The European Commission’s President, José Manuel Durao Barroso, has presented this morning the electric vehicle HIRIKO, which has been developed by a Basque enterprise consortium. Urban, with four-wheel traction and direction, a haptic steering wheel and foldable when parking, HIRIKO is a giant step ahead in urban mobility thanks to its management system, as per demand, that complements the public transport and helps decongest traffic in city centres. According to Barroso, “HIRIKO is an answer to the crisis”.

HIRIKO features innovative navigation systems, 120 km autonomy, can reach a maximum speed of 90 km/h and can be limited to 50 km/h in the city.

Barroso was accompanied at this event by the chairman of HIRIKO Jesus Echave; mayors Ilmar Reepalu of Malmö (Sweden) and Javier Maroto of Vitoria-Gasteiz; the President of the Regional Council of Alava, Javier de Andres; international coordinator of HIRIKO Gorka Espiau; the parties responsible for mobility in Barcelona, Berlin and Boston; the parties responsible for the MIT of Massachusetts; and the executives of Afypaida, Denokinn, Guardian, Sapa, TMA, Forging Products, BRW-Basque Robot Wheels, Ingeinnova and Maser Mic, who have been in charge of developing this project. Among those attending were Luis Viana and Jon Urigüen, members of parliament for Economic Promotion in Alava and Gipuzkoa, respectively; Edorta Larrauri, Technology director for the Basque Government; and Marta Marin, deputy of the Basque Government in Brussels.

In the opinion of the European Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, “projects such as the electric car by HIRIKO play an important role in responding to the crisis, for it combines new business possibilities with the creation of employment and social innovation”.

Barroso explained that “budget control is essential when it come to fighting this crisis“, but he also said, “projects such as the HIRIKO car are part of the solution to the crisis. HIRIKO is an example of how to resuscitate traditional industrial sectors and lead them to new challenges, such as urban mobility”.

Geoff Mulgan, Managing Director of the British public company Nesta working in social innovation, has highlighted HIRIKO’s social aspect when it comes to transforming cities, and he has defined the idea of the Basque Consortium as a “practical and tangible dream” carried out by “practical visionaries“.

TRIBUTE TO VASCONCELOS

The event has been framed as a tribute paid by the European Commission to Diogo Vasconcelos, the renowned innovator who past away last year. Several of his family members and friends attended the event.

As highlighted by the chairman of HIRIKO, Jesus Echave, the new electric vehicle is “an example of social innovation and it intends to change cities and its habits; in the future we will be able to eliminate stress and noise in the city centres”.

In Echave’s point of view, “HIRIKO is an example of social innovation that contributes to changing cities and its habits as far as sustainable mobility is concerned, because the first clients will be institutions, municipalities and public services, which will use them as fleets in their respective city”.

Both the mayor of Vitoria, Javier Maroto, and the President of the Regional Council of Alava, Javier de Andres, have participated in a meeting with investors, businessmen, and technological leaders from the entire world that are interested in the Basque economical proposals. In Javier de Andres’ opinion, “Alava is an ideal setting to carry out the project given the province’s technological wealth”.  The mayor of the Green Capital 2012 has dubbed HIRIKO as a “project that creates green employment”.

In 2013, the first assembly plant will initiate the production of HIRIKO. 9,000 units per year will be produced by 2015 in the different franchises in Europe and America.

Engineer Armando Gaspar will be joining us over the next few days as the Director of Industrialisation of the HIRIKO electric vehicle, the first prototype of which is to be unveiled next 24th January before the President of the European Commission, Durao Barroso, in Brussels. Commercial production of the revolutionary car developed by a consortium of Basque companies is to start next year.

Gaspar, who was born in Portugal and was educated in Germany, knows the automotive field in Spain very well, especially everything that is related with suppliers, manufacturing procedures and markets. In 1980 he worked for the Daimler Chrysler consortium as a production engineer in Dusseldorf and Ludwigsfelde.  In 1994 he moved to the headquarters in Stuttgart where he worked as Purchasing Manager for Industrial Vehicles. He was later designated Vice Chairman for Production and Product Engineering in the Brazil Daimler Chrysler Division of Industrial Vehicles.

