Box Autos

Hyundai Motor Company reveals unique concepts for single-person future mobility, designed for use in congested cities across the globe. Prototypes have been created by engineers working at the company’s research and development (R&D) centre in Korea for an internal contest called the ‘IDEA festival’.

For the last three years, Hyundai has been organising this internal contest to enhance and expand R&D staff’s creativity, and to discover fresh ideas for future mobility. There is always one overriding theme, but there are no boundaries for the ideas. Contestants demonstrate how new thinking can truly create new and innovative possibilities.

Hyundai’s engineers submit their ideas, which get evaluated based on creativity, technology, fun and relevance to the theme.

Winning teams from the first round then compete in a presentation contest and approximately half of the ideas make it to the finals. The final ideas are produced and demonstrated on the festival day in Korea.

There was a wide range of prototypes showcased at the ‘IDEA festival 2012’, including the ‘E4U’ egg car, one of the winning ideas.

Hyundai is currently preparing for the ‘IDEA festival 2013’ with its staff submitting their ideas this month. The theme this year is ‘R&D for Customers’, focussing on how to meet customers’ future needs. This reflects Hyundai’s current strategy to focus on developing the brand and customer experience. Each winning team will turn its ideas into working prototypes and showcase them in September this year.

Ideas submitted for the IDEA festival 2012 included:

• A multi-rotor flying car – powered by four electric motors and propellers which means the car can hover above the ground, keeping the driver above congestion
• A spare tyre electric bike – a spare tyre that quickly folds out into an electric bike. Can be used in the event of a puncture when traffic is heavy, or can be used for leisure
• A portable transforming car –you can carry this around with you and driver can control it with their brain waves using mind control
• A five-jointed car–has five joints giving driver great flexibility to manoeuvre around tight spaces – driver only need a one metre radius to turn. The joints also enable the car to climb up steps!
• A road car/ bike –recognises the owner’s voice so they can talk to the car using a wireless head set – can be told to change seating position which will turn the car into a bike 
• A wind bike –main motor powered by four batteries, propellers powered by the wind
• The E4U egg car

Key features of E4U:

• The E4U has an egg-shaped, streamlined body and is a new concept of future mobility for one person
• The name E4U embraces 4 Es; Egg, Evolution, Electricity and Eco-friendliness
• It is designed to be driven at low speeds on narrow roads in urban areas
• Both its speed and steering can be controlled with one electric motor in the hemisphere structure, which simplifies the system and makes it light
• A driver can control the pivot of the hemisphere structure, which spins in one direction
• Its speed and steering can be controlled depending on which direction he/she turns and how much he/she tilts the hemisphere
• Its rear legs can be folded, and the side parts are also detachable, which minimizes required parking space

Specification:

* Weight: 80kg (including a battery)* Hemisphere: voltage 24V/ power 500W / max. speed