City Transformer CT-1 Prototype
The City Transformer startup has been around for a long time and news about it appears every six months. But if a year ago his electric car existed only in the form of a cart, later the company has shown a more attractive prototype.
The public premiere of the CT-1 took place at the “Innovation Week” techno-exhibition in Tel Aviv. Many experts who attended the event, even before the presentation, called City Transformer the headliner of the exhibition. Interesting moment: the car has been delivered to the hall using standard elevator.
“We took a standard elevator no more than 1.2 meters wide to the second floor without leaving our electric car,” told Asaf Formosa, the head of the City Transformer development company.
The weight of the electric car is only 450 kg, and the maximum speed is 90 km/h. With a fully charged battery, the City Transformer can travel nearly 200 kilometers (124 miles). The final model should have a joystick, not a steering wheel, and its wheelbase folds and unfolds like a real transformer at the push of a button. When folded, the axle spacing is compressed to less than one meter.
This feature allows the vehicle to better maneuver around town and park. Four CT-1 can fit in one standard parking space, the company said. The company also said its vehicles will soon be available for pre-order and will begin shipping to customers, with the goal of seeing a million models on the street by 2025.
The company has had some setbacks, according to City Transformer Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder Uri Meridor. In 2014, when City Transformer was first founded, its goal was to be on the market by 2017 and have vehicles as “average cost for an electric vehicle.” Since then, the expected price has increased from $8,000 to $10,500, and their market date has been pushed back.
“We are not just building a car for the city, but we are defining the future of all city cars,” says Meridor.
According to the Globes Business Daily, the company is about to go public on the Tel Aviv stock exchange with a value estimated at $137 million to $183 million. The IPO will help City Transformer gain European certification for the CT-1 by the end of this year as a quadricycle.
“Billions of people living and working in the city will be given a new alternative of effective and green mobility: one that combines the safety and comfort benefits of driving a car, with the benefits of parking, maneuvering and the savings of using a motorcycle,” said CEO Asaf Formoza. “This, without the existing shortcomings of the car and motorcycle.”
