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How an electric car scheme plans to drive down social divisionsA public mobility project with a social purpose – Britain should sign up now, says Randeep Ramesh

Randeep Rameshguardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 January 2012 16.59 GMT

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Could an electric car scheme be adopted in cities throughout Europe? Photograph: Hiriko

When José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, launches the Hiriko electronic car next week, he aims to answer a question being asked by much of the rest of the world: after the euro, what is the continent for?

The electric vehicle, developed in Spain, aspires to transform city transport, doing for electric cars what London's "Boris bikes" have done for pedal cycles. The idea is that a local authority owns a fleet of Hiriko cars and rents one to people when they need it – for a small fee. Hiriko's hi-tech, on-board computers will mean that all the cars are instantly located by a smart phone, so they can be left anywhere, and the electric batteries mean they have zero emissions.

Page 1 of 3How an electric car scheme plans to drive down social divisions | Society | The Guardi...

27/01/2012http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/17/hiriko-electric-car-social-purpose/print

Both London's bike scheme and Hiriko are "public mobility solutions". Both are green transport. But the big difference between them is that whereas London's project involves a £190m contract to a private company, Serco, to supply and run the scheme, the European Union will adopt Hiriko's "social purpose" model. The car will be built exclusively in the deprived areas of cities that take up the scheme. And the technology will be owned by a social enterprise, with private sector companies often getting involved for free because they view the Hiriko as a test bed for the future – while Madridfunded the Hiriko project with €15m (£13m), Spanish company Maser-Mic spent €3m of its own money on the car's "sat nav" system. Each car costs €12,500.

The real insight of Hiriko is that it aims to change the way we live and do social good at the same time. It's worth noting that the first city to trial Hiriko will be Malmö, Sweden's third largest city. While Nordic countries are often cited as models of happy, equal, cohesive nations, officials in Malmö have long been concerned about the growing divide between the east and west parts of the city. It's not that Malmö is poor – the former industrial powerhouse has become a centre for architecture and design. But while the city has got richer, its social indicators have gone into reverse.

Civil servants were aghast to find pollution and carbon dioxide levels rising at a time when child poverty in the city was growing. It's a combustible mix. In Rosengård, an immigrant-rich, employment-low part of west Malmö, there have been clashes between local youths and police since unrest in 2008. Last April, cars and recycling stations wereset alight, while firefighters who attempted to put out the fires were pelted with stones and fireworks.

To generate jobs and clean up the city, Malmö's council will purchase three Hiriko cars to test the new form of transport. The idea is that by building them in Rosengård a whole system of support industries (such as designing apps for the on-board computer) will spread in poor areas.

Hiriko's creators believe it is a solution to environmental and social problems – bridgingdeepening social divides. After Malmö, the plan is to introduce the car in Berlin, Barcelona, Vitoria-Gasteiz (the second largest Basque city), San Francisco, and Hong Kong. There have been exploratory talks with London. "London would be a great city. It has the bicycle rental scheme, the congestion charge ... London's large, rich with deprived areas," says Carlos Fernandez Isoird, Hiriko's technical co-ordinator.

Hiriko's advantages are clear: whereas most companies have a short-term outlook, it sees a future transformed in 10 years' time. It's a "green shift" that creates jobs – breaking the link between economic progress and growing carbon dioxide emissions. This is one instance where Brussels leads, and Britain should follow.

Randeep Ramesh is the Guardian's social affairs editor.

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JANUARY 25, 2012, 4:42 PM

M.I.T. CityCar, Renamed Hiriko, Is Headed to ProductionBy PHIL PATTON

Getty Images/Getty ImagesJosé Manuel Barroso, with the first prototype of the Hiriko folding electriccar, on Tuesday at European Union Commission headquarters.At European Union Commission headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, the commission chief, José Manuel Barroso, inspected a small city-car prototype. It was the commercial version of the long-gestating CityCar from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.

Mr. Barroso posed for pictures inside the vehicle, which has been renamed the Hiriko,the Basque word for urban. The trial production of 20 cars and a pilot program are scheduled to begin next year in Spain’s Basque region, at Vitoria Gasteiz, not far from Bilbao.

