Honda cooperates with Kumamoto Prefecture to test its range of electric vehicles

Honda of Japan recently has announced its plan on the ongoing cooperation with Kumamoto Prefecture on the Electric Vehicle Testing Program for the next generation of Honda’s personal mobility product which includes the plug in hybrid vehicle, electric scooters and electric carts. The objective of this program is to conduct a real world urban transportation environment test on all Honda product and this real world test will be monitored via advanced communications and telematics and also solar powered charging technologies to explore the future form of personal transportation.

There will be four vehicles types that will be test by Honda of Japan namely Electric vehicle based on the Honda Fit model that features a coaxial motor and other electromotive technologies being developed based on the FCX Clarity fuel cell electric vehicle that was powered by Toshiba lithium ion battery. The charging period of Honda Fit will be less than six hours and vehicles driving range of more than 160km.

The next vehicle that will be on test would be the Honda Inspire (Accord in Malaysia) that features 2.0 litre i-Vtec engine that is combine with two high output electric motors that provides three drive modes; all electric drive, gasoline-electric hybrid and engine only motive drive. The car also being powered by a lithium ion battery manufactured by Blue Energy and the car has the ability to drive on all electric drive for the range of between 15 to 25km.

The next vehicle will be the Electric scooter or known as EV-Neo and this model is not new in Japan. The EV-Neo is now available on lease today to Japanese companies that involved in short range deliveries and also to individual business owners.

The last vehicle will be the Electric Car (Monpal ML200) that was first launched in 2006. The Monpal ML200 is basically a 4 wheel electric cart and this Monpal that were use for this testing program has been added with a recording device that is capable of storing a variety of performance data and also vehicle operation.

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