MIT Designs Foldable Electric Cars

We’ve seen electric cars morph into various shapes and sizes, but have we ever thought to make them foldable? MIT did, with their Hiroki car. While this neat little innovation does little for running performance, it will greatly improve parking and storage efficiency, which fits nicely into the recent ‘micro-city’ trend. Three foldable cars can stack into one standard parking space.

The wheels contain much of the innovation, each having their own electric motor, steering and suspension. This allows a much tighter turning radius, eliminating most of those pesky three-point turns! Absent an unwieldy drivetrain or transmission the car can be easily disassembled for upgrades and maintenance.

MIT has recently partnered with Basque company, Denokinn, to make the foldable cars commercially available by 2013 at a target price of €12,500. Bilbao, Barcelona, Berlin and San Francisco are signed up for trial runs.