Basque business group develops project Hirikoan electric car with pioneering manufacturing system

The project, called "Hiriko, driving mobility" (Mobility in city driving), is being developed at the Alava Technology Park and within 15 months submitted the first prototype

Basque business group develops project Hiriko an electric car with a pioneering manufacturing system

A Basque business group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presented yesterday, in Álava, a prototype urban electric car with a high degree of simplification that can be developed with a manufacturing pioneer.

The project, called "Hiriko, driving mobility" (Mobility in city driving), is being developed at the Alava Technology Park and within 15 months submitted the first prototype.

This model, in which MIT has been working since 2003, is an electric two-seater, it can reach 50 miles per hour, with a range of 120 miles and the batteries can be recharged in 12 minutes.

Despite not knowing all the technical characteristics of the vehicle, it is known to have four-wheel drive and a defining characteristic, you can park three of these in a conventional parking space. The promoters have projected that the retail price could be around nine thousand euros.

This new vehicle will not require an assembly line as traditional cars, but its seven modules can be assembled into any plant franchise in the world. In principle, the promoters are trying to totally build all of the vehicle in the Basque country.

Thus, it transforms the traditional manufacturing system, understood as a single assembly plant and to establish a model in which each company responsible for the module will produce its share and then proceed to the assembly in any plant in the world.

The Basque business group is formed by the Association for the Development and Promotion of Industrial Activities and Sports of Alava, Basque Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and New Business Development (DENOKINN) and Epsilon Euskadi.

Epsilon's President, Joan Villadelprat, explained that this is a project that goes way beyond being "merely technical" and what is introduced is a model of "social responsibility". Ryan Chin, MIT, has underscored the important "industrial base" that the Basque country has to tackle a project of this nature.



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