Nissan Hypermini

The Nissan Hypermini is a two-seater electric microcar that Nissan built in very small numbers for the Japanese market between 1999 and 2001. By the maker's own test under the Japanese 10-15 mode it could reach 100 km/h and travel about 115 kilometres on one charge, and it won the New Energy Grand Prize. It went on retail sale through dealers in the Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto areas in February 2000 at four million yen, aimed mainly at government bodies and corporations. The car used an aluminium space frame chassis, plastic panels, lithium-ion batteries under the floor and an inductive paddle charger. Hyperminis served in car-sharing programmes in Kyoto, Ebina and Yokohama and in a research programme at the University of California, Davis, and Nissan later stopped making and maintaining them.