The B2B platform for full-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles: Industry News

In our weekly scan of original Japanese media, this time we give you a short overview on EV charging in hotel parkings, an EV/HEV technology seminar in Shimane, and the sound of EVs.

Green parking

The Nagoya Castle Hotel and the Nagoya University are working together on greening the town's parking spaces. The greening project combines side protection, environmental aspects and local disaster prevention and covers 1,441 square meter of parking space. Part of the project will be monitoring of and bug detection in EV charging processes at the dedicated 100V and 200V plugs which will be free to use for EV drivers among hotel guests and the public.

Next-generation vehicle research facility

In order to support local SMEs, the prefecture Shimane is organising a seminar on EV/HEV technology and will purchase Mitsubishi i-MiEVs for illustration and analysis. More than 30 companies are expected to participate.

SMEs in Shimane are mainly suppliers for Mazda who is not strongly involved in electric mobility yet. Investing and specialising in parts for electric mobility is therefore currently risky for Shimane's companies. The prefecture, however, does not want local business to fall behind and is therefore investing in initiatives such as this workshop.

Artificial sound for low speed drive

As road safety authorities around the world are pondering the imposition of minimal noise emittance by EVs to assure that pedestrians hear them come, Nissan has revealed some features of the latest Leaf prototype in this respect.

In contradiction to former speculations that Nissan's EV might adopt a fancy movie sound, the company now said they would stick to the electric vehicles “natural” noise, merely intensifying the high frequency, for humans normally barely audible sound from inverter and electric motor in low speeds up to 25km/h. At higher speeds, from 30km/h onwards, this noise would fade out anyways as the rattling of the tires and the squealing of the wind become louder.


The original articles are listed below in the order of appearance in the column.