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R1E Subaru
What do you get when
you cross a Smart Car with a manganese-lithium
ion battery? You get the Subaru R1e. This
plucky little urban car has all the earmarks
of 21st Century Design and is a clear contender
for what might be the next revolution in automobiles.
Able to gather a charge from a regular house
socket, the R1e is completely electric and
is not a hybrid.
Of course the first thing that one notices
when looking at the R1e is that it’s
tiny… this is not a farm vehicle unless
you work on an ant farm! Keeping this in mind
it is very easy to park and will fit on spaces
even compact cars find a tight squeeze. Put
together with Tokyo streets in mind, its no
surprise that the R1e is such a half-size
package.
The car’s maker,
Subaru, says that a singe over night charge
(using only a single-phase 200V AC outlet)
will provide enough power for a daily inner-city
commute and also says that the R1e’s
performance will surpasses similar gasoline-powered
vehicles. This of course remains to be seen…
as most people in North America commute a
lot farther then those in Japan! And this
is good… considering the R1e will only
be available in Japan.
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