A streetcar named SWIMO; battery-powered tram in Japan
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Transportation Alternatives
Old school meets high-tech in the Smooth Win Mover (SWIMO), a battery-powered streetcar set for deployment in Japan in 2007. Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) is developing the SWIMO and the nickel metal hydride batteries with KHI's exclusive "giga cell" to power it. One difference between the SWIMO and the light EV cars and trikes we've hears of recently that can go 70-250 miles on a charge is the SWIMO's range: 10 kilometers on a charge. Nonetheless, KHI is promoting the SWIMO's low CO2 emissions and hopes to refine the technology in the future. You can read the original press release (in Japanese) here, or the Google-translated English version here.
[Source: Kawasaki Heavy Industries via Akihabara News]
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