Hungarian light concept vehicle is of global interest

The number of hits from around the world to the website of Antro, a revolutionary Hungarian car design company, have shot up after Time magazine listed the company's super-light electric vehicle as one of the 50 best inventions of 2010, Antro developer Géza Hivessy told the Hungarian weekly Heti Válasz published this Thursday.

Hungary, which until after the 1989-1990 change of political system did not have a proper car industry, was nevertheless at the forefront of coming up with innovative, if not downright odd, car designs.

The marvellous Magyar microcars, as The Economist recently described these contraptions built after WWII, were the product of fanatical Hungarian engineers who were desperate to beat the system of Soviet planning which forebade Hungary from building a car industry.

Now, Hungary is the site of cutting-edge plants set up by Audi and (soon) Mercedes. But efforts by the established giants of the industry to make their cars lighter and more efficient are being trumped by Hungarian engineers once again.

"One of the most essential indicators of an electric car is how many kilometeres it can do with a certain size of battery, and clearly a lighter car can carry a smaller battery, producing longer distances," Hivessy told the weekly.

The company is now seeking investors with the hope of putting their concept cars -- including one that split into two lightweight cars, one powered by a solar-powered battery combined with pedal-power -- into production.

He said Antro had certain economic advantages such as the fact that it was not bound to any existing infrastructure or the need to change existing technologies.

Now Antro, based in western Hungary near the Austrian border, has developed an electric scooter dubbed Moveo - collapsible to the size of a suitcase - aimed at commuters, he said.

"When we started development we realised that we needed an intermediate product requiring a smaller investment through which we could prove that the materials with which were are associated were viable. The scooter, weighing 25 kilograms, is the most suited for this purpose," Hivessy said.

The company's design for an electric scooter capable of 45 km/h is expected to fill the gap in the market between an electric bicycle and a car, he said.