Gorka Espiau, a spokesman for the project, wrote in an e-mail that final prices for the cars would depend on the number of vehicles ordered by a potential customer. M.I.T.’s partner in the project, the Basque investment group Denokinn, plans to deploy the Hiriko in city fleets around the world. Mr. Espiau added that the parties were targeting a vehicle price of 12,500 euros, roughly $16,400, if they chose to sell the Hiriko to private individuals.

The podlike electric vehicle, whose battery pack would be leased, is a two-seater with 4-wheel drive and a range in excess of 100 kilometer, or about 60 miles. Because its wheelbase can collapse, a single parking space can accommodate three vehicles. Driver and passenger enter through a windshield that swings upward.

The CityCar project has garnered significant attention over the years, but funding from General Motors, its initial corporate supporter, ended in 2008, and the resident visionary of the scheme, Prof. William J. Mitchell, died in 2010. The project is currently headed by Prof. Kent Larson.

“Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century,”published by M.I.T. Press and written by Dr. Mitchell, Chris Borroni-Bird and Lawrence Burns of General Motors, was dedicated largely to making the case for the CityCar. The vehicle was also included in the National Design Museum triennial, called “Why Design Now?“, in 2010.

Along with regional and national officials, the European Union regards the Hiriko as an asset to the Basque country. Like the Guggenheim Bilbao museum project, which brought tourists to the old port city, the factory is aimed to help revive the aging automotive-supplier infrastructure in the region.

Page 1 of 2M.I.T. CityCar, Renamed Hiriko, Is Headed to Production - NYTimes.com

27/01/2012http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/m-i-t-citycar-renamed-hiriko-is-headed-t...

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As originally envisioned by Mr. Mitchell and his lab’s students, the CityCar was less a vehicle than a system and set of ideas that could be applied to many kinds of vehicles, including scooters. The lab’s objective is to preserve the advantages of individual transportation while minimizing drawbacks like congestion, parking scarcity and tailpipe emissions. The electric cars fold together like shopping carts. They communicate over a central network, much like bicycles in share programs in major European capitals, to alert users where and when one might be available.

The manufacturing project is headed by Armando Gaspar, a Belgian-born former engineer for the defunct Daimler-Chrysler consortium. Parts will be sourced from local manufacturers, and a newly created company, Basque Robot Wheels, will work on realizing the Hiriko’s trick in-place turning radius, handy for urban maneuverability.

Dr. Larson wrote in an e-mail that the Hiriko would initially be intended for shared-use projects. At Tuesday’s event were representatives of cities that had expressed interest in starting programs, among them Malmo, Barcelona and Berlin. “The M.I.T. team is studying deployment in those cities, plus Hong Kong and San Francisco,” he wrote.

Consistent with Mr. Mitchell’s vision, Mr. Larson added that the student team, headed by Ryan Chin, and the designer of the car, William Lark, had also created a three-wheel E.V. prototype that would also function in bicycle mode and would meet all European bike-lane regulations.

Page 2 of 2M.I.T. CityCar, Renamed Hiriko, Is Headed to Production - NYTimes.com

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JANUARY 20, 2012, 7:13 AM GMT

An American-designed electric city car and made in Spain’s Basque country is to be unveiled next week. It should be on Europe’s roads in 2013.

The electric fold-up two-seater “Hiriko”, which means “urban” in Basque, is to be formally launched in Brussels on Tuesday. The first models should be on the streets of Europe’s cities next year.

The idea comes from M.I.T.’s Media Lab. But the concept has been developed by a consortium of small companies based in Spain’s Basque Country.

The Guardian reports:

The electric vehicle… aspires to transform city transport, doing for electric cars what London’s “Boris bikes” have done for pedal cycles.

The idea is that a local authority owns a fleet of Hiriko cars and rents one to people when they need it – for a small fee. Hiriko’s hi-tech, on-board computers will mean that all the cars are instantly located by a smart phone, so they can be left anywhere, and the electric batteries

mean they have zero emissions.

Both London’s bike scheme and Hiriko are “public mobility solutions”. Both are green transport. But the big difference between them is that

whereas London’s project involves a £190m contract to a private company, Serco, to supply and run the scheme, the European

Union will adopt Hiriko’s “social purpose” model.

