Honda's EV-STER Electric Sports Reduces Weight with Special Materials

Honda Motor (Public, NYSE:HMC) today world premiered its electric sports car concept EV-STER, which uses special materials to reduce weight, thus achieving high driving performance.

Honda EV-STER is a two-seater effort effort to diminish a sports car dimensions and give it a better performance powering with electricity. This sports car concept only measures 3570mm long, 1500mm wide and is 1100mm tall. It has a wheelbase that spans 2325mm.

The company, which is known for its commitment to addressing the climate change and addressing the alternative energy resource issues, has used carbon materials to reduce the weight of the EV-STER. Every time a car maker is able to reduce the weight of a car it can achieve a higher performance. Every time you increase the weight, you compromise mileage per gallon spent to run the car. Recently, Honda's competitor Toyota introduced Prius V Hybrid for active city dwelling mid size families. The company aimed to give it a bigger cargo, which in turn slightly increased the fuel consumption and lowered its MPG. Thus, Honda, achieving a lighter weight in an electric sports car with carbon material usage, is a big step forward in EV manufacturing.

The result is that EV-STER Sports concept has a range of 160 km/h, which is 100 miles per hour.

Honda's introduction of the electric EV-STER concept is surprising. Several years ago Honda got out of the sports car business, and now world premiering an electric sports car concept at the 2011 Tokyo Auto Show is kind of a pleasant surprise to auto journalists.

With only 100 mph one cannot go to a wild drive in a country side, and it's not recommended either. However, look at the steering wheel. Honda is playing it in a very futuristic style. It looks like flying a plane, not driving a car. The company says it has designed this twin-lever steering for the "thorough pursuit of the joy of driving." The cockpit - yes let's call the interior as cockpit - is designed to give the driver all the technical information he or she needs while driving, in a very comfortable way.

Here are some key specifications of the EV-STER. The car accelerates from 0-60 in 5 seconds. It uses a 10kWh lithium-ion battery with a maximum output of 58kW. It can be recharged in 6 hours if using a conventional charger. But can also be charged in three hours if used a 200V quick charging system.

The company has not specified if EV-STER electric sports concept will go to production. Honda's stock HMC is currently trading at $31.40 and is up in pre-market trading 3.56%.