TOKYO: While its classification as a car may be tenuous, a new transportation device – framed as “the world’s smallest electric car” by its Japanese inventor and manufacturer, Cocoa Motors – is turning heads.
The WalkCar takes the form of a four-wheeled aluminium platform that is about the size and weight of a laptop and is operated in a similar way to the widely used Segway, with the user shifting his or her weight to control the direction and momentum of the device.
Designer Kuniaki Sato says the WalkCar’s lithium battery can hold enough charge to travel 12 kilometres at speeds of up to 10km/h.
While in a prototype phase, the device will be launched on crowdfunding site Kickstarter in October, with an expected delivery date in early 2016.
