Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration - A Case Study
Eliica Project
This page offers a case study of various research activities and the results of industry-government-academia collaboration conducted at the Keio SFC Research Institute. (Position titles are those at the time of release.)
>> Archive of Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration - A Case Study
Eliica Project
The first case study deals with the electric car project. Keiichi Tsutsumi of Electric Vehicle Laboratory talks about Eliica car, which has recorded a top speed of 370 kph.
 Eliica -short for Electric Lithium-Ion battery Car- is an eco-car powered by lithium ion battery with high-level performance. Its outstanding features are increased mileage per charge and shortened recharging time. The Eliica Project aims to bring this environment -friendly car to the market. At the moment, two running prototypes have been developed and are undergoing tests to prove their safety and performance as passenger vehicles. Car No. 1 is meant for high-speed test driving and has recorded a top speed of 370 kph. while Car No. 2 has acquired car license to run on public roads. The project will continue further research and modification to make Eliica practically usable.
It is now common knowledge that the greenhouse gas (CO2) causes global warming. Recently the CO2 concentration level in the atmosphere is increasing globally and about 20 % of CO2 emission in Japan is from internal-combustion cars. It is very difficult to check the global tendency of environmental deterioration unless we make drastic changes in the vehicles we drive. Electric vehicles are the ultimate ecological cars as they do not exhaust poisonous gases nor do they release droplets of water from their exhausts. The goal of this project is to seek radical solution of environmental problems by dissemination of electric cars. Among other researches, the project is working on intelligent car technologies such as automatic operation control.
The Eliica Project was conceived when professors, Yoshida and Shimizu met. Professor Yoshida, once vice president of Sumitomo Bank, the President of SMBC Leasing Company back then, test drove the "KAZ" for the first time, and predeceasing electric vehicle developed by Professor Shimizu. Professor Yoshida was highly impressed by the powerful acceleration and quietness of an altogether electric KAZ. From a global and environmental perspective, Professor Yoshida decided that he would devote his entire life to support Professor Shimizu's vision to put electric vehicles to practical use. The Eliica Project launched to produce and market an ultimate eco-car that could achieve a high performance became possible when the business skills of Professor Yoshida met with the electric vehicle research ingenuity of Professor Shimizu.
Now the Eliica Project is a large-scale industry-academia partnership project which is not funded by the government, but solely by environmentally conscious companies such as Eneserve Co., Daiwa House Industries, and over 30 commercial companies.ĦĦThe vehicle concept, specifications and design are all created in house by Keio University; and Keio University and sponsoring companies have built the vehicle bodies collaboratively.
We will continue to develop and test advanced prototypes of vehicles. We also plan to start small-lot production with a few hundred cars to put in the market.
(Release Date: 2005/10/24)
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