New Japanese Electric Motorcycle Supports Apple's iPhone
Terra Motors Corp, a Japan-based venture firm that develops electric motorcycles, announced an electric motorcycle called the A4000i that could be equipped with Apple Inc's iPhone smartphone and functions together as of yesterday. The price starts at roughly $4500 US.
As illustrated below, the iPhone could be set in front of the driver's seat for checking the charging status and mileage of the motorcycle as well as for recording motor load and position and checking them later. For the future, Terra Motors plans to add a navigation function and dispatch control function for business use and offer a new service using data on driving history.
On that point, you have to wonder if this system will be able to work with some form of Apple's "iOS for the Car."
The report describes the motorcycle as being able to travel at a maximum of 40 mph (65km/h) as is powered by a detachable battery that could be charged with a household power outlet (100V or 200V). It takes 4.5 hours to charge the battery. And the life of the battery is 31,000 Miles (or 50,000km). The replacement battery unit is currently sold for about $1000 US. The price is expected to drop after three to five years when the life of the current battery expires.
Terra Motors plans to only release 2000 units of the A4000i by the end of the year. After that, it will start volume production of the motorcycle, planning to sell it across Asia. The company aims to sell 100,000 units by 2015.
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Source: Tech-On
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