The ultimate commuting solution for a car-free city

Project Information

UDO

Grant agreement ID: 781145

DOI

10.3030/781145

Project closed

EC signature date 26 July 2017

Start date 1 August 2017

End date 30 November 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

CARR HANSSON KINETICS AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UDO (The ultimate commuting solution for a car-free city)

Reporting period: 2017-08-01 to 2017-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In a bid to reduce the impacts of pollution and transport congestion in developed cities, Governments and municipalities have shifted towards the promotion of more sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation modes for the urban population. This has led to the increased adoption of e-bikes for urban commuting, as they offer more autonomy with less pedalling effort.

Currently, e-bikes are however regarded as expensive, heavy and unsafe, with some cities effecting bans on them as they pose a threat to pedestrians due to their speed and unexpected acceleration. This results in the growing need for a lighter, safer and more economical alternative e-bike that will offer greater autonomy for the user, while maintaining safety.

With UDO, we intend to deliver a lighter, safer, sustainable and more affordable e-bike that will offer the benefits of an electric bike, while retaining most features of the traditional bicycle. With UDO, the user will achieve greater autonomy with 50% less effort, while retaining full control of the bicycle.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To date, over €130,000 have been invested towards the development of UDO, with two prototypes for the Kick bike and bicycle achieved between 2016 and 2017. A feasibility study has also been performed, with the aim to further optimise our UDO system, before commercialisation.

From the market analysis, we identified the market and user needs, together with the most promising markets that we could target for the initial market introduction of our novel UDO powered e-bikes. 3 year financial projections of the UDO project were formulated, considering the best, conservative and worst-case scenarios. We also explored the intellectual property landscape and established that we have freedom to operate. From these results, we concluded that UDO is technically and commercially viable and we combined them to draft a comprehensive business plan for commercialisation.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

With UDO, Kinetics is offering a lighter e-bike that will offer a greater autonomy range, with 10 times less power consumption and less than 50% pedalling effort. This therefore contribute towards a shift towards cycling as a healthier, more sustainable and safer way to travel to work.

Successful commercialisation of UDO is anticipated to bring about additional revenue of over €2.9 million by 2022, with a creation of employment opportunities for at least 7 people

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