The car will be built exclusively in the deprived areas of cities that take up the scheme. And the technology will be owned by a social enterprise,

with private sector companies often getting involved for free because they view the Hiriko as a test bed for the future – while Madrid funded

the Hiriko project with €15m (£13m), Spanish company Maser-Mic spent €3 million of its own money on the car’s “sat nav” system. Each

car costs €12,500…

Hiriko’s creators believe it is a solution to environmental and social problems – bridging deepening social divides. After Malmö, the plan is

to introduce the car in Berlin, Barcelona, Vitoria-Gasteiz (the second largest Basque city), San Francisco, and Hong Kong.

Brussels Launch for Spanish Folding Electric Car

Page 1 of 2Brussels Launch for Spanish Folding Electric Car - Tech Europe - WSJ

27/01/2012http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/01/20/brussels-launch-for-spanish-folding-elec...


Folding car moves closer to reality

The Hiriko folding electric car is set to be launched this week before going into production next year.

The Hiriko folding car is a two-seater

By Michael Fitzpatrick

11:26AM GMT 23 Jan 2012

53 Comments (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/9032363/Folding-car-moves-closer-to-reality.html#disqus_thread)

An electric car prototype that folds into itself to save parking space, and is powered by four in-wheel motors, will be launched tomorrow (Tuesday, January 24) by José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, in Brussels.

The two-seat Hiriko, tipped to receive endorsement from EU leaders at its launch, is the result of a partnership of Basque businesses, the Spanish government and the US's renowned MIT Media Lab. The tiny bubble car is tipped to go into production in Spain next year.

Each wheel is independently driven and steered by "robot" in-wheel electric motors making for extra manoeuvrability, while the rear of the capsule-like city car can slip under the chassis. It then only takes up two-thirds of the footprint of a Smart car, claim its makers. The consortium behind the project hope this will allow cities to free up some of the many square miles of precious space parked cars currently inhabit.

Page 1 of 2Folding car moves closer to reality - Telegraph

27/01/2012http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/9032363/Folding-car-moves-clo...

Several European and American cities are to be the scenes for the initial trials. Such trials will closely resemble in execution Paris's new electric car hire/share scheme Autolib, according to the makers. Trials begin in autumn this year in cities such as Bilbao, Malmo and Boston.

Passenger and driver enter and leave the Hiriko through a single door on the front of the car. A conventional steering wheel will be replaced by a joystick arrangement or a "haptic" steering wheel that physically tugs at a driver's fingers when told to do so by the on board navigation systems.

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Production of 20 test vehicles is underway at Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque country, which is expected to turn out commercial versions in the spring of 2013 for the consortium behind the venture.

"I call this mobility on demand," says Ryan Chin, the researcher behind the concept thought up at the MIT labs in the 1980s. "Hiriko's technology and green footprint is five times better than you find in today's Smart cars."

Madrid is backing the project with 15m euros (£13m) in grants for the cars, which will cost 12,500 euros each to build.

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2012

Page 2 of 2Folding car moves closer to reality - Telegraph

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A new vision for the city of the futureJanuary 4, 2012: 5:00 AM ET

As the world population expands, cities will have to transform to meet the challenge. Here come foldable cars and flexible apartments.

By Alex Konrad, reporter

FORTUNE -- A small vehicle that looks like a Jetsons version of a smart car rests in a room at MIT's Media Lab. Here's how it works. When parking, the rear of the electric CityCar slides under the chassis, allowing the body to fold up into a compact shell. Once folded, the CityCar will fit into a space just one-third the size of a standard parking spot. A single door on the front of the car pops open, allowing the driver to step out onto the sidewalk.

The CityCar is just one example of how MIT's Changing Places group envisions the urban lifestyle of 2022. In October the world population hit 7 billion, and now for the first time in history more than half of the world's population lives in urban centers. MIT is studying how to house and move all those people in ways that will make urban living still bearable. Says Kent Larson, the program's director: "We're focusing on more efficient uses of resources, on ways to lower costs and energy use and at the same time increase personal space." Larson sees the CityCar, for example, as fitting into the shared-use programs already gaining traction through companies such as ZipCar (ZIP) and Getaround. The cars would complement what he hopes will be a full system of sharing, from bicycles and scooters for shorter commutes to cars for longer jaunts. A prototype of the CityCar built by MIT and the Spanish company DenokInn will be unveiled at European Union headquarters in Brussels this month under the project name Hiriko.

