Fill it up... with electricity please

Your car may become just another household appliance if a Japanese vehicle developer and former rally driver gets his way.

Yoshio Takaoka, in collaboration with Italy's Start Lab SAP, has created the Girasole, a fully functional electric car that can be fueled from a home power outlet.

The highway-worthy two seater reaches speeds of 65 km per hour (41 mp/h) and travels distances of up to a 120 km on a full battery, which costs about $1.

"Previously I was a polluter but as I grew older I felt I had to do penance for this and do something good in return," Takaoka, 63, told Fuji TV, referring to his rally driving heydays.

The Girasole, which means sunflower in Italian, retails for about $2.2 million but drivers can claim a $6,600 subsidy from the government under an environmental protection clause.

Japanese consumers who test drove the car were impressed by its quietness. But the car comes equipped with the clip-clop sound of horse hooves hitting the pavement to alert pedestrians and other drivers.

Related News

kiev electricity

More Managers Charged For Price Fixing At Ukraine Power Producer

KIEV - Two more executives of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power and coal producer, have been charged in a criminal case on August 14 involving an alleged conspiracy to fix electricity prices with the state energy regulator, Interfax reported.

They are Ivan Helyukh, the CEO of subsidiary DTEK Grid, and Borys Lisoviy, a top manager of power generation company Skhidenergo, according to Kyiv-based Concorde Capital investment bank.

Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) alleges that now four DTEK managers “pressured” and colluded with four regulators at the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission to manipulate tariffs on electricity generated from coal that forced consumers…

READ MORE
clock

Renewable growth drives common goals for electricity networks across the globe

READ MORE

Why an energy crisis and $5 gas aren't spurring a green revolution

READ MORE

alberta power lines

Ottawa making electricity more expensive for Albertans

READ MORE

tesla electricity retailer

Tesla (TSLA) Wants to Become an Electricity Retailer

READ MORE