Eliica:

The Eliica is a demonstration car made in Japan that is totally electric; it is powered by lithium-ion batteries, and uses eight 60 kW in-wheel drive motors to provide the equivalent of 800 horsepower. What makes this car amazing is its performance. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4 seconds ... that's quicker than a Porche 911. Even more incredible, its top speed is between 370 and 400 km/h! Professor Hiroshi Shimizu, of Japan's Keio University, led the team that built the car; he says "We built this particular car to show just how fast, stable and fun an electric car can be."

The Eliica is just over five meters long, bullet-shaped, and runs on eight wheels and carries its batteries, software and motors in a narrow chassis, giving it a low centre of gravity. When you release the brake, push the 'Drive' button, and floor the accelerator, the result is a smooth, rapid acceleration that has been described as 'neck-snapping'. Its performance rivals that of high-end gasoline-powered sports cars.

The Eliica (an abbreviation of "Lithium Ion Car") has already demonstrated very sprightly acceleration - it's quicker to 96 Kmph than a Tesla Roadster or Porsche 911 Turbo - but it's top speed that the team is most focused on. The current land-speed record for a street-legal car is just over 250mph (that's around 400kmh in the new money) and the Eliica team is hoping they'll beat that mark.

How the eight wheels, and their extra rolling resistance, will help in this endeavor is anyone's guess, but the car's aerodynamics (by far the biggest concern when trying to accelerate at speeds above 320 Kmph) look plausible.

The car costs around US $ 3,20,000 about two-thirds of which is the cost of the batteries.

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Audi A4	BMW 3 Series Sedan	Buggati Veyron	Caterham 7 Classic
Chevrolet Spark	Eliica - an Electric Car	Ferrari Enzo	Flextreme
Ford Fiesta	Ford Ikon	Gold Porsche	Honda City
Hyundai i20	Linea Sedan	Mahindra Xylo	Maruti A Star
Maruti Ritz	Mini CAT's Air Car	Nano	Nissan Versa
Opel Insignia	Reva NXG / NXR (Electric Car)	Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe	Skoda - Small Car
Solar Car from Toyota	Terrafugia Transition (Flying Car)	Toyota Corolla	Volvo (Accident-Proof Car)