MIT's Media Lab is also working on what it dubs the CityHome. Again, greater flexibility is key. The CityHome concept takes a Murphy-bed approach. A bedroom can double as anything from a kitchen to a personal gym with stoves, fridges, and StairMasters swinging out from hidden panels in the walls. Larson says that the customization cost for a small apartment would be as much as $30,000. However, the savings of paying for a one-room studio that functions as a three-room apartment could be 10 times that amount. MIT hopes to launch pilot programs in the Boston area.

The system can be customized to fit different income brackets. Want a Sub-Zero to pop out of your wall? The benefit for real estate developers is that they can stack more units into each building. The biggest hang-up for adoption? Parking spaces for the denser housing. The problem is solved -- surprise -- by matching the CityHome with the CityCar.

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© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2012Alle Rechte vorbehalten Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung der SPIEGELnet GmbH

24. Januar 2012, 19:45 Uhr

Kleinstwagen Hiriko

Falter mit ElektromotorDer Traum von Millionen Parkplatzsuchern: Ein Auto, das sich schrumpfen lässt und in jede Lücke passt. Ein kleiner Baske macht diesen Wunsch nun wahr.

In Brüssel ist am Dienstag das Elektroauto Hiriko Citycar präsentiert worden. Der Wagen sieht aus wie ein Regentropfen auf vier Rädern und ist genauso geschmeidig: Auf Knopfdruck faltet sich der Zweisitzer auf ganze 1,50 Meter zusammen. Der Fahrer kann die Frontscheibe hochklappen und nach vorne aussteigen - wie bei der legendären Isetta. Vier Elektromotoren treiben das Auto an, maximal bringt es 90 Stundenkilometer auf den Asphalt.

Hiriko ist baskisch und heißt "für die Stadt" - ein Verweis auf die Herkunft des Wagens. Hiriko ist ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt des Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) und des spanischen Innovationszentrums Denokinn und wurde im spanischen Baskenland entwickelt. Die EU hat den Bau des Faltautos mit Geldern zur Förderung benachteiligter Regionen unterstützt.

2010 war der Zwerg das erste Mal der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt worden, nächstes Jahr soll er nun auf die Straße rollen und sich in die Parkritzen zwängen. Der Preis wird nach Herstellerangaben bei etwa 12.500 Euro für private Käufer liegen. Vor allem soll der Kleinstwagen aber im Car-Sharing zum Einsatz kommen.

cst/dpa

URL:

http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/0,1518,811172,00.html

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27/01/12 16:53Car Sharing With Crazy Folding Cars Is Coming To Europe | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

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Car Sharing With CrazyFolding Cars Is Coming ToEuropeThe tiny Hiriko can fold up so it �ts three to a normal parking spot, makingit perfect for deploying in a crowded European city. Will you get out of yournext car rental through the roof?

The next great electric car may not be from GM, Ford, or even upstarts like Tesla and

Coda. The Hiriko (it means "urban car" in Basque) can fold up in small parking spaces,

has a 75-mile range on all-electric power, wheels that rotate 360 degrees (for the

ultimate tight turn), a cost of $16,210--and it was conceived of by MIT’s Media Lab.

A prototype of Hiriko, which was developed in collaboration with seven automotive

suppliers in Spain, is so compact that passengers can only get out by pushing the glass

shell open. It’s a good thing the car doesn’t require gas; there isn’t even room for a gas

tank. But when folded, three Hiriko vehicles can �t into a single parking space.

MIT’s seven collaborators will all contribute to production of the vehicle, with each one

producing di�erent core components (i.e. battery system, vehicle chassis, interior, etc.).

Commercial versions of the vehicle are expected to be ready by 2013.

The vehicle will be deployed in Europe using a car-sharing model a la Zipcar, but run by

city governments. No word yet on which city will be the �rst to test out Hiriko, but

Berlin and Barcelona have expressed interest, as have the Galapagos Islands and San

Francisco. Don’t be surprised if a Spanish city gets dibs; the Hiriko project notes on its

website that the project "is born with a clear vision of transforming and regenerating the

industrial grid in both Alava and the Basque Country."