Armando Gaspar has been the chairman of the Industrial Centres in Daimler Spain between 2004 and 2007. His presence in HIRIKO guarantees a magnificent penetration in the market. In the HIRIKO General Manager’s opinion, “Gaspar is amongst the few people who have an in-depth knowledge of automobile production processes and the new tendencies that electric cars are setting within the demand for sustainable mobility of the new cities throughout the world”.

The first prototype of the HIRIKO car will be unveiled next 24^th January in the headquarters of the Presidency of the European Union. The first units to come out of the plant at Vitoria-Gasteiz will be homologated before July as a previous step towards industrial production and commercialization, which is foreseen for 2013.

Several European and American cities will be the scenes for the initial trials in autumn this year of the first HIRIKO cars. The HIRIKO is a 100% electric and electronic two-seater, with four-wheel drive, capable of folding up for parking and is equipped with a state-of-the-art information system for permanent communication in an intelligent city environment.

As a tribute to the memory of Diogo Vasconcelos whose visionnary commitment to social innovation has greatly inspired the European Commission, President Barroso will participate on January 24 to the “Global Launch of Hiriko Driving Mobility”, a large scale European social innovation initiative offering a systematic solution to major societal challenges: wurban transportation, pollution and job creation.

The event will take place in Brussels on 24th January. The presentation will be held at the headquarters of the European Commission and will be attended by senior officials dealing with social innovation as well as representatives of regions and municipalities, the industry and investment sectors from all over the world. The Basque authorities, together with the group of entrepreneurs led by Jesus Echave will also be attending the meeting. Diogo Vasconcelos, who died in July at the age of 43, was a renowned innovator, senior manager of the Cisco multinational corporation.

According to Johannes Laitenberger, the chief of staff of the President of the European Commission, “Diogo Vasconcelos has left behind him an empty space in the world of social innovation in Europe. He championed innovative systems that combined economic performance with sustainability and social inclusion. For many of us he was a significant source of inspiration at a time when Europe is forced to confront considerable challenges in a fresh and creative way.”.

Social solutions

According to Jesus Echave, chairman of HIRIKO-AFYPAIDA, “what Europe needs is precisely people like Vasconcelos, people with an ability to address the current challenges with clear and innovative ideas to ensure a social and economic development that is respectful with the planet. The European Commission is a leading actor in the promotion of social innovation. This is why we have chosen this occasion to launch the first HIRIKO prototype in Brussels, with the participation of President Barroso.”.

“HIRIKO is not just an industrial and technological project of the highest level”, Echave says. “It also provides solutions in terms of employment, urban mobility, business cooperation and attention to disadvantaged groups. In HIRIKO we fully apply the concept of “social innovation” to a new product that will allow the big leap forward that is being carried out during this century by intelligent cities and regions in terms of mobility“.

In Brussels, Managers from firms like Guardian, Forging Products, TMA, Ingeinnova, Maser Mic, BRW, Sapa, MIT (USA), Etud, Afypaida and DENOKINN will be attending the event, together with Jesus Echave and Inigo Antia.

The technology contributed by Maser Mic, a Basque company that co-manufactures the HIRIKO electronic car, for the self-guiding of vehicles in intelligent urban environments –included within Boeing Spain’s “ADAM” (Automation Development for Autonomous Mobility) project-, will be supported by the INNPRONTA program on strategic projects supported by the Spanish Government though its Centre for Technological and Industrial Development.

“In developing electric vehicles we shall be proposing one step further: it is a matter of manufacturing autonomous cars that do not need drivers, just as is already the case in air and sea travel“, explains Carlos Iriondo, the Commercial Director of Maser Mic, one of the Basque companies that develops the HIRIKO.

Boeing-Spain is the “ADAM” project coordinator. Companies like Indra, Navantia, Logica, Centrum, Ficosa, Saes, Insa, Maser and Azkar Mic are participating in the project. Maser Mic proposes to develop the self-guiding of vehicles “by means of their interaction with the intelligent environment by recognizing urban routes, obstacles and other incidences“.

The “ADAM” project, coordinated by Boeing Spain and supported by the Government of Spain with almost 17 ​​million euros, seeks a competitive position for the Spanish automation and autonomous mobility technologies industries in order to ensure their presence in relation to emerging businesses. Their development is to support the production of technological breakthroughs in terms of processes of automation and autonomy, by improving processes, capabilities and performances of selected applications.

