Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to park your vehicle in a carpark and not walk to your office because you have a “personal mobility vehicle” lodged right inside your trunk? Well, that idea isn’t actually new, courtesy of Honda and its cutesy Motocompo foldable bike that fits inside a Honda City from the ’80s.
While you can still buy some of that nifty combo from auctions and used vehicle listings, some even brand new, Hyundai may have something in a similar vein in the near future, thanks to some patent filings discovered by The Drive.
Filed under the name “folding personal mobility vehicle,” the documents published on Patent Guru date as far back as 2017, albeit publication just occurred in 2019. As you can see in the notable illustrations below, the device is fairly small and can fit inside a Hyundai vehicle trunk, right under the floor. Early filings even show the foldable scooter shoehorned inside a door panel.
While most of the previously published patents describe the folding mechanisms of the scooter, later patents show the addition of batteries, hinting at possible electrification. The latest one, just published this month, was discovered by The Drive, which illustrates some important details such as charging and pedestrian safety.
Gallery: Hyundai Patent Electric Scooter
According to the patents, the Hyundai electric scooter will come with charging mechanisms under the trunk, while a fake engine sound will be produced by the scooter so that pedestrians will be aware of its presence.
Whether will see this personal mobility vehicle inside a Hyundai Tucson or even the new Santa Cruz not-pickup truck is still uncertain. Patents don’t always reach the production stage, though we can’t say we don’t approve of the pretty cool idea. Timeline is likewise a guessing game at this point.
Source:
Patent Guru via The Drive
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