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Une voiture électrique pliable pour des villes dépolluéesn.c.Mardi 24 janvier 2012

Hiriko, une petite voiture électrique pliable conçue au Pays Basque espagnol ambitionne de devenir l’un des véhicules urbains de demain dans des villes où toute source de pollution sera bannie.

Elle s’appelle Hiriko. “Elle n’est pas japonaise, mais basque. Son nom signifie “urbain“ en langue basque”, a précisé Gorka Espiau, représentant du consortium qui l’a conçue, lors de sa présentation au président de la Commission européenne José Manuel Barroso. Son volant bourré d’électronique ressemble à celui d’une formule 1, son moteur est dans les roues, toutes mobiles, ce qui permet une rotation sur 360 degrés, et son habitacle en forme d’oeil de mouche remonte pour faciliter son stationnement sur un emplacement de bicyclette. José Manuel Barroso a éprouvé quelques difficultés avec le volant lorsqu’il s’est installé dans l’habitacle, mais il a réussi a s’extraire très facilement de la voiture, dont le pare-brise coulisse comme le cockpit d’un avion de tourisme. La présentation n’est pas allée plus loin. Juste le temps de quelques photographies pour la galerie. Le président de la Commission s’est ensuite rapidement éclipsé, refusant toute question sur le soutien que l’institution peut apporter au développement de la petite voiture. Hiriko est pourtant une réponse à l’idée de la Commission de faire interdire les voitures à essence dans les centres urbains. Elle sera opérationnelle en 2013 dans plusieurs villes conquises par le concept. Plusieurs cités du Benelux, d’Allemagne ou de France ont déjà lancé des initiatives d’offres de voitures, électriques ou non, en libre-service. AFParticle suivant >>

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Barroso: "El coche eléctrico Hiriko es un proyecto ejemplar para salir de la crisis"El automóvil, promovido por el consorcio de empresas vascas Hiriko, se comercializará en 2013 con un precio de 12.500 euros

Bruselas (Europa Press).- El presidente de la Comisión Europea, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso,ha asegurado este martes que el coche eléctrico promovido por el consorcio de empresas vascas Hiriko es un ejemplo de los proyectos de innovación social que Europa necesita desarrollar para salir de la crisis económica y responder perfectamente al triple objetivo de la UE de impulsar un crecimiento "inteligente, sostenible e inclusivo" durante el lanzamiento multitudinario del primer prototipo del vehículo en Bruselas.

"Este proyecto y otros son una parte importante de la respuesta a la crisis en Europa", ha subrayado el presidente del Ejecutivo comunitario, que ha recordado que el nacimiento de Hiriko ha sido realidad gracias en parte a ayudas europeas del Fondo Social Europeo para promover el empleo en regiones desfavorecidas. Barroso ha insistido en que pese al contexto de crisis los países de la UE deben "acelerar" las políticas que potencien el crecimiento innovador y los empleos verdes. "Lo digo siempre es importante la consolidación presupuestaria pero también es muy importante el crecimiento y Europa puede crecer si hay más innovación", ha insistido.

El proyecto Hiriko, en el que participan las empresas Guardian, SAPA, TMA, Forging Products, BRW, Maser MIC, Ingeinnova coordinadas por Denokinn, partió del trabajo conceptual del profesor Bill Mitchell del Instituto de Tecnología de Massachussets y "ha cobrado vida" gracias al Parque de Innovación Social de Bilbao y al compromiso de ciudades como Victoria y Barcelona, así como la sueca Malmö, Berlín o San Francisco para desarrollarlo, ha recordado Barroso. Pero también ha destacado la figura clave del prestigioso innovador y directivo de la empresa Cisco Diego Vasconcelos -fallecido el pasado mes de julio- para la materialización del proyecto como uno de los pioneros del concepto de innovación social durante la ceremonia de lanzamiento del prototipo. "Diego fue una persona de energía y carisma increíbles. Nunca dejó de mirar adelante, de desarrollar y conectar ideas e implicar a gente nueva, siempre con un objetivo en mente: un futuro mejor para todos", ha recalcado Barroso, que ha prometido crear en breve un nuevo premio de innovación social con su nombre.

