Eliica - Lithium Ion Battery Car

January 2008

The Eliica (or the Electric Lithium-Ion Car) debuted at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show (October 21, 2005 - November 6, 2005) located at Makuhari Messe, Makuari, Chiba Prefecture Japan. The Eliica was developed by 40 students and faculty members at Keio University in Japan, led by professor of engineering Hiroshi Shimizu. This innovative group were thinking outside of the box and developed , an eight-wheeled electic car. The battery powered car is considered to be the successor to the wildly innovative Kaz electric car, also a product of the Keio University team's fertile imagination.).

The Eliica is a battery powered electric vehicle prototype, or concept car is 16.7 feet (5.1 metre) long, weighs in at over 2-1/2 tons, and can accelerate from 60 mph (0-100 km/h) in four seconds. In 2004, the Eliica reached a speed of 370 km/h (230 mph) on Italy's Nardo High Speed Track. The team's goal was to exceed 250 mph (400 km/h), directly competing with speed records set by current street-legal, gasoline-powered vehicles.

The four door car has a futuristic, wind tunnel tested, bullet shape design with forward opening front doors and gull wing type rear doors. The platform contains 4 tracks of 80 batteries, which are responsible for some 30% of the vehicle's cost and most of the overall weight. At the time of development, the lithium ion batteries required about 10 hours to recharge from empty to full charge, and could be easily charged off of a residential power grid. In contrast, the Subaru model R1e (2006) can recharge it's lithium ion battery pack in much less time yet, that electric car is built to meet different demands.

The Eliica has eight wheels each equipped with a 60 kW (80 hp) electric motor, providing a massive 640 hp (480 kW) allowing the all wheel drive car to tackle a variety of road surfaces; all four front of the eliica wheels provide steering. The electric motors mean that the Eliica can deliver smooth and consistent acceleration. Each wheel contains a disc brake and employs a regenerative brake system to recover energy and recharge the batteries..

In 2005, there were two versions of the Eliica: a Speed model and an Acceleration model. The Speed model was built to challenge gasoline-based speed records and has a top speed of 230 mph (370 km/h) and a range of about (125 miles) (200 km). The Acceleration model was built for the street and had a top speed of 120 mph (190 km/h) and a range of about 200 miles (320 km).
The estimated cost of development was in excess of $320,000 (USD). Once the team receives corporate sponsorship, they plan to produce at least 200 units. As of early 2007, the projected pricetag was $255,000 USD, or about ¥30,000,000 (yen).