REVA Electric City Car for Sale

This electric city car called the Reva that is on sale as a secondhand 2007 model is made by a company called Takeoka in Toyama on the Japan Sea coast. I must admit I had not heard of them before, and when I saw the car the first thing I though of was the Th!nk electric vehicle, which looks remarkably similar.

According to the Takeoka website, the Reva is a 4-seater and yet weighs in at just 740KG. It can travel at up to 80km/h which is acceptable in Japan, especially in the city, but may not be quite optimal in many other countries, and it can get up to 85KM of city driving or 110KM at a constant 60km/h. The Reva classic sells new for 2,079,000 Yen, so the fact that this one is under 4 years old with only 5,000 KM on the clock, and yet is being sold for 680,000 Yen gives you an idea of how fast these depreciate.

I’m sure it is not on the same level as a Leaf, but what I find interesting about the electric car phenomenon is the number of small businesses like this one who are willing to pioneer this new technology with all the risks and market-resistance that comes with the territory. On the other hand, you have the automotive behemoths acting more like supertankers in slowly pulling round to this new course. Perhaps the optimum point is where this entrepreneurial energy meets the resources of the big corporation, which is why I think the tie up between a company like Toyota with an upstart like Tesla is so interesting and significant.