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Take a good look at this car, because if you were next to it at a stop light there’s a good chance it would beat you off the line by a long shot.
It’s the SIM-LEI EV, built by the SIM Company, founded in 2009 at Japan’s Keio University. What separates it from the other EVs on the block is SIM’spreference to use four electric motors, one per wheel, rather than a central motor under the hood. The car should have debuted in March, 2011 but couldn’t meet that date after the earthquake devastation of last year.
Range is the biggest selling point. The SIM-LEI is said to last up to 206 miles in city traffic, thanks in part to the car having a minimal 0.19 coefficient of drag, which bests cars like the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i which ballpark around 100 miles.
Most people interested in buying an EV will probably agree that range is important and having double the capacity of the competition is pretty sweet, but there’s something else that makes the SIM-LEI even more interesting. It scoots from 0-60 mph in just 4.8 seconds. For some perspective, a 2010 Mustang GT does it in 4.9.
Sure, the 93 mph top speed isn’t going to do much to your heart rate, but having motors distributed to all four corners mean this car will feel like it’s got suction cups for wheels around tight corners. Say what you will, but that’s a lot of fun.
