We assume electric vehicles without 800 horsepower and ?Ludicrous? drive modes to be worse soul-suckers than middle age or IRS tax audits. The Nissan Leaf" A Smart Fortwo ED" Pretty much every non-Tesla struggles to move the desirability needle. Toyota may have inadvertently stumbled onto an exception to today?s EV reality with its quirky, somewhat experimental i-Road. Down one wheel on conventional cars and up one asinine steering mechanism, the little EV looks and drives unlike anything else out there, gas or electric, car or motorcycle.
We say Toyota tripped into this because the automaker pitches the interesting i-Road as a link in a largely car-free and uninteresting transportation chain. Step off your public train or bus, check out your fleet-managed i-Road like a book from a library, drive to the entrance to your utopian co-habitat, and walk to your door. We understand that for at least appearances’ sake, Toyota must ideate in futurist platitudes, but isn’t that what the Prius is for" For now, treating the i-Road project as one of several conveyor belts on which humans are to be shuffled like so much luggage undersells its considerable appeal. We put the i-Road through its paces during this year?s Tokyo auto show on an improvised autocross course in a parking lot at Fuji Speedway. Just looking at the thing, we liked it immediately. It’s tall, narrow, and rides on two small front wheels and a smaller third wheel in back. In fa...