When you look at this Tesla Model S wrapped in a yellow tiger that even has a tale you realize how big anime is in Japan. The peculiar vehicle was recently filmed in Kobe, the capital city of Hyogo Prefecture and was in fact created for educational purposes.
The peculiar wrap is related to “Shima Shima Tora no Shimajiro”, a 1993 Japanese children’s slice of life anime series primarily aimed at preschoolers, animated by Pierrot Plus. It aired at TV Setouchi and in all TXN TV networks in Japan from December 13, 1993, to March 31, 2008, having a total of 726 episodes. The anime’s characters are quite big in The Land of The Rising Sun and the Tesla Model S in question was showcased during a Shimajiro Live show in Kobe.
Busan Kevin, an English native speaker who is a teacher working in Japan, happened to be in the neighborhood and was kind enough to share a short clip with the e-tiger so we figured sharing it with you guys would be the least we could do. According to Kevin, the Shimajiro Tesla was parked outside the Umie Shopping Center this weekend and makes for the first American EV he spotted.
Apart from the fact that we find the tiger-wrap really crazy and quite cool, we’d also like to outline that this car once again proves Japan is really into EVs. Even though the Tesla Model S will cost more than Nissan Leaf - which is by far the most popular green-car in Japan - Elon Musk’s luxury sedan is slowly getting into the Island’s lifestyle.
As we were reporting earlier this month, there are currently more charging points in the island nation than gas station, which tells a lot of what the future of transportation will look like in the country. And it seems the San Carlos company has still a couple of cards left to play in its game with competitor Nissan.
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