Podbike velomobile Frikar: the perfect e-bike and car hybrid

English

It’s no longer news that bicycles are making a comeback in the urban mobility space. However, traditional bikes surely do not fit into anyone’s vision of the future of urban mobility. Among other problems, they could prove quite hard to pedal uphill and offer little to zero protection from the weather or crashes. While electric vehicles seamlessly solve the former problem, inventors are still figuring out ways to address the latter. Enter the Podbike Frikar e-bike – the true mobility device for the future.

Design and features

The Podbike velomobile is a daring attempt to bridge the gap between electric bikes and cars without compromising sustainability. The ‘pod’ nomenclature is quite literal as the driver appears to be enclosed in a pod. However, the ‘bike’ suffix seems to be slightly off, since the vehicle is a four-wheeler in the real sense.

Despite the four wheels, Frikar is compact enough to fit into tiny spaces, and it’s just as easy to enter and exit as a regular bike. The vehicle is partly battery-powered and partly human-powered. When cycled like a regular bike, Frikar gives you the same light exercise as an electric bike. However, there are no gears or greasy chains that could make bikes slightly challenging or unpleasant to ride.

Effortless parking and low footprint
With Podbike, you no longer have to settle for a parking space that’s many miles away from your destination. Unlike traditional bikes, the Frikar can reverse, and its parking footprint is much lower than any four-wheeler you can find. This is owed to the unique parking technology that raises the vehicle and allows it to rest on only the rear wheels. According to the manufacturers, eight Frikar e-bikes can fit in a single car parking space!

Rider comfort and safety
Podbike’s four wheels guarantee better stability and rider comfort. The vehicle is equipped with lights and indicators on both sides, making it easier to spot and facilitating the safety of the rider and other road users. The manufacturers also claim that Frikar has energy-absorbing crush zones that can minimize impact during a crash. Plus, there’s roll-over protection and an optional seat belt for riders.

Extra cargo or child seat
Frikar e-bike is ideally designed to seat only the rider, but there’s enough space to either accommodate a child or some extra load. This space comes in handy when going grocery shopping or going out with a child.

Futuristic design
The manufacturers envision a future dominated by driverless cars, and they have designed Frikar to become a part of this future. According to them, future Frikar e-bikes will come with self-parking and self-charging features, alongside many other features that facilitate autonomy.

Pricing info
Updated 20th Oct, 2021: Podbike Frikar e-bike is currently available for pre-order via their official website. The manufacturers estimate the initial price for a standard model to be €6,249 (approx. $US6,114) (+VAT, shipping and optional equipment). They mention that with 3400+ orders, expected delivery for new ones is in 2023.

Article Category

Startup

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.

Actions

Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.

Design principles

Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".

Log in to post comments

Topic

Startup

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.

Actions

Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.

Design principles

Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".

Jokes Random

A man is flying

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man below says: “Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field.”
“You must be an engineer,” says the balloonist.
“I am,” replies the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information.
“The man below says, “You must be a planner.”
“I am,” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well,” says the man, “you don’t know where you are, or where you are going, and you have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault.”