Navigation without pilots

“With initiatives like this – remarks Mic-Maser Commercial Director Carlos Iriondo – the transfer of technology and the exploitation of synergies in the field of autonomous mobility are facilitated. It is perfectly possible for an electric/electronic car without a driver to be guided through intelligent urban environment. By the end of 2014 we shall have developed the project “ADAM” and that is where our engineering staff is now working. Autonomous guided vehicles will yield huge benefits, especially in those cases in which direct human control represents a limitation or is simply impossible. Basque industry has a considerable potential to be in such initiatives and we in Maser Mic will be present there as HIRIKO co-manufacturers“.

The summons to the INNPRONTA program was carried out last July. The companies selected benefit from good financing conditions, since it combines grants and loans up to 75% percent of the fundable budget.

Intelligent Cities Expo, the meeting point for the most sustainable cities in Europe that takes place in Hamburg -the 2011 European green capital-, has presented the project HIRIKO as “an example of a smart solution for urban mobility”. Those participating, among of which are the mayor of Hamburg and representatives of the cities of London, Copenhagen, Växjö, Stockholm, Nantes and Vitoria-Gasteiz, have learned about the latest details in the manufacturing process of the only vehicle designed specifically for shared use, the concept of “mobility on demand“, the possibilities that HIRIKO offers regarding employment creation in regions where it is used, and the new business models that the Basque electric vehicle leads to.

The person responsible for the international development of HIRIKO, Gorka Espiau, has presented in the capital of the Hanseatic League the names of the cities that have already signed the first collaboration agreements with the Basque enterprise sector (Berlin and Malmö) and some of the cities that are negotiating their inclusion to the project (San Francisco, Barcelona and Quito).

Together with Florian Lennert -director of LSE Enterprise and Innoz Berlin-, Sylvain Haon -director of Polis(Belgium)-, Sarwant Singh from the British Frost & Sullivan and Peter Lindlahrt from Hy Solutions in Germany, Espiau has emphasised that “HIRIKO is much more than an electric car capable of being folded for parking purposes. It is a revolution in the perception of mobility in large cities, and it will allow the current programmes on the shared use of bicycles to evolve towards a much more ambitious scenario”.

“In the near future -forecasted by the person responsible for the international programme of HIRIKO-, the users in Berlin, Malmö, Barcelona or San Francisco may choose between a shared-use bicycle or HIRIKO electric car to travel around the city centre. Because it is an electric vehicle permanently connected by GPS and the price of the trip can be changed according to the user’s decisions, it will be used more like a mobile phone than a traditional car. In fact, the reservation of HIRIKO vehicles will be carried out by phone, and its on-board computer will indicate the parking space, recommend the best route and how it can be free“.

The specialists sharing the seminar with HIRIKO have identified the business models related to the transport and have analysed the results offered by smart transport systems in terms of urban congestion, travel times and user satisfaction. HIRIKO is currently working on its prototypes, which will be presented soon. The first vehicles by HIRIKO to be tested in several cities around the world will be standardised during 2012.

The principal mobility forum in the World, the Intelligent Cities Expo that is to be held in November in Hamburg, Germany, has invited the people responsible for the HIRIKO electric vehicle that is being developed in the Basque Country, to participate in the meeting with their proposals and solutions in terms of sustainable mobility.

Florian Lennert, director of LSE Enterprise and InnoZ Berlín, who, together with Sylvain Haon, director of Polis-Belgium, Sarwant Singh from the British Frost & Sullivan, Peter Lindlahrt, from Hy Solutions in Germany, and the person responsible for international relations in HIRIKO, Gorka Espiau, will be analysing “the challenges in the integration of smart systems in the current transport infrastructures”.

These specialists will identify the business models related with transport and will analyse the results offered by smart transport systems in terms of urban congestion, travel times and user satisfaction.

The Intelligent Cities Expo is to be held from 8th to 11th November in Hamburg. Apart from the displays and exhibitions, over 200 specialists in the design of the new cities will participate in the events, forums and conferences related with the new urban development. These seminars will study the list of intelligent cities and will compare it with the needs and priorities of municipal officials, public services, transport entrepreneurs, promoters, investors, contractors and suppliers of solutions in terms of urban development and management.

