Tiny Fold-Up Car Set to Debut in Europe

A very small car called the "Hiriko" is to be shown to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso this week in the official kick-off for the new car in Europe. The launch will occur in Spain first, because the company that makes the car is based there. The car by a company of the same name is thus far the only project developed by a European collaboration, also of the same name as the car, which means "urban" in Basque.

The car is tiny as can be seen in the video the company made to extol its virtues, and literally folds up so that it takes up a very minimal amount of parking space.

The whole idea, as noted by the AFP newswire, is to promote social innovation which entails finding solutions to air pollution, crowding and of course parking in cities. The Hiriko is all electric and can go up to seventy five miles before recharging. Also, as a nod to its mission, the car has a speed control monitor to prevent the driver from exceeding posted speed limits.

The idea for the car was first came about, as the AFT notes, from Boston's MIT-Media lab, which licensed the technology to the consortium that has worked to build the car. The fold-up idea was first considered as a part of initiative to allow for building smaller parking garages, which have become a much bigger problem in Europe due most of them having been built before the advent of the automobile. The aim was to build a car that was small enough to all two of its size to fit in one traditional parking space, and by the looks of things, it appears they team has succeeded.

The consortium is currently in talks with leaders from other cities around Europe and there is talk that many small facilities might be built to service the needs of local users, which some say could lead to a fleet of city-owned vehicles similar to taxies being rented by drivers, rather than having full sized vehicles filling the streets as is the practice now.

The vehicle is currently for sale for 12,500 Euros, but that is likely to change if government subsidies can help support their manufacturer. Also, if cities begin building facilities to make their own cars, that too would certainly drive the price down.

Some in the consortium have even suggested that in the future only cars owned by municipalities and rented by drivers will be allowed in the downtown sections of some of the bigger cities in Europe, such as London, that have already taken to restricting traffic and imposing steep tolls.