as it’s been in development for five years and has yet to have a taker from the automotive industry.

Still, it’s a very cool concept car. The Eliica is a car that, years from now, people will see photos of and wonder what happened to it. It’s that unique. Goofy enough to be cool.

[Show as slideshow]

Here are a couple fun videos of the Eliica - one is a great summary video of the Eliica, the other is a drag race between the Eliica and a Porsche - with the Eliica winning (audio in Japanese).