MAKUHARI, Japan, 21 October 2005 — Japanese researchers yesterday unveiled the world’s fastest electric sedan — an eight-wheeled prototype with a top speed of 370 kilometers per hour. A new version of the Eliica car was developed by researchers at Tokyo’s Keio University in cooperation with a government science promotion body and private-sector companies such as Japan’s top tiremaker Bridgestone.
The car boasts unprecedented acceleration, taking just 4.2 seconds to go from zero to 100 kilometers per hour and seven seconds to reach 160 kilometers per hour, according to developers. The car’s maximum speed is 370 kilometers per hour, the world’s fastest for an electric sedan, excluding vehicles with aircraft-like wings or special racing models, they said.
It runs on lithium-ion batteries and costs one yen to travel one kilometer, they said at the Tokyo Motor Show, which opened for the press at a convention centre east of the capital this week. The Eliica has already begun public road tests. The developers plan to produce the car in small numbers initially.
“We will initially target the wealthy clientele usually using chauffeured cars as well as rich company owners for their private use,” said Hiroichi Yoshida, Keio professor for media and governance in the Eliica project. “We are talking about something like watches — a machine combining motors and batteries. As its price can fall quickly in the future, we think it’s important to establish a superb brand image first,” he told AFP.
Yoshida said the car would be a good sell even at the initial price tag of 30 million yen ($260,000) as some 100 people have already told him they were willing to pay that much if it is launched. There are several years to go before the car is marketed. “When I started developing an electric car 25 years ago, I said I expected to launch it in about five years’ time. Twenty-five years later, I would not say in five years but it may be in four years,” said Keio engineering professor Hiroshi Shimizu said.
Meanwhile, Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui yesterday said the world’s No. 2 economy had finally pulled out of a soft patch but warned of risks to the global economy from rising oil prices. “The Japanese economy has finally crawled out of a lull which began in the summer of last year and is continuing to recover,” Fukui said in a speech at the latest quarterly meeting of Bank of Japan branch managers.
“Exports are rising moderately while capital investment continues to expand and consumer spending is solid,” the central bank governor said. “Looking ahead, the economy is expected to maintain a gradual but long-lasting recovery, since chances are high that exports will rise in line with a likely expansion of the overseas economy and that domestic demand, led by high corporate profits and an increase in wages, will also continue to expand,” he said.
The gathering of more than 30 managers of the central bank’s domestic and overseas branches is held every three months to discuss economic developments. The bank chief reiterated his view that deflation is showing signs of easing. “The year-on-year rate of change in consumer prices is projected to be zero percent or to show a slight increase towards the end of this year,” Fukui said.
“This is because the negative contribution from (weak) rice prices is likely to dissipate and the effects of a reduction in electricity and telephone charges are also expected to ease.” The Bank of Japan has vowed to keep pumping cash into the economy until deflation gives way to mild inflation for a sustained period. Monetary policymakers, including Fukui, have signaled that a change in policy may come sometime next year.
In another development, major Japanese banks have started expanding their operations to Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, where banking businesses are expected to grow rapidly, a newspaper said yesterday. Japanese banks, now finalizing disposal of their non-performing loans, are shifting their focus back to increasing overseas loans and are positioning those regions as key markets next to China and Asia, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., the key unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., plans to open a branch in Prague, Czech Republic, early next year, the business daily said. The branch to be engaged in handling loans, deposits and foreign exchange will take over its existing representatives’ office there, which is currently collecting information and data, the business daily said.
In June, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., set up a special division at its London branch that focuses on loans to Central and Eastern Europe, it said. The division’s roughly 50 employees will travel to Poland, the Czech Republic and other areas to drum up business. Lending will be carried out through the London branch. Major banks are also seeking business opportunities in Russia. SMBC established a representatives’ office in Moscow in August and plans to upgrade it into a local subsidiary, the daily said.
