Thursday 4 October 2018
Last update on Thursday, October 4, 2018 At 10:02 AM
If you’re looking for the future of urban mobility, you may have been better of attending the 5th annual Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Summit that took place last year in Tel Aviv. City Transformer, the Israeli startup focused on folder car, is developing an electric two-seater that can fold up to take the space of a motorcycle once you’ve reached your destination. The new quadricycle vehicle is touted as the world’s first electric car of its kind.
City Transformer is seeking to solve the traffic jams and air pollution issues by creating a foldable electric car, designed as a two-seater that can constrict or expand with the press of a button, according to the need and parking options. The quadricycle vehicle has four wheels and a chassis that can expand from 1.6 meters to just 1.44 meters in width.
It runs up to 90 kilometers an hour when wide and up to 45 kilometers an hour in its narrow mode and weighs about 400 kilograms (880 pounds).
Europe and Israel will be the first markets for the made-in-Israel folding car that will be more affordable than a normal small vehicle, said Uri Meridor, City Transformer’s co-founder. “We want the vehicle to be cheap both to buy and to maintain. It will be more like a gadget, not expensive and environmentally friendly. The idea is to upgrade the gadget with new features along the way, and not buy a new vehicle every few years.”
Tel Aviv on track to become a capital of urban mobility
Israel is home to over 600 startups and companies in the automotive tech and smart mobility sphere. Only a few months ago, leaders of the global automotive and smart transportation industry, including the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi-Alliance and the German auto giant Volkswagen, were participants in the sixth annual EcoMotion event in Tel-Aviv and had significant announcement ahead of this event. Volkswagen AG, the new global sales leader, has inaugurated a new innovation center in Tel Aviv, dubbed “Konnect”, which will focus on e-mobility, big data, and smart navigation.
Alliance Ventures announced a new cooperation with the Israel Innovation Authority to run an incubator in Kiryat Atidim and the Renault Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance has announced that it is investing an undisclosed amount in an Israeli venture capital firm that focuses on transportation technologies. In 2017, the automotive and smart transportation industry has raised some $800 million in venture capital funds according to a report that was issued by the IVC Research Center and law firm ZAG S&W. An important increase from the $120 million registered five years ago.
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