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Elon Musk: 'We could definitely make a flying car'
by Kate Stanton
London (UPI) Jun 9, 2013


Nissan unveils newest all-electric vehicle
Yokohama, Japan (AFP) June 09, 2014 - Nissan on Monday unveiled its second all-electric vehicle, the Japanese automaker's latest push into the eco-friendly car sector despite disappointing sales.

The company said its e-NV200, a zero-emission commercial van, can drive 190 kilometres (120 miles) on a full charge, and doubles as an onboard power source to supply emergency lighting or power to an outside unit.

Nissan was the first in the world to sell a mass-production electric passenger vehicle, the LEAF, in 2010.

The newest vehicle, which comes with either five or seven seats, is to go on sale in some European countries before its October Japan launch with prices starting at 3.88 million yen ($37,900), Nissan said.

Retail prices could be lower after accounting for government subsidies on green-vehicle sales, it added.

The van can be fully recharged in eight hours or to 80 percent of its battery capacity in half an hour using a separate quick-charging system.

Nissan said it hoped to log monthly sales of 200 units in Japan for its electric van, a modest target after LEAF sold just 115,000 units globally since its launch nearly four years ago.

Japan's number two automaker also has plans to release an electric vehicle for the Chinese market, but demand has been disappointing largely due to their short driving range, high prices and a lack of re-charging infrastructure.

Elon Musk, imaginative billionaire and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, said Monday at the British launch of the Tesla Model S that he often thinks about building a car that can fly.

"We could definitely make a flying car -- but that's not the hard part," Musk told the Independent. "The hard part is, how do you make a flying car that's super safe and quiet? Because if it's a howler, you're going to make people very unhappy."

Musk, who described any flying car project as "just for fun," said he had plans to build a submarine car inspired by the vehicle driven by Roger Moore's James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me.

"It can transition from being a submarine to a car that drives up on the beach. Maybe we'll make two or three, but it wouldn't be more than that. It's not like we'd sell it, because I think the market for submarine cars is quite small," he said.

Terrafugia Inc., a Massachusetts company founded by MIT graduates, has been already working on a flying car called the Transition. It's scheduled for a 2016 debut.

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