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Ultra-low energy consumption and ultra-low emission vehicle technologies have been developed by combining petroleum-alternative clean energy with a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) system. Their component technologies cover a wide range of vehicle types, such as passenger cars, delivery trucks, and city buses, adsorbed natural gas (ANG), compressed natural gas (CNG), and dimethyl ether (DME) as fuels, series (S-HEV) and series/parallel (SP-HEV) for hybrid types, and as energy storage systems (ESSs), flywheel batteries (FWBs), capacitors, and lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Evaluation tests confirmed that the energy consumption of the developed vehicles is 1/2 of that of conventional diesel vehicles, and the exhaust emission levels are comparable to Japan's ultra-low emission vehicle (J-ULEV) level.

It is becoming more and more necessary to achieve a sustainable low-carbon society by mobility not depending on oil. Electric vehicles are appropriate for such a society, but expensive battery cost and long charging time prohibit the promotion of EVs. One of the solutions is minimizing battery usage by ultra-low fuel efficiency, so we developed an ultrahigh-efficient electric commuter concept car “C-ta”, which requires as small a battery as possible. We assumed that drivers would use the car as a second car for short-distance daily use, such as commuting, shopping, transportation of family, etc. In order to improve fuel efficiency, we mainly considered an ultra-light weight body and chassis, to which CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) greatly contributes, ultra-low rolling resistance tires, and highly accurate vehicle control technology with four in-wheel motors.