ELECTRIC CAR and ZERO EMISSION IN JAPAN
Japan NHK Sunday Forum (Education TV) came on the air that the title was Electric car changes our society on September 16.The program was taken one hour in Sunday evening, and 5 members of the panel spoke about electric car from their each technical standpoint. 5 members are composed of two professors (one is female) of university, industrial designer, car critic and nonfiction writer. I had very interested in the program because it appeals the preventing of warming climate.Some points of this program were these.1 Tokyo Electric Power Co. is researching and developing for new electric car, and some prototype mini- cars were made and used actually as practical use testing at Yokohama branch office in Japan.2 The car has lithium-ion battery. It runs approximately 80Km by one charge, and it takes about 15 minutes for quick charging. Usually the car is charged in parking area during the night. The cost of one charge is about 65 US cents (80Yen). The accelerating performance etc are as same as conventional car. But this new car is too silent.3 The cost of this test car is about 48,000 US dollars now, but on 2010(for practical application use) it will be reduced to 24,000~16,000 US dollars(1dollar is 125yen).4 The material of magnetic steel plate and the configuration which is used in new electric motor was developed, the thickness of new magnetic steel plate is 2mm~1.5mm(traditional type is 4 mm.). The new magnetic steel plate is very hard just like stone, so special strong press machine is prepared to produce this. As the result, the efficiency of electric motor increased up to 20%.5 In Kathmandu of Himalayan kingdom, people had breathing disorder by emission of taxi car(small 3 tires car) which was used fossil fuel, then these 2,000 cars engine were changed to nickel-zinc cell battery.6 In Tokyo University researches a future new concept car which each tire has individual micro processor to control itself and these micro processor are controlled by main PC to keep car safety and efficiency.The general outline of this program was these. We must find out any factors of warming climate and solve these problems, and also we do change firmly our daily life to recover the nature step by step.

5 Comments
Is the electric motor in the car using permanent magnets?
Could you provide a link where we can see the specification of the car?
Dear Mr Hans De Keulenaer
Thank you for your message, I would like to answer with my joy.
In this case(Mitsubishi-motors),it is used parmanent magnetic synchronized type motor,
and this web site address is as follows(but it is in japanese). sincerly
http://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.jp/corporate/technology/environment/miev.html#05
Thanks. Despite Japanese language, it's easy to understand most of the specs. A 16 kWh battery with a 160 km is certainly a step in the right direction.
#4 by Andre Balogh on June 10, 2008 at 10:17 p.m.
You mentioned a small 3 wheels car , can you tell me more about it manufacturer , web-site etc..... ( In Kathmandu of Himalayan kingdom, people had breathing disorder by emission of taxi car(small 3 tires car) which was used fossil fuel, then these 2,000 cars engine were changed to nickel-zinc cell battery.
Thank you comment Mr.Andre Balogh, I researched some home pages respect to EV in Japan, but I could not find out three wheels car EV. So I asked Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI) ( http://www.jari.or.jp/en/index.html)
and I could find out some information by JARI staff's faver.
Three wheels car EV (named Safa Tempo) is assembled by some imported electricity parts from India and USA in Kathmandu. The car weigt is about 1 tone, the voltage of battery is 76V and it's life time is about 1.5 years, the running distances of one charge is about 60km, they have 37 charge station in Kathmandu and the electricity power comes from hydro power.
And also I wil show you some information of developing of EV in japan.
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jevc.gr.jp%2F&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jevc.gr.jp%2F&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2&wb_co=excitejapan
According to abruptly hight oil price and to stop changing climate, Japan Post Office is going to change having all 20,000 cars to EV cars this year, and a car manufacturer has a plan to produce 1,000 EV cars in Japan market this year and next year 10,000.
If this iformation is usefull for you, I will be happy.