The first few paragraphs. Emphasis mine.
In the rural suburbs of Hiroshima, a Japanese startup is trying to kick-start the nation’s electric vehicle market with the smallest, cheapest car it can possibly make. KG Motors has developed a battery-powered one-seater that more resembles a futuristic golf cart than it does a modern EV, much less a traditional car. And yet well over half of the 3,300 units it plans to deliver by March 2027 have already been pre-sold to customers.
Incidentally, that puts it on track to sell more EVs in Japan than the world’s biggest automaker, Toyota Motor, which shifted around such 2,000 vehicles in all of 2024. In a country where EVs are still a rare sight, KG Motors is trying to bust a burgeoning myth: that bigger is better. "Cars are simply too big,” founder and Chief Executive Officer Kazunari Kusunoki said. "Seeing so many big cars traveling Japan’s narrow streets — that’s where this all began for me.”
At under 1.5 meters in height, KG Motors’ Mibot has a range of 100 kilometers, a charging time of five hours and a top speed of 60 kilometers per hour. It will cost ¥1 million ($7,000) before tax when production starts in October at KG Motors’ new factory east of the city. That’s about half the price of Japan’s most popular EV, Nissan’s Sakura.
I wonder what he would think if he came to a typical American city and saw all the AMERICAN-SIZED monstrous SUVs and trucks.
some people want to shit on golf carts, but they are fun as fuck. I worked a landscape management/farm job at this one place where we would use the landscape version of golf carts (electric, 2 seater, back is a dumpable cargo box that could hold 300lbs of whatever, off-road tires) and they were awesome for zipping around or bringing materials to little beds, tucked away and in inconvenient spots.
I understand and appreciate the enthusiasm for big equipment, but they are not appropriate for 95% of the use cases. sure I needed the tractor and loader for tillage and bed shaping and moving tons of materials, but just idling that fucker is like $35-55 an hour in associated material costs/depreciation. even a little pickup truck is like $12-20 an hour. electric golf carts are like pocket change. and you just plug em in over night. they’re genius.
I wonder what he would think if he came to a typical American city and saw all the AMERICAN-SIZED monstrous SUVs and trucks.
They’d need to have a “skitching” kit installed. Get close, grab on, get a free ride.
That thing is dope! I’d never get one in the US, though. Too much reliance on highways means the top speed and charge time prevent it from being able to go anywhere outside of your immediate city.
Incidentally, that puts it on track to sell more EVs in Japan than the world’s biggest automaker, Toyota Motor, which shifted around such 2,000 vehicles in all of 2024.
Maybe people in Japan who’d buy EVs in other countries just use public transport and bikes, etc. but this is much lower than I thought.
Toyota also barely offers any fully electric cars anyways. In the us they sell one “here fine” ass car called the bz4x which is slow and underwhelming for the price.
I’d guess it’s one part this one part is japan is the eternal 90s
I’d also guess this is mostly like the Dutch Microcars, i.e. old people cycling replacement. 60kph gets you to legal highway speed in japan according to a quick google but also that probably takes a lot ouf of the 100km range.
This kind of reminds me of the Twike. It’s another small electric car that you peddle. I’ve seen one person with it around the area lately.
