The Hiriko is a folding two-seat urban electric car being developed by the Hiriko Driving Mobility consortium in the Basque Country. The electric car is the commercial implementation of the CityCar project developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. The name Hiriko comes from the Basque word for “urban” or “from the city”.
Three versions are being developed: the Fold microcar; the Alai, a convertible; and the Laga, a small truck. The Hiriko is designed specifically for short-distance urban carsharing programs and municipal fleets.
Diminutive car, developed by researchers from the Changing Places group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with the Basque Center for Innovation, can cleverly fold itself up into a more compact shape, enabling it to squeeze through tight gaps and, of course, into tiny parking spaces.
Although the Hiriko (also known as CityCar) has been in development for a few years, the latest news is that next year the innovative vehicle will go on sale for the first time, with an expected price tag of around $16,000.
The eco-friendly two-seater, which runs on a lithium-ion battery, can cover a distance of around 75 miles before it needs rejuicing. It also has a zero-turn radius, allowing it to spin on the spot or move sideways, a boon for those who find parallel parking nothing short of a nightmare.
As the video below shows, you climb into the Hiriko through its fold-up windshield, and drive it using something that looks more like a joystick than a steering wheel.
Vehicles like this would be great in some European cities, with their narrow, winding streets, many of which were laid down long before the first car was even built.
Designed specifically for cities, it is a 6.5 feet, 1100 pound car that runs on two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and can travel for 120km when fully charged. It’s meant to be part of a shared car service operated by the city, which can be rented for a small fee. The car’s computers are connected and each car can instantly be located by a smart phone. It further shrinks in size because it can be folded up (like a child’s stroller) and 3-4 Hiriko’s can fit in a standard parking space. It has an electric motor at each wheel, which means that it can move sideways into parking spots.
We may soon be seeing the Hiroko trundling along our city streets, slotting effortlessly into parking spaces we never knew existed.