Hiriko folding car: The solution to urban car sharing? [w/video]

The Hiriko Driving Mobility Group has moved into the manufacturing trial of its two-seater electric microcar, which it hopes will offer a new car-sharing program that will transform the way we travel around our cities. The ‘first-mile' problem – moving between the commuter's home and mass transit hubs – and the ‘last-mile' problem – from mass transit to the workplace – has increased dramatically over the past few decades as more of us live in urban environments. 10 years ago researchers at the Michigan Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) decided to explore alternatives to shuttle buses and other ideas that failed to tackle the problem.

Skoda Vision C concept (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 27 February 2014 10:00 This is the Skoda Vision C concept – ‘C’ potentially denoting ‘coupe’, in this instance. Though, as you’ll note from studying our gallery, it isn’t a coupe at all. This car has four doors (or five, if you want to include the tailgate, like Skoda does).

Seat completes industry's largest solar panel installation

SEAT HAS completed construction of the largest solar panel installation in the automotive industry. The huge 'Seat al Sol' array at the firm’s Martorell plant outside Barcelona is the size of 40 football pitches and generates 15 million kilowatt hours of power per year courtesy of the reliable Spanish sunshine. The electricity produced is enough to account for a quarter of the amount needed to build a year’s allocation of Leons, reducing the factory’s energy bills significantly and saving 7,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.