El presidente de Hiriko, Jesús Echave, ha reconocido que fue Vasconcelos quien "se enteró" del proyecto del consorcio vasco y puso el mismo en conocimiento de Barroso. "Tenían una gran amistad y tenían habían relaciones profesionales y de ahí vino este contacto", ha explicado en declaraciones a los medios, notablemente satisfecho por la buena acogida del proyecto.

Plantas de ensamblajeEchave ha avanzado que esperan empezar la producción del vehículo eléctrico electrónico "más o menos en serie" en 2013, una vez se terminen este año los 20 prototipos del vehículo que quieren homologar y ha confirmado que Vitoria acogerá la primera planta de montaje. "Posteriormente se irá exportando este tipo de plantas a todo el mundo, a las ciudades con las que hagamos los contratos correspondientes", ha explicado. Las ciudades de Vitoria, Barcelona, la sueca Malmö, Berlín, Boston y San Francisco acogerán plantas de montaje en el futuro, mientras que las piezas y los módulos se fabricarán todos en Euskadi y posteriormente se distribuirán a las plantas de montaje, según ha explicado Echave, que ha descartado a priori que más ciudades vascas acojan plantas de ensamblaje porque "el volumen de vehículos en principio no va a ser gran grande".

El alcalde de Vitoria, Javier Maroto, ha avanzado que el proyecto Hiriko "puede suponer 800 puestos de trabajo relacionados con el empleo verde" para la ciudad y ha subrayado su

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0 El presidente de la Comisión Europea, Durao Barroso, y el presidente de Hiriko, Jesús Echave, en la presentación de coche eléctrico Getty Images

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potencial de inversión "para transformar a la ciudad" y promover "el cambio social que necesita Europa". "Es la mejor manera de presentar la Green Capital 2012" que acogerá Vitoria, ha recalcado.

Sin embargo, ciudades como Londres y la brasileña de Florianópolis ya han mostrado su interés en el proyecto y tampoco se descarta que se sumen nuevas ciudades de países como Ecuador, Chile o Argentina, según fuentes del consorcio. "Hemos encontrado mucha receptividad en Sudamérica y en Estados Unidos", ha reconocido Echave, que ha confirmado que el contrato con la ciudad brasileña ya está firmado. "Se busca mucho el poder hacerlo en cada país, cada ciudad. Son plantas pequeñas, dan trabajo y ese ha sido un factor muy importante", ha explicado el presidente del consorcio. Según sus cálculos cada planta de montaje podría traducirse en 15 o 20 empleos directos.

Inversión y característicasEl presidente de Hiriko ha cifrado en "40,50 millones" la inversión del proyecto para completar su desarrollo, aunque la cifra total podría elevarse hasta los 170 millones "contando todos los países" que se podrían sumar al mismo. El Ministerio de Industria español ha aportado "aproximadamente 15 millones de euros" al proyecto, que también ha contado con "algunas" aportaciones de particulares e inversiones "muy fuertes" de los cofrabricantes.

Hiriko, con cuatro motores rueda incorporados, tendrá una velocidad limitada a 50 kilómetros por hora, aunque por homologación podrá llegar hasta los 90. Y su reducido tamaño -se pueden aparcar casi cuatro Hirikos en el espacio de un turismo normal- y "la facilidad" de movimiento o "la falta de ruido" permitirán una transformación "brutal" en las ciudades, asegura Echave. Además, Hiriko ya se plantea desarrollar otros modelos tipo 'pick up' y autobuses pequeños de 9 o 10 plazas.

Echave se ha mostrado convencido de que Hiriko superará "rápido" el avance del coche híbrido gracias a la evolución tecnológica de las nuevas baterías de recarga, el problema fundamental en la actualidad. El coche tendrá un precio de unos 12.500 euros. El consorcio promoverá a Hiriko entre las administraciones públicas y compañías de alquiler de vehículos y en un momento posterior también a particulares.

