Eliica Eight-Wheeled Electric Car: Heading To Production Because The Tesla Isn't Fast Enough

This is super! Even though it's completely electric, this thing sounds like a jet during a flyby! I really like the design of the car too, sure it's weird, but it doesn't bother me at all. I'm totally aching to drive one! I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to be behind the wheel of something that has over 600hp, accelerates to 60mph in less than 4 seconds and an estimated top speed of 250mph, but I can guess that it must be awesome. Yarrrggghh! These electric motors spin twice as fast as the ones on Japan's bullet train! 12,000 rpms! And that documentary is great! It goes really in deep with the history of electric cars and the technology needed to develop them...

Internal Combustion has had it's 100 years...cars started electric, and little by little they are returning! Woo Hoo!

 

I suppose that vehicles like this are a good thing in that they bring more
attention to the EV in all its potentialities.

But when I first saw it the reaction it Eliicited was, "You gotta be kidding me!"


At a mere $225k US, that would be what... two Teslas, -- well, after all it
does have four doors and eight wheels -- ten Prii -- uh, umm, well, it has
about ten times the acceleration.

A true value in the realm of conspicuous consumption... a bargain at twice
the price.

If we do free fall into a true Economic Depression, there will be so few
cars on the road, I guess the acceleration and top speed will be usable.

Meanwhile, I can't wait to see the stretch-limo version -- with an active
wave suppression system in the hot tub... of course.

Hey! We're talking top-drawer here.

 

I would rather buy two Tesla Roadsters (red and black) and have an extra $35,000 left over.

 

And what if there were no limits on money? All of the above? : )

Addendum: Just finished watching the whole documentary...and you know what the best part is (not the most important now, just the best IMO)? At the very end, it beat a Mitsubishi EVO in the acceleration test. Now I know that the EVO is not the fastest car in the world, but that made me smile, because I used to own a Suby WRX, and the competition between EVO and WRX/STI is fierce. So I was glad to see an EVO get slammed by an electric supercar.

I'd love to see the Eliica go against a Veyron now...THAT would be interesting. : )

Also, thank you Steve321 for posting this...

 

Why then beggars would ride... the Eliica, no doubt.

 

I can dig it babe...I can dig it.

 

Eliica Eight-Wheeled Electric Car: Heading To Production Because The Tesla Isn't Ugly Enough

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... ; )

 

This is fake.

 

Ooooh! Look what I found!

http://www.eliica.com/blog/datafiles/eliica_papercraft.pdf

Looks like I can own one afterall!!! LOL!!!

 

The woman working at Discovery channel got to drive the Eliica about a year and a half ago. She was NOT used to high performance cars! The University group who developed it were frowning fiercely at her when she was done. She was driving with the brake depressed at the same time as the throttle!

To give her some slack, it IS a scary ride!

Oh, and the car is NOT a fake, it's real. I'm not so sure about it being put into production. They did parade it around the Japanese auto companies and they all passed on production.

If money were not an issue I'd buy one! You don't HAVE to drive it at full power, after all.

 

FYI,
Ellica's web site...
eliica.com

Ken@Japan

 

My house is on the market and order placed.

 

Anybody know why eight wheels instead of four?

 

Weight

 

I think the electric motors are limited by space to 80 HP each. With one motor per wheel, you'd only have 320 HP with 4 wheels. So, 8 wheels => 640 HP.

 

Yeah, that too.

 

Actually, in the Discovery Channel story they asked the PHD/designer. He stated they wanted to keep the car low for aerodynamics, so smaller diameter wheels were desirable. Smaller diameter usually means lower weight capacity, so they had to use two at each corner. He said it all worked out for the best, as the electric motors weren't practical in larger sizes so using more gave them more power. They also ended up with a larger tire contact patch (multiply the contact patch of each tire by two), which is very important for high performance vehicles in cornering and braking.

In the story they had to do a lot of work to get the motors just right. The "back EMF" all motors generate at very high speed was becoming a problem, so they redesigned them and the drive system to lower it, allowing a higher speed. They were working to get over 300 km/hr as I recall. At the time of the story they were up at 280ish km/hr.

-I- was impressed. At the time I had a 3rd gen RX-7 (slightly modified) that also could reach those speeds, but only sat 2 (and was a tight fit at that). The Eliica's acceleration actually would beat my RX-7, and it sat 5!
I didn't actually ever -drive- my RX-7 at those speeds, of course. I'm not crazy, and I'm old enough that my imagination warns me of the real consequences of doing so. If -ANYTHING- went wrong at those speeds the resulting pieces would be rather small. So I limited my tests to 200 km/hr, and only did so three times for short times on -very- deserted and desolate roads with very good visibility in all directions.