Futuristic "Hiriko" All Electric Car, It's out there....



I found this posting on the Huff Post Green site.  I don't know about you, but I'm not certain what our transportation is going to look like in 20 years, but I am betting it will be vastly different than what we know today.
The "Hiriko" is an electric micro mini car designed to help the environment and assist with bad parking jobs (such as parallel parking) in Urban areas. The car was developed based on a drawing from the Massachusetts of Technology (MIT) and the concept has been brought to fruition by a consortium of seven small Basque firms under the name of Hiriko Driving Mobility.

"Hiriko" meaning "urban" in Basque is a two-seater with a range of up to 75 miles with a full charge, is powered by four in-wheel motors and reportedly able to fold itself up into a tiny bundle.  The driver and the passenger enter the vehicle via the single flip-up door in the front of the car that also doubles as a windshield.  The Hiriko is scheduled to go into production with a street release date of 2013.  Production of 20 test vehicles is already underway and trials are set to begin later this year in cities such as Bilbao, Spain, Sweden and Boston.  Estimated cost is about $16,500.  The Hiriko manufacturers see the car being possibly a city-owned vehicle that you can rent on an hourly or daily basis.  Some of the cities already interested are: Berlin, Barcelona, San Francisco and Hong Kong. 

I would be interested to see the safety testing.

Here's the link if you would like to check out the entire story.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/hiriko-ev-car-space-saving_n_1244345.html