Japan’s Autobacs is celebrating their 50th anniversary by showing five customized electric vehicles at the Tokyo Auto Salon. That’s hardly surprising for a tuner-focused event, but one of the models is a Garaiya electromod. For those unfamiliar, the ASL Garaiya was introduced at the 2002 Tokyo Auto Salon and was slated to go into production that fall. However, fate intervened and only a handful of prototypes were built before the project was axed in 2005.
Fast forward nearly two decades and this
particular prototype has seen its Nissan-sourced 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine
replaced by an electric powertrain. The listing for the car doesn’t go into
many specifics, but says the coupe has an electric motor developing 168 hp and 280 Nm of torque. That’s less than the original
engine, which was reportedly rated at 201 hp. Despite that,
the model is no slouch as the dash from 0-100 km/h takes 5.2
seconds, while the top speed is 160 km/h.
Autobacs didn’t say much about the car,
but it has a white paint job with contrasting blue accents. They’re joined by
17-inch wheels, which are wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza tires. The model also
has an adjustable suspension as well as scissor doors and a massive rear wing.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first Garaiya electromod as the Osaka Sangyo University Electric Vehicle Project resulted in a car being equipped with an electric motor producing 121 hp and 240 Nm of torque. That enabled the car to hit a top speed of 180 km/h and travel more than 300 km on a single charge.
