Electric Daihatsu Mira goes 623 miles on a charge, but not to a showroom near you

Want an electric vehicle with more than a piddly couple-hundred mile range? Apparently you have to build it yourself and follow in the footsteps of the Japan Electric Vehicle Club, which broke the Guinness World Record last weekend by driving 623.76 miles (just over 1,000km) on a single charge in its customized Daihatsu Mira. The trip took 27.5 hours traveling around what appears to be the famous Tsukuba circuit in Shimotsuma, Japan. The car was powered by 8,320 Sanyo li-ion cells, each weighing about 44 grams, for a grand total of 807lbs — more than half the weight of a stock Mira. While we’re sure Daihatsu helped with this build, it’s worth noting that this is not an official project of the company, meaning the 100 mile Nissan Leaf is about as close as you’re going to get to this feat for the near future.

[Photo credit: Japan Electric Vehicle Club]

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Electric Daihatsu Mira goes 623 miles on a charge, but not to a showroom near you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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