A foldable electric car, produced by the company Hiroko, will begin test use this year as part of a carsharing network in Berlin.
Hiroko has come to an agreement with the operator of the German railway network, Deutche Bahn, to begin testing their new EVs within a car-sharing network associated with their rail network. As a rep from Deutche Bahn has said, Hiroko is an “ideal partner to complement its extensive railway network.” If everything goes well, the program will expand to a much larger scale.
“Hiroko consists of a Basque consortium of auto suppliers and engineers from MIT. The company, whose name loosely means ‘from the city’ in Basque, has about an $87 million budget and has built about 20 vehicles for testing purposes, the New York Times reported in August. The Fold is the first of three versions that will be put out by Hiroko. There are also plans for the Alai (convertible) and Laga (truck).”
“The car is about eight feet long, about a foot shorter than Daimler’s Smart Fortwo, in regular form, and can be folded to a length of about five feet. The car’s four wheels can also rotate at a 60-degree angle.”
Source: Autoblog Green
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