“The conference –says Iñigo Antia, the director of HIRIKO- will gather all the interested parties to discuss and determine the way in which to transform today’s towns and cities into habitable and sustainable towns and cities, by means of the large-scale adoption of intelligent systems in mobility management, communications, commercial, tourism and cultural management and other aspects of a modern town”.

The Berlin region will be participating in the global “Mobility on Demand” program promoted by HIRIKO Driving Mobility which proposes solutions in terms of sustainable mobility in new urban centres. The person responsible for the corporate consortium that develops the HIRIKO electric vehicle, Iñigo Antía, has held a meeting in the German capital with Almuth Hartwig-Tiedt, the Berlin State Secretary for Economy and Technology, one of the first towns in which the HIRIKO vehicle is to circulate.

“Apart from the feasibility study of the management of this transport solution, the project will be field testing, over the next year, the first HIRIKO vehicles. Malmo, in Sweden, will likewise be carrying out field tests as part of the agreement reached with that town. This is how response to the electronic vehicle and its interaction with the final user will be monitored” explains Iñigo Antia:

Berlin is to include HIRIKO sustainable mobility studies and proposals  in its “2020 Berlin Electromobility” program. According to Antia, “the new intelligent urban mobility services –Mobiliy on Demand- based on the shared use of electronic vehicles and bicycles is an important step forward in the sustainable development and rational use of energy resources. The municipality of Berlín is conscious of this and, as we did a few days ago in Malmo, we are going to work in close conjunction with their decision makers in a detailed analysis and applied research for the effective creation and long term implementation of strategies pursuant to such mobility “.

Antía and Hartwig-Tiedt have agreed on the implementation of a service to manage a pilot HIRIKO electric vehicle pool to serve Berlin urban transport needs and its connection with other means of transport, all of which is included in a detailed urban mobility plan. Also, German decision makers in the ministries of industry and technology have asked HIRIKO executives for details on their innovating contribution to the automotive world. The Berlin authorities will promote the settlement of a franchise of HIRIKO vehicle assembly in their region.

The municipality of Malmö has chosen the basis of the HIRIKO CityCar concept, with the objective of initiating a pilot program in order to study the implementation of a new system of mobility to reinforce the current sustainable mobility strategies. Malmö is considered to be one of the most innovating towns in Sweden and it clearly leads the way in terms of environmental sustainability policies and the struggle against climate change.

The pilot project, agreed upon last week, will test new technological solutions such as those contributed by the HIRIKO vehicle and will carry out planning on the necessary infrastructures and business models for a new system of mobility that incorporates shared-use electronic vehicles.
The people responsible for HIRIKO will be collaborating closely with Malmö for the integration of this new electric mobility solution in the public transport system within the framework of the existing public strategies.

Agreement
The study is to evaluate final-user demand, the necessary infrastructure for its implication, and it will calculate the impact on the town of the implementation of this new service of shared mobility and will propose a feasible business model for its financing.

In parallel to the elaboration of the feasibility study, the project will test the first HIRIKO vehicles on the field. The objective of this part of the study is to test the response of the electric vehicle in each environment as well as its interaction with the final user.

Malmö, with nearly 1,000,000 inhabitants, is the capital of the Scania region, and is considered by Grist Magazine as “one of the 15 greenest towns In the world”. It opted for election as European Green Capital in 2012. According to its local authorities, “Malmö is incorporated to this project because it aspires to international leadership in research and development of sustainable forms of urban mobility by promoting International cooperation in the exchange of know how in terms of climate change and energy safety”.

HIRIKO technical director, Thierry Odet, considers that “institutions, companies and society in general have to collaborate in the development of urban mobility”. During a debate organised by newspaper El Mundo and the University of the Basque Country in Miramar Palace in San Sebastian, this engineer pointed out that “the second automobile revolution is strongly encouraging green energies”.

The event, organised within the framework of the 14th Summer Terrace Talks, has also benefited from the presence of Xabier Garmendia, the Vice Councillor of Industry and Energy of the Basque Government, and that of Eduardo Giménez, the marketing director at Ingeteam. The director of El Mundo (Basque Country Edition), Josean Izarra, was the moderator of the meeting.

“HIRIKO is not just a car, it is an industrial project” pointed out Odet. “The future of urban mobility affects us all, both private citizens and professionals, including public services. As an industrial project in this new century, HIRIKO responds to this need in a flexible and sustainable manner”.

