After months of teasers and speculations Japan’s Cocoa Motors has come up with world’s smallest electrical vehicle “Walkcar”. The Walkcar is almost as small as your laptop computer which can be brought in bag or briefcase and you can operate at your will to take you anywhere anytime.
The Walkcar comes in two versions; indoor or outdoor and is made of lightweight aluminium material and weighs between 2Kg to 3Kg (4.4 pounds to 6.6 pounds) depending on type of version. This tiny electric gadget is developed by electric engineer Kuniako Saito and powered by lithium batteries. This mobility device can carry an individual of up to 120kg at 10 km/hr for a distance up to 12Km. The battery can be fully charged in three hours and there are reports that this tiny vehicle may cost around $800 (100,000 Japanese Yen).
The Walkcar is a skateboard like device that has Segway – like powers and to start it, you just need to stand on it and bend your body towards the destination you like to go. Just like the Segway, shifting your body weights towards the left or right would change the direction of the car and stepping off it stops the car.
The video demonstrates that this car can power you up steep hills, you can push the person sitting in a wheelchair; can easily manoeuvres through zigzag obstacles and takes on the bumps in the road without difficulty with its tiny delicate wheels.
What is the motivation for this innovative tiny vehicle? Cocoa Motors’ Kuniako Saito told Reuters, “I thought, ‘what if we could just carry our transportation in our bags, wouldn’t that mean we’d always have our transportation with us to ride on?’ and my friend asked me to make one, since I was doing my masters in engineering specifically on electric car motor control systems.”
No doubt that this tiny electric car is the best solution for traversing long city blocks instead of using conventional cars for short travels and one step towards using technology to reduce toxic emissions. The device is set to be ready for the public in the spring 2016 with pre-orders beginning in October.
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