What is the future of personal transport? One man with an idea or two is GM’s technology guru Chris Borroni-Bird, interviewed at breakfast in Detroit earlier this month.
British-born Chris Borroni-Bird (he was born in Liverpool) hopes to see his latest creations on the streets of cities new and old well before he retires from General Motors. He is 46 so you might think he has plenty of time.
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But his work tends to need time. Cambridge graduate Borroni-Bird, one of the world’s leading fuel cell experts who joined GM in 2000 after working at DaimlerChrysler, is looking at global transport needs 15 to 20 years down the road.
His team’s latest creation is the EN-V, showcased for six months at last year’s Shanghai World Expo and also displayed at the Detroit motor show earlier this month.
He’s excited by the possibilities of EN-V-style transport and says that one of the immediate challenges is “the need to find a sweet spot between a real street and a sanitised environment to test EN-Vs in.”
EN-V, short for Electric Networked Vehicle, is a vision of the future of urban personal mobility. Three different EN-V designs represent distinct characteristics that emphasise what GM describes as “the enjoyable nature of future transportation”. They are Jiao (Pride), Miao (Magic) and Xiao (Laugh).
At less than half the length of a Smart ForTwo, six EN-Vs can fit into a standard American parking space while one self-balancing two-wheeled EN-V provides interior space for two passengers. Using its sophisticated sensing technology, EN-V can detect obstacles in its path, including pedestrians or other vehicles, and automatically come to a stop.
Borroni-Bird believes that the EN-V concept “shows there are different ways to skin a cat”. The next challenge is to improve the vehicles with storage space, heating and making sure they meet crash standards.
The EN-V project has been internally-funded by GM. “We are now looking to take it forward with city partners or corporations and I think it would be ideal in Europe’s historic cities where buildings and the fabric of the city need to be preserved – cities like Florence or somewhere like Amsterdam where people might swap bicycles for EN-V,” he said.
Asian cities because of their population density and European cities because they tend to be progressive are likely to be more receptive to something like the EN-V than US cities because they don’t have the same population density, he points out.
But whatever the future holds, Borroni-Bird believes that there will be an increasing need to integrate public and private transport.
“There is a lot of opportunity and it’s a very exciting role,” he said, but choices will have to be made whether to allow EN-Vs or similar transport to compete on the roads with other traffic or operate in a zone on their own inside a city, a campus or an airport.
“A vehicle this size would be very affordable – it will weigh less than 500kg and have a range of 50-60km [30-40 miles]; you could optimise it for pedestrian and bicycle protection or it could work in a gated community or with an ageing population.”
Borroni-Bird points out that an electric bike in China costs US$300 (about GBP190) so an EN-V type vehicle “will be more than that” but probably not much more; when a figure of $500 was mentioned he didn’t disagree and you get the impression it could certainly be under $1,000. Remember, he says, that “manufacturing is all existing technology so we would only need to build a few hundred to get it going”.
While GM worked with Segway on the EN-V, the priority was “to develop a two-passenger vehicle that is small and easy to park”.
Previously he has told reporters that “The two-wheel balancing approach has certain advantages associated with it, such as tight turning circles. However, it does create additional challenges so yes, we are considering three or four wheel variances as well. Keep in mind that EN-V is a concept intended to getting the message out about a new type of mobility system required for urban purposes.”
He adds over a final cup of coffee that it’s worth remembering that “each traditional car needs 30sq m of parking space [one at home and one away from home, whether at an office or public car park] so that’s hundreds of sq m of land given over to unnecessary parking” adding that “a shared vehicle takes five to 10 vehicles off the road”.
He concedes that “lots of companies are working on different aspects of what we are doing – autonomous driving for example – but I’m not aware of anyone bringing it all together except us”.
In an earlier media discussion group, Borroni-Bird said: “Realistically, we believe the convergence of electric drive (to address energy and environmental issues), connectivity (to address safety and congestion) and small footprint vehicle design (to address parking and affordability) will increasingly be needed to address the challenges of future urban driving.”
His challenge will be to make that happen while he’s working; you get the feeling that if anyone can, it’s this man.
Chris Borroni-Bird is director of GM’s Design and Technology Fusion Group. He was also programme director for GM’s AUTOnomy concept and the Hy-wire concept vehicles, which were the first vehicles designed from the ground up around a fuel cell propulsion system and the first to combine fuel cells with drive-by-wire technology. AUTOnomy was unveiled at the 2002 Detroit motor show and the GM Hy-wire at the Paris show later that year.