Demostración sin vueltaBarroso y Echave han subido juntos al prototipo del vehículo eléctrico durante la ceremonia del lanzamiento del primer prototipo en la explanada sita frente a la sede de la Comisión Europea entre gran expectación de representantes de la industria, cargos institucionales y medios. Finalmente no han podido dar una vuelta en el vehículo, como estaba inicialmente previsto, porque el módulo de mando "se ha quemado" por el excesivo frío y humedad de estos días en la capital belga, que ha formado una capa de hielo sobre el cristal del módulo del mando, según ha explicado el propio Echave. "Teníamos miedo de que hubiese un conato de incendio y hemos preferido no arriesgar", ha reconocido.

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Babbage

Jan 27th 2012, 15:20 by C.F. | BONN

Electric cars

Hiriko vert

UNLIKE their American counterparts, European carmakers have long been associated with small, compact runarounds like the Fiat 500, Citroen 2CV, Mini Cooper, or more recently the Smart car. That has always made sense. Many roads are narrower and parking spaces pokier in Europe than they are across the Atlantic. And most people rarely drive the vast distances where a bigger car's greater comfort is worth paying for (though, in fairness, nor do most Americans—at least not any more). Now, a consortium of seven firms from Spain's Basque country and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab have taken this to extremes.

Their prototype of a tiny electric vehicle was unveiled on January 24th by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commssion, who climbed into the car, gave a thumbs-up, and called it a “systematic solution to major societal challenges”. The two-door Hiriko, whose name derives from the Basque word for "city" or "urban", was designed by MIT engineers, but built by Basques. Starting next year, a trial manufacturing run is set to begin at Vitoria Gasteiz, outside Bilbao.

The Hiriko is brimming with sexy gimmicks. It folds upwards when parked, scrunching up to one-third the length of a standard European parking space. Like some compacts models of old, both passenger and driver enter through a folded-out windshield. Its wheels that can turn 90 degrees, to make parallel parking nightmares a thing of the past.

Denokinn, the Basque investment group backing the venture, wants to price the Hiriko at €12,500 ($16,400). The company is planning to flog the cars to cities across Europe looking to expand their car-sharing schemes: so far Berlin, Barcelona and Malmö have expressed interest. The car's limited range of 120km per charge may put off range-anxious individual buyers.

However, although many consumers and cities are looking to save cash (and the planet), supercompact cars have not done nearly as well as their proponents had hoped. Sales of city cars, known is the industry as “A-segment”, have stagnated in the last year, their global sales slumping from 6.2m units in 2010 to about 5.9m in 2011, according to figures from IHS Global Insight, a research outfit. It expects city-car sales to rebound slightly in 2012, to around 6.1m. Smart, a joint project between Germany's Daimler and Swatch, a Swiss watchmaker, has sold under a million units worldwide in the last ten years. And car-sharing schemes, like Zipcar, the largest company, have not warmed to electric vehicles, relying instead on traditional combustion engines, as well as some hybrids.

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Jan 29th 2012 19:11 GMT

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Jan 29th 2012 15:44 GMT

Tim Urquhart of IHS notes that cars like the Hiriko are low-value, low price "and, therefore, they are low-margin". The Basque start-up has a big hill to climb, one that Daimler and Renault, its French rival, have been struggling up for some time.

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WhiskyTangoFoxtrot

Are such small cars safe? I mean I've been hearing about how car-makers lately have been going to lengths to decrease the likelihood of passenger injury in the event of a crash, and I can only imagine that a smaller car would offer less protection.

Nirvana-bound

If Iran retaliates to the trade embargos it faces from western countries & stops selling oil to the West, gas prices will soar here & then electric cars like "Hiriko" & other tiny compacts will surely gain in popularity. Not by choice, but by necessity, needless to say.

So "Why this Kolaveri"?? Live & let live, for our own sakes. Stop meddeling in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations, for crying out loud..

DevaSatyam

I certainly like the concept of small, electric vehicles for rental/sharing within the cities and I'm glad Hiriko is meant for that. However, the design of this particular vehicle doesn't seem to be practical.

In the launch video, it is quite evident how hard it is for people to board it. The door provides a handy umbrella for those rainy days so frequent around the Bay of Biscay, but it is so low that banging your head against it must be quite frequent. From that

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