This electric foldable automobile aspires to be the city’s ruler

The grown-ups in the room will remember it from a cartoon from the 80s. The Jetsons, a family from space, had something that everyone wanted: a folding car and probably 100% electric. Now, a startup wants to make it a reality and put them into circulation in big cities. It may not fit in the space of a briefcase, but the idea is close.

And it is approaching from the hand of a startup of Israeli origin: City Transformer. Born in Tel Aviv in 2014, the company has been working on electric car models for some time. Similar to Renault’s twizy, a 100% electric model that the French company put on the streets almost a decade ago. Also competing in the Citroën AMI line or the Open Rocks-e. To carry out its folding electric car project, the Israeli startup has closed an agreement with SEGULA Technologies. The engineering multinational in the mobility sector will be in charge of carrying out the development of the new folding vehicle. The one is known as CT-1, is still in the creation phase, and will be the product that both companies plan to launch on the market throughout 2024. And both brands need each other at various points.

On the one hand, City Transformer provides knowledge within the micro-mobility sector and electric vehicles designed for the city. SEGULA Technologies provides the industry and the necessary technology to create a scale product. On the part of the technology, also a round of financing closed a little less than a month ago. 10 million dollars that had a clear objective: to finance the production and scale design of its folding electric vehicle model. A process that will cover multiple geographies. In the first phase of collaboration, the group’s engineers from France, Germany, Israel, and Australia will undertake a feasibility phase that is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 for subsequent manufacturing until 2024. And later it sold mainly in Europe was its first step on the roadmap, according to the Hypertextual company.

Folding electric vehicle design akin to a motorbike

The reality is that City Transformer has not invented anything when it comes to mobility. But he does try to enter a segment in which others have not dared: the folding electric car concept. Or what is the same, adaptable to all the needs that may arise in a city? With two seats and four wheels, the idea is that the chassis of the electric vehicle transforms in real-time. With a modular architecture that is conceived with origin in a skateboard, the objective of this development –which still has to go through the design, development, and testing phase– has an ambitious objective: to go from a maximum width of 1.4 meters to 1 meter. His greatest virtue? Being able to park anywhere. Or, at least, achieve the dream of all those who want their car to enter the available space.