Four small and medium-sized enterprises from Kansai area made a rickshaw-like electric car, “Meguru” as a part of “Appare EV Project.” The name meguru is written “環” which is from “環境” meaning environment in Japanese.
The three people car is made of bamboo floor, lacquered seamless frame, and paper fan-like doors. This will fit in the scenery of historical towns in Kyoto and Nara.
It looks traditional but it carries the latest technology, lithium- ion battery, which enables car to run about 40 km with an hour and a half charging.
The team launched the project to activate the hometown. Although they didn’t have funds and blueprint, continuous process of trial and error brought the completion of the “Meguru” to the team.
The current biggest issue is the production cost. The parts for the prototype model cost two million yen (US$24,500), but the team is trying to keep the cost below one million yen (US$12,300).
Source: Environment Business
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