Electric car cruise spins Clark's wheels

It's sleek, silent and less smoky than its competitors and if Prime Minister Helen Clark had her way the majority of us would be driving one in the next 10 years.

Miss Clark yesterday took a journey into the future with a ride around Tokyo's streets in one of the Japan's latest prototype plug-in electric hybrid cars.

Afterwards Miss Clark said the "smooth ride" could prove perfect for New Zealand.

"If they can get it into mass production and get the price down this would be an incredibly popular urban car," she said.

"It's the 21st century version of the Mini and you could run around town in that without ever switching to gas."

Miss Clark received a briefing on the latest models from manufacturers Mitsubishi, which designed the MiEV which she took a ride in, and Toyota.

Miss Clark said because of New Zealand's high level of renewable electricity the potential for emissions reductions was huge.

"We've set an ambition of being one of the leading countries in the world to roll out the technology and we'd like Japan to see New Zealand as a place that is very willing and ready to pick up these kinds of cars and because we've got so much renewable energy it makes sense for us to go the electric car way."

Mitsubishi executives said the MiEV would be available for sale in Japan next year.

It's emissions and running costs were about a third of a normal petrol car.

It took seven hours to charge fully from household mains but that could drop to 30 minutes for 80 per cent charge if power companies brought out new chargers they were working on.

At present the cost of manufacture was three to four times higher than a normal car, but that would drop with mass production. Continuing skyrocketing petrol prices would also make its whole of operation costs competitive.

As well as the MiEV, Miss Clark viewed a plug-in Toyota Prius, with a battery twice the size of a standard model that could be charged from household mains in three to four hours.

The car could run on battery power alone for up to 13km if needed as well as supplementing the petrol engine.

Miss Clark also viewed a Toyota hydrogen cell SUV that only emitted water – a combination of the hydrogen it ran on and oxygen it sucked in while running.

However company representatives said commercial development was still some time off due to its high cost and the need for hydrogen refuelling stations.

Miss Clark also took a ride today around Tokyo's financial nerve centre, Marunouchi, in one of New Zealand company Designline's hybrid buses.

The company has exported four, which are being used as shuttles in the area, as part of a redevelopment project to beautify the area and encourage more people in.

A spokesman for the project said Designline was plugging a gap in the market that Japanese car manufacturers had failed to fill.

Grant Fleming travelled to Japan with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

- NZPA