Image gallery: DEVELOPMENT ROAD TEST ROLL OUT

TWIKE 4

THE PROTOTYPE

You don’t build Europe’s most innovative light electric vehicle since 1995 without learning something. The X-Prize in 2010 was the reason for us to set everything to zero and to completely reinvent the TWIKE. With the help of experienced chassis experts, we developed a vehicle whose driving dynamics are somewhere between a motorcycle and a car, while at the same time providing enormous cornering stability. Our radical rethinking was also reflected in the joystick steering, which – unlike the TWIKE 3 – can be operated left-, right- or ambidextrously.

When we flew to the U.S. in June 2010, we had already completed the greater part of our X-Prize adventure.

In accordance with the requirements of the Progressive Automotive X Prize, our competition vehicle achieved the following values:
Top speed: > 130 km/h | Acceleration: 0 – 96 km/h < 18 sec

Range: > 160 km on one charge | Consumption < 12kWh / 100 km


We were thrilled.
Now it could start

Learn more about the development of the TWIKE 4 in our picture galleries

Picture gallery: SPRUNG OVER THE BIG POND

TWIKE 4

THE X PRIZE

When Charles Lindbergh became the first to fly across the Atlantic in 1927, he did so to win the Orteig Prize, which had been offered for this achievement since 1919. Inspired by this, the X-Prize Foundation has been offering highly endowed prizes since 1995 to create incentives for technical and scientific excellence.

 

In 2007, the organization offered the Automotive X-Prize. The aim was to design an energy-efficient vehicle suitable for everyday use that is also suitable for series production. 136 teams from all over the world applied. The first pre-selection took place in October 2009. In the process, the field of participants was reduced to 43.

Among them we were also the only German team with the new TW4XP design. The cryptic name of our car with the starting number 33 meant: “Threewheeler for X-Prize”. In the meantime we simply call it TWIKE 4. Our gallery shows the TWIKE 4 in Washington and Chicago:

 

 

KNOCK OUT STAGE

THE PRODUCTION

Then it got serious: In numerous races and technical tests, the vehicles were tested and evaluated for efficiency, range, safety, driving characteristics.

Soft factors such as innovation, driving pleasure and desirability to the public were also taken into account in the evaluation.

FINAL STAGE

In the end, Team TW4XP came third in October 2010 with a remarkably low consumption of 10.8kWh/100km. This result is encouraging. But despite all the euphoria:

The TWIKE 4 was not yet good enough for us. We wanted to make it even lighter, even more efficient and simply better in many details. That’s why we’re working on the TWIKE 5. Back in Germany, the TWIKE 4 set standards once again.

TWIKE 4

THE SUCCESSES

Electric mobility already works today. This was already demonstrated by the 1st WAVE 2011. With single stages of around 120 km and daily stages of up to 400 km, the electric vehicles covered far more than many normally drive every day. Whether maneuverable in city traffic in the streets of Paris or capable of climbing in snow and rain over Swiss Alpine passes: The TWIKE teams were able to make excellent use of the advantages of their relatively small and lightweight vehicles.

The challenge of working on September 18 in fog and rain successively the Grimselpass and Furkapass (2,436 m.a.s.l.) and on the 19 September to cross the snow-covered Oberalp Pass (2,046 m.a.s.l.) became a fun pleasure for TWIKE and TW4XP. Only about a quarter of the participants crossed all three passes on their own wheels.

THE WAVE 2011

The evaluation criteria in this competition were diverse: In addition to range, speed & acceleration, the likability factor was also included and the vehicles were evaluated by over 2,000 students from various schools visited along the way. In Dortmund, a delegation from the city tested the innovation factor of the vehicles, in Vienna the luggage compartment was put under the microscope and in St. Pölten it was a matter of pushing: Which team was the first to bring its vehicle across the 100-meter finish line without engine power?

Team TWIKE 4 won several competitions with 10 out of 10 points and shone with full points in the lap time on the racetrack in Zolder, Belgium, in the Innovation criterion and in the parking competition held in Augsburg. Among other things, the TWIKE was pleased with its famously good efficiency: with 9 out of 10 points, the TWIKE was the most efficient multi-seater vehicle in the competition.