Almost perfect...Just need to increase the range by about 30km, top speed by 8mph and seating capacity to 3 people (1 adult and 2 midgets) and it would serve me perfectly...now if only I had a place to charge up such a vehicle. Maybe my place of work would let me plug in during the day?

Did I say 28 days a week, I meant month of course.

If they can supply an on-board generator to charge it up, it would be fine. If we go to a Church or friends place which is more than 80 km, then we can start the generator after reaching there and by the time, we come out, it will be fully charged.

Good vehicle, but it should come to market.

In earlier posts on the R1e it was described as having a range of 120 km (70 miles). Still, that would satisfy many commuter's needs. The next question is battery life....

The real question here is cost. If they were $10,000, I'd buy one right now. I only work around 8 miles (13km) from home, so even with A/C going the whole time, it's a piece of cake to go to work, grocery shopping, my girlfriend's house, etc. on one charge in a day. Unfortunately, this thing is probably around $60,000 or more. LiIon batteries are wicked expensive and probably make up 80% of the vehicle cost.

This car is certified for the Japanese market. You cannot just import it to the US. The safety regs etc. are different, plus the steering wheel is on the other side.

The 100kph is the top speed, but the 80km range is probably based on a lower average speed. Throw in some mild acceleration (thi is Japan, after all) and imperfect recuperation. I'm guesstimating an equivalent load might be ~2h of driving at ~50kph constnt speed, which in a vehicle this size would take ~5kW at the terminals.

That would put usable battery capacity at 10kWh, which is substantial even with MnLi-Ion chemistry. A fair amount of the cargo space of this subcompact car may have been by the battery.

For a a 15 minute recharge time at ~400V, you'd need to draw ~100 amps of current. That's a beefy cable.

Is there any possibility that GM or Ford might come up with a similar vehicle? Now is their chance to do so and I am hoping that they will make the effort.

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Yeah it's not like this is the first EV. GM had the EV1, Toyota had the RAV4 EV, and Honda had the Honda EV. ALL of them were killed by the retardedly high purchase cost. You think people go apesh** over the $3000 premium for hybrids? What do you think they had to say about the $120,000 reported cost of a GM EV1 or the $70,000 or something that RAV4 EV's are going for on the used market even? Too much money. Too much!

considering the extreme popularity of exceptionally tiny cars that cost $60,000, can't maintain highway cruising speed, and have to stop for 15 minutes every 50 miles, I think they are a perfect fit for the US.

sarcasm.

I love the idea of battery vehicles, but this would be a bad joke in the US. the industry would have to work for a decade to get over the public image problem this would create.

I hope nobody tries to sell BEVs in the US until they are actually ready for the market. the technology doesn't need any more barriers to acceptance than it already has.

Its starting small. Bollore is putting a very similar thing, its BlueCar on streets in europe.
By the time those hit the market, the battery tech, engine tech and electronics in them is already outdated and user modifications, upgrades and new models will inevitably pop up
We will get the highway capable, 300+ mile range EVs. Its simply going to take some trials first

Please stop that pricing crap!
Currently Li-ion for EVs goes for $ .7/Wh
That means 10kWh battery pack for 100.000miles ~ $7000 which is in turn still cheaper than overall ownership costs of ICE cars.

Don't count on the big manuf. starting producing EVs this just won't happen in the next 20years a lot of parts and barrels of oil to sell.

Go ahead with individual EV conversion, it's documented all over the web..

Price was not the demise of the GM, Honda, and Toyota EV offerings. The late 90's early 00's EV demise was due mainly to the collaborative effort by the automakers, oil companies, and the fantasy hydrogen fuel cell camp to kill off the EV movement. Most of the EVs produced in response to the short lived California ZEV law have been sent to the car crusher. Although PG&E is still operating the RAV4 EV. Most of the EV drivers were not given the opportunity to purchase the EVs as they were only offered on a lease basis. Check out the newly released filem "Who Killed the Electric Car" for an entertaining and informative story about the subject.

The range and speed of this car would be almost identical to that of the Ford Th!nkCity that I leased, but with potentially fast charging. Cool! We chose the Th!nk because it was the only electric car we could afford at the time. It surprised us by how much it met our needs. I'd get one of these in a heartbeat.

Fears of the initial price are overblown. The only reason electric RAV4-EVs sell for $50,000-$65,000 on eBay now is because there are so few of them (the rest crushed by all the automakers) and because of pent-up DEMAND. The original cost to the few drivers who could buy the RAV4-EV (keep in mind this is a small SUV) was about $30,000 after government rebates, which will be available for any new EVs here again. Hey, I couldn't afford a computer or a cell phone when they first came out, but early adopters drove the price down. Same thing here.