Project description
Go to town with a light electric three-wheeler
By 2050, 70 % of the world’s population will be living in cities. Think of what this will mean for transportation, as well as the ensuing traffic and emissions. With this in mind, the EU-funded BICAR project will bring to market an eco-friendly shared mobility system that offers maximum comfort while meeting the current requirements for urban mobility. Specifically, the BICAR is the lightest (80 kg) three-wheel vehicle on the market, and it has the smallest footprint (1.2 m2). What is more, it runs on swappable batteries and can be controlled by a mobile application. Overall, it is an all-in-one emission-free, sustainable solution meant to support multimodal behaviour and to be integrated into the smart city concept.
Objective
According to the United Nations, the urban population is growing and it is expected that 70% of the world´s population will live in cities by 2050. This implies an increase in both individual travel and traffic congestion. There is an urgent demand for a “Smart Cities” replacing the fossil-fuel vehicles by public transport and sharing systems, actively promoting an environmentally-friendly and sustainable form of smart transportation.
Share Your Bicar AG envisioned an individual yet eco-friendly sharing mobility system with maximum comfort and designed the BICAR to fit the current requirements for city mobility. The BICAR solution is an all-in-one emission-free, sustainable mobility sharing system meant to support multimodal behaviour and to be integrated into the Smart City concept. BICAR has the smallest footprint (1,2 m2) and is the lightest (80 kg) three-wheel vehicle on the market. It features a unique tilting mechanism, rain cover and solar roof, swappable batteries, and is made from sustainable materials and controlled by a mobile app that finds, books, locks/unlocks and accepts payments. It is an efficient sharing vehicle developed for city traffic and provides a solution for the “first and last mile” problem in combination with other mobility devices for all age and social groups, complementing the public transport system without compromising on comfort or safety.
With the support of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, in the 2020 BICAR will be launched onto the market. Within 5 years of its launch, the BICAR solution will be operational in nearly 35 cities with more than 100.000 residents and five major cities with more than 1M residents, requiring 17.000 vehicles. Daily revenue, comprised of use and/or advertising, will be €126 million within five years. In the future, people will use BICAR to make their way from the train station to the office, carry heavy shopping bags home or catch a ride to a doctor’s appointment on a rainy day.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
8608 BUBIKON
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.