Nissan’s electric car of 1947?
Nissan unveiled the prototype their so-called “first” mass-volume electric car, the “Leaf,” during an opening ceremony at the company’s new global headquarters in Yokohama on August 2, 2009. I write “co-called” because Nissan’s first electric car was produced from 1947 to 1950.
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What is wrong with this picture?*
According to a recent press release from Nissan , the post-World War II shortages in oil (and foreign monetary reserves) caused the Japanese government to encourage production of EVs (electric vehicles). One result was the “Tama Electric Car” was created by Tokyo Electric Cars Company–one of the ancestors of Prince Motor Co., Ltd., which later merged with Nissan.
Developed by military aviation engineers who lost their jobs at the end of the war, the Tama Electric Car used lead-acid batteries and generated 3.3kW power and a top speed of 35 km/h (22 mph). With a cruising range of 65 km (40 miles), they were used mainly as taxis…The car was sold until 1950, when Japan’s post-war recovery was well underway and oil supplies had stabilized
Knowing the general price of Japanese goods of the time, the Tama must have cost only $1,000 or less (even my first new Toyota only cost $1,945 in 1972). I would love to buy Tama today for the same price and put in more powerful NiCad batteries, ha, ha.
Anyway, for more information, read the entire press release.
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August 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 am
WFT!? There is a radiator and grill on the front of all-electric car.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
Ha, ha, I didn’t notice that. There’s not much use having a coolant system on an all-electric car without an internal combustion engine.
August 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Today Slashdot has a discussion of the LEAF.
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:08 pm
It seems a bit sad that we still haven’t gone much further today. As far as the grill, it could have been there for cosmetics or because they used the same body as another car.
August 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Grill helped to cool electric motor
and possibly allow fresh air to go
over batteries to waft away any gas
ses they might have emitted? May al
so have provided thru-car air flow
ventilation? With safety and motor
updates this little vehicle cud still be useful…Aaron Allen..
August 9th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
You’re right Aaron-san. This car did use lead-acid batteries, which in the old days had open cells that could generate explosive hydrogen gas during charging.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Taro: Siemens has a nice water-cool
ed electric motor for cars/trucks.
It is an AC unit which produces a
lot of torque and can reach highway
speeds. A radiator with electric
fans helps to cool it. In the 1947
Nissan car [updated], it cud easily
reach 90-100 km/hr on expressways.
One of the new, stronger fiberglass
bodies, radial tires and safety equ
ipment you cud have a ’super-kai-
jidosha’ to drive thru narrow stree
ts or on highways? They wud make
nice ’share’ cars, too. Place your
membership card on windshield and
door opens. Use it and leave it–
you are billed at end of month: En-
ergy, insurance and rental are in-
cluded. This is better than buying
or leasing a car for most people..
Aaron Allen..
August 10th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but there are many more K-cars (660cc class) in the countryside than in Tokyo.
I am very typical of the average Tokyo car owner: I drive a Nissan Fuga 350 GT (Infiniti M35), which is the widest Japanese sedan sold, on Tokyo’s crappy narrow, sidewalk-less, streets with utility poles planted in the driving lane.
Why?
Tokyo is so cramped, my car spends most of its time parked in traffic so I might as well enjoy myself.
Back home in the States, I have started to tinker with building an all-electric car of my own from a test platform of dead ATV (quad-bike is the lightest possible platform and is licensed as a motorcycle with almost no restrictions).
If the ATV (or cross-country go cart )works out, I’ll scale it up to a recycled platform of the lightest sports car I can scrounge out of the junkyard. Right now I have my eyes on several options:
* abandoned fiberglass kit car project (most cost effective),
* old dead Saab Sonnet (600 kg /1,323 lb before engine removal,
* ancient dead fiberglass ’70s dune buggy,
* unloved Porsche 914 (ideal because it has targa roof and light weight but pricey) or
* Sunbeam Alpine 1961-ish (because it’s light without the engine and has proper tail fins).