Electric Car, Party Of One?

Japan's Takeoka Jidosha Kogei Ltd. is debuting a new car in Tokyo this weekend: a prototype model of an all-electric one-seater, the T10. 

The T10 seems to be the company's second minicar, after TJK's Milieu R. The T10 is somewhat roomier, with storage space to the left of the driver for a "pet animal" (or multiple pet rocks). It's classified as a motorized four-wheel bicycle, with a per-charge range of 50 km and a top speed of 55 km per hour. It's expected to sell for a little more than the Milieu, which is currently priced around $9,520 US. In an interesting coup for American manufacturing, Curtis Instruments, Inc. provides the control system for the Japanese motor. Also, we should point out that the T10 looks kinda funny. Cute and interesting, to be sure, but funny. We'd love to tell you more, but unfortunately, there's not much info about the company online. It doesn't even look like they have a website, which seems weird. (Heck, even we have a website, and we only talk about cars.) Even the one vaguely substantial mention of the Milieu R is embedded deep in a PDF (HTML version here), and the most we learn from that is that it has a range of 55 km, tops out at 60 km per hour, and it's also classified as a four-wheeled motorcycle. That said, we'd love to hear more about either of these vehicles--especially from our Japanese readers who might've seen one in the wild. Drop us a line or leave a message in the comments below!