Engineers Introduce World’s First Folding Car
With the ever-increasing price of gas and ever-decreasing amount of space in cities (and even suburbs), it makes a lot of sense that we’ve starting moving away from giant gas-guzzling SUVs and back toward more moderate-sized vehicles.
Still, did you ever think you’d see a folding car?
Well, meet the Hiriko, the world’s first folding electric car. While it’s not quite as awesome as George Jetson’s flying spaceship car that folded up into a briefcase, the Hiriko is still pretty impressive.
Engineers at MIT have been developing the concept for years and have even released a handful of half-size models. But this week in Brussels, they finally announced that they’re ready to begin testing full-size versions of the vehicle. And of course, they had an actual, full-size version of the Hiriko on hand to show reporters.
So where does the car fold up? See for yourself in this video:
Now, since folding in half at the middle would be problematic for regular car doors, the MIT team that developed the Hikiro came up with a unique solution: you get in and out of the vehicle from the front. Thus, the steering column folds out of the way, there is not real dashboard to speak of, and the entire windshield is one wing-like door.
So welcome to the future.
The version of the car they’ll be testing has a range of about 60 miles, which is considerably better than the 38-mile (electric only) range of electric cars currently on the market.
Obviously, the Hikiro will not appeal to most consumers at this point in time. That’s why developers are designing the car with car-sharing companies like Zipcar or Autoshare in mind. In those models, members “borrow” cars by the hour, and typically they just need to run an errand or two. And the Hikiro would be perfect, since you can fit three of them (folded up) into on standard-sized parking space.
If you do want to buy one for yourself, you’ll have to wait a little longer. However, the price should be pretty reasonable. (How does $12,500 sound?)
[via Gizmodo]
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