The Toyota eCom is an electric vehicle (EV) that

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

first demonstrated at the 1997

Tokyo Motor Show The is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recognized international show ...

. The premise of the eCom was not to be just a small car, but a car available to everybody that had a special electronic card instead of a key, promoting

carpooling Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...

. It was seen in various car shows and demonstrations in three color schemes, one being white with blue fringes, another gold with blue fringes and the third very similar to the first with green-blue fringes. Thirty eComs were made and stations were set up for rental in

Toyota City , formerly known as Koromo, is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 426,162 and a population density of 464 people per km2. The total area was . It is located about 35 minutes from Nagoya by way of the Meite ...

as part of the "Toyota Crayon" project and an additional twenty were rented to the Tama New Town experimental community transportation project near Tokyo.

Toyota Motor Sales USA Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. (TMS, also known as Toyota USA) is the North American Toyota sales, marketing, and distribution subsidiary devoted to the United States market. Founded in 1957 in California, TMS currently employs more than 6,500 p ...

joined with the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

and other partners to demonstrate the shared use of electric cars utilizing the eCom, Toyota's 2-passenger personal transport EV. Participants include companies located in University Research Park, a commercial park next to the university. Along with sharing cars, the "Living Power Park Laboratory" would investigate breakthrough concepts in urban design, electricity generated by stationary fuel cells, and use of a micro power grid to distribute electricity. A fleet of eComs were used for short-distance shared-usage driving and commuting. The eCom and cars like it were pulled from Toyota's widespread lineup not long after for financial reasons.

References

{{Toyota cars ECom Electric car models

See also

References