A while back I noticed that the online parts catalogue had an entry for an 'electric vehicle drive unit'. I never looked into it until yesterday, when instead of searching by my truck's chassis number, I took a look at the list of variants and found this: It seems to have been a 1998 model only. I'm curious if anyone else has ever heard anything about this? Google results are swamped with the modern Hijet EV. The only contemporary reference I could find was this press release. They expected to sell '100 per year' at an MSRP of 2,850,000 yen. To make 240 V each of the 20 modules would be a 12 V sealed lead acid golf cart battery, for a total of 60 Ah (14.4 kWh in modern terms). 115 km range, 7 hours to a full charge. The battery powers a 35 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor though an 'IGBT inverter' at speeds up to 100 km/h. According to the parts catalogue the motor would mount up to the standard manual transmission. The next year the new S2xx model got its own EV version with the same specs. I'm curious where the battery box(es) actually went - it kind of looks like they just sat on the floor of the cargo compartment, since the ICE transmission, driveline, and rear axle were all still present. (54: battery module, 56: battery exhaust filter, 58: exhaust hose set, 57: battery filter bracket) Battery box framing: (64: front battery case cover, 66: rear battery case cover, 71: battery box pads, 68: battery tray packing) Battery cooling fan: Instrument cluster with 'Electric Vehicle' charge indicator: Charging system: (11: OBC, 21: drive inverter, 14: (DC/DC?) converter assembly, 19: circuit breaker, 12 & 13: charger plug and socket Last but not least, the throttle encoder to turn the tension on the standard accelerator cable into a control signal:
