Everything about transportation and mobility is in play anymore, with no certainty about what’s coming next. Who’d have thought that Ford, the company that put America on wheels, would suggest we need folding electric bicycles? For an especially vivid illustration of future-think, check out this prototype by automotive supplier Schaeffler, a one-seater positioned between e-bikes, a.k.a. “ped-elecs,” and faster not quite cars such as the Renault Twizy, a fun-to-drive, electrically powered four-wheeler classified as an electric ATV in Europe and rentable in San Francisco wearing a Nissan logo.
Schaeffler may not be a household name, but it’s a heavyweight among automotive suppliers and technology houses; its heritage is in gears and bearings, but the German company—together with better-known Continental—has spent a lot of time and effort devising strategies to deal with automotive electrification and the challenges of future urban mobility.
The Bio-Hybrid, unleashed on the public at the CES in Las Vegas and at the Detroit auto show, is the result of two and a half years of strategic, conceptual, and development work, said Peter Gutzmer, the company’s chief technology officer and board member. In 2014, he put together a small group of thinkers and engineers and asked them to come up with solutions for mobility that could make use of the growing network of bike lanes within the world’s metropolitan areas—without the disadvantages of riding a bicycle.
Gutzmer’s team checked the legal environments in multiple countries, created concepts, tapped into the resources of the Universities of Graz in Austria and Karlsruhe in Germany, and finally came up with a package of three- and four-wheeled vehicles with an e-bike powertrain. These use a combination of human and electric power and are specifically designed to move people or cargo in bike lanes. Besides maintaining legal access to bike lanes, the catalog of specifications included easy accessibility, weather protection, and flexibility.
The resulting vehicle is a mere 33.5 inches wide and 78.7 inches long; it varies in height depending on the roof module. The two existing prototypes weigh about 176 pounds, but the target mass is 132 pounds, which Schaeffler aims to achieve by using carbon-fiber and recyclable composite materials. The multimaterial method will be explored in conjunction with Germany’s University of Dresden.
The Bio-Hybrid is designed with a tool-kit approach, including a front axle module, a center section, and a rear axle assembly. It could be shipped like a bicycle, only in a somewhat bigger box. And it can be propelled by pedal power, batteries, or both at once. Its electric energy is stored in two e-bike batteries, rated at about 500 watt-hours each; these power an electric motor that can easily propel the Bio-Hybrid to its limited top speed of 16 mph, with a range of just over 60 miles. Maximum speed could be raised to 28 mph, if the legal framework is amended to allow bike-lane access for e-bikes that achieve that speed—there’s discussion of this in Germany, where the Ruhr district is developing a dedicated “bicycle highway” to link 10 towns.
Could it go even faster? Schaeffler won’t even go there: “It is definitely tailored to bike lanes,” he said, adding, “Once it could run in regular traffic like a scooter, the entire network of bike lanes wouldn’t be available anymore.” But peak power will rise in the next-generation prototype to make the Bio-Hybrid more agile and potentially increase the load and range. And Schaeffler also intends to incorporate a way to let the vehicle reverse, something the prototypes can’t do yet.
The Schaeffler Bio-Hybrid project envisions various applications. The concept includes a one-seater and a cargo variant; a wider seat to make room for a passenger is one option, as is accommodation for a child safety seat behind the driver.
It doesn’t look nearly as dopey as its name may suggest. This is a surprisingly futuristic device, with a high-tech, angular design, steering handles that look as if they were race inspired, and cutting-edge LED lighting.
It’s even designed for seamless smartphone integration. Down the road, said Gutzmer, such vehicles could be “comprehensively integrated in the digital infrastructure.” Meaning that, in a future world of autonomous vehicles communicating with one another, other vehicles could be aware of the Bio-Hybrid’s presence and motions. And Schaeffler even envisions autonomous capabilities for it. The Bio-Hybrid could self-park and return to the user by a simple smartphone command. Inductive charging is another possibility, as is the integration of an electrically powered skateboard for use after parking the Bio-Hybrid.
Schaeffler is talking to municipalities and potential production partners. But if cooperation talks don’t yield results soon, the company is considering bringing the Bio-Hybrid to market on its own. The company said the reaction was so positive that it is an opportunity not to be wasted.
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