The Phiaro: Another Three-Wheeled Car

CHIBA, Japan -- The VentureOne from Venture Vehicles isn’t alone.

Japan’s Phiaro has concocted a three-wheeled, two-seater car that tilts like a motorcycle, which is pretty similar to the VentureOne. In fact, the two cars are based around the same technology initially devised by a company in the Netherlands. Teruhiko Iwasaki, president of the company, showed the Eternity off during a presentation at Ceatec, a technology trade show taking place this week outside of Tokyo.

Venture Vehicles is much further along: It has raised capital from Ngen Partners and plans to come out with cars in 2010. Phiaro has designed a prototype and is now hunting for manufacturing partners, Teruhiko said.

The idea behind these cars is to open up the category for urban commuter cars, smaller vehicles that can fit in tight parking spaces and won’t see much time on the freeway. Because they have three wheels, these cars are classified as motorcycles, which means the process to make them street legal in most countries is shorter and easier. The cars also tilt like motorcycles, which makes them more fun to drive than regular cars. The smaller size of the autos means they should sell for a lot less than a standard car: Venture will try to bring out its vehicles for around $25,000.

The downside? There haven’t been a lot of successful three-wheelers out there since the demise of sidecar. Myers Motors and Zap have been plugging away at it for years with their own three-wheelers, but they haven’t got much past the novelty stage.

The prototypes from both Venture and Phiaro also right now run on gas motors. The versions that will be released to the public will be plug-in hybrids or all-electric cars. Right now, though, batteries are somewhat expensive. Venture, in fact, decided earlier this year to start with a plug-in hybrids and move to batteries later because of the expense of batteries.