Street Legal, Ultra Compact EV Is "More Eco-Friendly Than Using The Train" (video)

Team "Prominence", which participates primarily in solar car races, has developed the Prominence Commuting Device (PCD).

"We began developing this vehicle in April 2009 and achieved a completed vehicle in May of 2010. At that point the vehicle was issued a license and we began conducting demonstration testing on public roads. As for the reason we developed this car, if you carefully consider how a vehicle is operated by battery power, then you must also consider the difference between the energy available in existing gasoline powered vehicles and the amount of energy that can be stored by batteries. If we compare the two and set the energy volume of gasoline powered vehicles at 100, then the energy volume of lithium-ion batteries is only around 1. Therefore, there is a difference of about 100 times in the amount of energy that can be stored, and if we focus our attention on that area, then it's obvious that advancements must be made with transmission parts. However, in addition to that, we must also consider measures that will enable the vehicle itself to travel faster with less power. When we thought about the vehicle from that point of view, we recognized the need to develop a vehicle that is as lightweight as possible while also minimizing air resistance. To achieve this, we decided to develop a prototype vehicle using the knowledge and experienced that we had gained from participating in solar car races."