The HIRIKO executive explained that “this will be the first drive-by-wire vehicle produced, in much the same pioneering spirit as Airbus had in the past, establishing the technological basis for this to be a car designed for the future in urban contexts. With its technological platform and modularity it will allow for easy adaptation to urban mobility”.

MOBILITY

“The HIRIKO project –explained Thierry Odet to those attending the meeting organised by El Mundo- establishes the bases for what will be a vehicle for urban mobility. It is a proposal for a new form of sharing cars in urban centres as well as a “brief” rental period both for the public as a whole and for professionals”.

According to Odet, “HIRIKO integrates a system of global urban mobility management, with specific or non-specific parking spaces, as well as a charging and exchange points. Parking space is minimised, facilitating access and use in densely-populated areas. HIRIKO has the capacity to adapt both to a professional urban use, and to closed emplacements such as airports or hotels”.

“Apart from shared use car fleet management,–added the executive from the Basque electric vehicle concern- with HIRIKO, cities, depending on their needs, will be able to limit their speed in accordance with their perimeter of use, forbidding or allowing access to specific perimeters and identifying and managing traffic flows. Their high technological level and basis will allow for the enjoyment of both technological and urban evolution”.

The HIRIKO project proposes a specific form of manufacturing thanks to small, clean and local manufacturing units that allow for a specific industrial tissue for each country, region, community or town with the particularity of proposing an economic and sustainable opportunity. For this reason, there will be numerous international assembly centres in charge of manufacturing the cars.

For Odet, “electric vehicles are synonyms of clean and green energy. This is something that is needed in Europe and throughout the world. HIRIKO is not afraid of the future and world competition, on the contrary, it will take advantage of competition because of its considerable technological capacity”.

The engineer estimates that the agility demonstrated by HIRIKO, together with its simplicity and technology, are forces that allow for quick and efficient development of the project. Odet thanked “the industrial and political visionaries of the Basque Country and Spain, who have allowed this ambitious industrial project to see the light”.

HIRIKO will be the only vehicle in the market with a steering wheel and without a stealing bar. The engineers that are preparing the industrialisation and commercialisation of this electric vehicle wanted to know how the market would accept their proposal in terms of how to drive this new car: with a traditional steering wheel, with a haptic steering wheel or by means of a joy-stick. For this purpose there is nothing better than checking it out with nearly 50 volunteers, all were only told that “they were going to try out a car with some kind of new incorporation in the navigation systems”.

“These were all men and women between 12 and 65 years old, with or without driving licence” –explains engineer Pedro Basterrechea. “all of them said that the option of electric vehicle was the favourite in terms of renting or acquiring a car, without doubt, but there were also more people preferring the traditional steering wheel to the joystick. Those who drove the best with the joystick were the youngest and those who had no driver’s license. They were not “contaminated” by the steering wheel!.

The test was carried out in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The car chosen for the test was a Ford Mondeo Prepared in Germany for the “Irrintzi” drivers’ school in Bizkaia, specialised in teaching impaired people how to drive. In this sense, the “Irrintzi” drivers’ school is a pioneering drivers’ school in Spain.

A joystick situated to the right of the driver controlled speed, steering and braking. When each of the volunteers entered the car, one of the drivers’ school instructors explained from the co-pilot’s seat what the test was about: it was forbidden to touch the steering wheel and pedals! They could only use the joystick for everything.

After a few initial seconds in surprise because of the novelty of the joystick, the drivers started to drive the sophisticated Mondeo in roads and a parking area without any traffic. There was a little of everything: the odd sudden turn, uncertainty when breaking and a generalised reflex of putting their hands on the steering wheel in critical situations.

Kepa Gabilondo, the director the study, comments that “it is surprising how simple it is to drive, and when the time comes to learn how to drive, it will be by means of an ergonomic and intuitive way of driving, with a joystick”. The traditional steering wheel offered a higher feeling of control, safety, position and reliability, especially to veteran drivers.

With these data in mind, the engineers have studied what the equipment in the HIRIKO car will be like for the new market of electrical vehicles that will take off in 2013: HIRIKO will be driven by means of a haptic steering wheel, without a steering bar, and it will be electronically managed. The joystick will be an option offered to those customers who demand it.