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Takayanagi Miluira Retro EV - An Electric Vehicle from the Past

While most of today's electric vehicles struggle to keep up with their internal-combustion engined equivalents, the Takayanagi Miluira Retro EV boasts an unparalleled styling approach inspired by 1920s automotive design.

With no emphasis on practicality whatsoever, the car is a single-seated roadster with no doors and no roof. In addition, its small 3.5 kW engine is powered by lead-acid batteries, instead of lithium ion battery packs. This means that the 350 kg (almost 1000 lbs) vehicle can reach a top speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) and has a range of just 35 km (about 22 miles). Fully charging the Miluira Retro EV takes about 12 hours with any household power outlet.

Takayanagi's first commercial single-seated electric vehicle, Miluira, has an exorbitant price tag of 6.3 million yen (US $75,000) and is scheduled to begin deliveries as early as March 2011, but the company is already taking orders so if you want one, you might as well hurry up.

While we enthusiastically praise each new EV, this micro car is not pretty enough to compensate for its limited range and overinflated price tag. We can't think of any reason why anyone would spend that much money on this worthless little car when they could have the Nissan Leaf for half the price if they really need an electric vehicle. The design is not that spectacular and functionality is limited, due to the use of lead-acid instead of lithium ion, which has a higher energy density and would provide a greater range. Additionally, having only one seat doesn't make it much of a passenger car either.
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