MOTIV.e City Car From Formula 1 Designer Still Moving Forward

September 26th, 2014 by James Ayre
 
The MOTIV.e City Car EV â€" currently in the process of being developed by the Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray â€" is still moving forward, according to recent reports.

The EV is being developed by Murray for possible wide-release by Yamaha. According to these recent reports, this “possible” release by Yamaha is now very probable.

According to Murray, progress on the design is coming along well. Stating: “We’ve been doing a great deal behind the scenes on things like model range, factory layout and production procedures. It’s all good news and we expect an important announcement in November or December.”

AutoCar provides more:

The Motiv, designed to meet European safety standards and design rules, was launched as an electric prototype at last December’s Tokyo motor show, but is also now being engineered for an economical petrol engine as well, Murray says.

Murray says he’s never been busier. He has eight different vehicles in various stages of development including an extremely durable light truck, called Ox, which can be flat-packed for easy transportation to the world’s primitive areas and is simple enough to be assembled on site.

“Yamaha’s people are brilliant engineers and great to work with. The company is the perfect co-operative partner when you’re doing a project like this.”

The commercial viability of any of these eight other vehicles under development of course remains an open question. Given the amount of time that Murray has been working on the Motiv (plus these other designs), it’s hard know what exactly to make of what we’ve seen so far. We’ll keep you posted.

Image Credit: Yamaha/Gordon Murray

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About the Author

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.