About a year after the world debut at the Geneva Auto Show in concept form, the first Toyota i-Road electric vehicles have been let loose on public roads in Japan at an event marking their introduction into “Ha:mo”, Toyota’s optimized urban transport system.
Residents from Toyota City had the chance to test the three-wheeler EVs, which will soon be made available to residents at vehicle-sharing stations. The i-Road will also become available to residents of Grenoble, France, later this year, as Toyota signed an agreement for a vehicle-sharing project there that will last until 2017.
Powered by two 2kW motors mounted on the front wheels, the i-Road weighs just 300 kg (661 lbs) and has a width of 850mm (33.4in). It has a driving range of around 31 miles (50 km) on a single charge, calculated at a constant speed of 19 mph (30 km/h).
Users will be able to book an i-Road from Toyota’s EV-sharing stations via a smartphone. You can see how the vehicle-sharing scheme works in the videos posted below.
By Dan Mihalascu
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