Hiriko

The constitution of “HIRIKO CARS” acts the participation of more companies in the development of the electric car

Last friday october 29th, the “HIRIKO CARS”, corporate consortium has been constituted in Vitoria-Gasteiz. This consortium will manufacture the two-seat electric car, the first prototypes of which will circulate in summer next year for their ulterior commercialisation in 2013. The new group is made up of HIRIKO DRIVING MOBILITY, FORGING PRODUCTS, MASER MIC, GUARDIAN and SAPA. Jesús Echave, chairman of the corporate consortium has announced that “two fundamental elements in this vehicle hire the robotised wheel and the steering joy-stick which, together with the other innovating developments of the project, have secured the participation of other industrial concerns in HIRIKO”.

“We now have the group of companies and suppliers that are going to manufacture the first basque the electric car”, explains Echave. “Indeed, we provide revolutionaries solutions for sustainable mobility, such as the robotised wheels and joystick steering”.

The presentation of the “HIRIKO CARS” consortium was carried out in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Alava with the presence of entrepreneurs and local authorities, the directors of EPSILON EUSKADI, DENOKINN and the Association for the Promotion of Automotive Industry, AFYPAIDA.

The chairman of the new automotive consortium estimates that “during the first year of manufacturing el -2013- 700 models of HIRIKO, destined for use in big cities, will be manufactured. We are dealing with manufacturing and sales forecasts of 25,000 vehicles per year in the 2020 horizon”.

Global investment needed by the HIRIKO project is of 170 million Euros during 10 years. This will have a positive repercussion in the creation of jobs and corporate activity within the Basque Autonomous Community. “Logically, the technological advances that are going to take place during this time are gigantic but HIRIKO will be permanently open to such incorporations that will make of our product -and of our form of management- a perfect model for displacement in new sustainable cities in which our municipalities and institutions are already working on” adds Echave.

Echave also said that “This will launch us as a reference in the future of the automotive industry. We are starting from scratch in order to transform production systems and we are placing our stakes on modular and distributive manufacturing of a city car with a state-of-the-art technology implementation”.

OTHERS PROJECTS

Once the small HIRIKO has been commercialised, the HIRIKO CARS corporate group, which develops the car, will be making headway in the design of other electric vehicles such as a pick up delivery van and a four-seat car. “We are now developing what is to be the HIRIKO distribution and assembly network” says Echave.

Within the “HIRIKO DRIVING MOBILITY” corporation, HIRIKO CARS is the Dem nomination of the corporate groups that manufacturers and commercialises the car, whereas HIRIKO INFRAESTRUCTURES is in charge of the development of the necessary infrastructures in cities in order to guarantee the correct use of a vehicle, as well as parking spaces and recharging points. Also, HIRIKO SERVICES is in charge of the development of the implementation of the franchised plants.

“Assembly and maintenance tasks of the new electric car –the chair of HIRIKO CARS points out-will require advanced technical knowledge, so it will be necessary to train professionals in the new techniques of the automotive world of the future”.

The chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Alava, Gregorio Rojo, congratulated the promoters and companies that support the HIRIKO corporate project “as they have placed their stakes on an innovative idea, leaping towards the future in what is to become something quite habitual over the next few years: sustainable mobility, combined with a solid automotive industry that has an important presence in the productive grid in Alava”.

Ricardo Chicharro, vice-chairman of INTA, the National Institute of Aerospace Technologies, in charge of technical homologations and certifications, has insisted that “the future of cars is to go through new conceptions such as that contributed by HIRIKO, with more intelligent vehicles, like these solutions brought forward by this new electric car”.

The chairman of the new HIRIKO DRIVING MOBILITY consortium has pointed out that “HIRIKO will be the car of the Green Capital of Europe as well as that of the 2012 Olympic Games in London”.