A continuously variable trans could sustain peak torque for longer.
Should the GT-R have paddle shifters at least?
Have you heard of the Eliica before? It's an electric lithium ion-powered sedan-type car that engineers at the Keio University Electric Vehicle Laboratory introduced at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show. In development for more than two decades, it stares global warming, atmospheric pollution and soaring petroleum prices in the face, and then laughs.
Why? Because the first prototype achieved a top speed of 370k m/h. Realize this is faster than most if not all Japanese bullet trains. More impressive is the Eliica can accellerate at .4G to its top speed in only 15.2 seconds. Its range is only 200 km though. The lab has a second Eliica prototype for testing on public roads. Its top speed is only 190 km/h, but it gets you there even quicker - 11.3 sec. - with .8G acceleration and 320 km range. It does all this with eight wheels with regenerative brakes for charging the battery stacks, of course.
Keio University engineers realize the 370 km/h maximum speed does not have any practical meaning or use on its own, however, they believe it is the point that electric vehicles had to reach out to prove their practicability and safety. But, at this level, beyond most commercialized premium sports cars, zero to 100 km/h takes just 4.1 seconds; zero to 160km/h takes only seven seconds. And, those eight wheels deliver incredible traction on any road, straight or curved. Yet the Eliica consumes very little energy and the actual electricity expense is unbelievably cheap (1 yen/1 km when overnight charging is used) according to Keio engineers.
The only production barrier is that the lithium-ion batteries the Eliica requires currently go for $230K USD, thus inflating the vehicle's price to $350K. Fortunately, there are other uses for these batteries outside of electric vehicles.
Check out
www.eliica.com for some video.
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