Marubeni invests in new electric car-related joint venture

Marubeni Corp., a Japanese trading company, is one of five companies investing in a new joint venture that may produce 100,000 battery-electric cars with a partner by 2013.

The venture, SIM-Drive Corporation, will provide potential partners with its technology to help them build electric cars, SIM-Drive said in a statement in Tokyo today. The venture’s SIM-Drive technology, developed by Keio University Professor Hiroshi Shimizu, integrates an in-wheel motor, platform and suspension.

“The auto industry represented the 20th century,” former Japanese Economy Minister Heizo Takenaka told reporters at a press event in Tokyo announcing the venture. “We need to change the industry and technology paradigm.”

The joint venture currently comprises Clean Craft Co., which manages intellectual property relating to electric cars; Gulliver International Co., a used-car retailer; Nano-Optonics Energy Inc., a machine tool manufacturer; Benesse Corp., an educational services provider; and Marubeni.

Nobuyuki Idei, former chairman of Sony Corp. and founder of consulting company Quantum Leaps Corp., also attended the event as an advisor to the venture.