Former auto-industry engineer creates lightweight plug-in hybrid coupé
Murat Günak, who worked for Volkswagen, once changed the corporate world to follow a green dream. He created his own company in Switzerland where he first created an all-electric tricycle called twike.me which, in the end, did not see the light. But he's now working in a new project, a hybrid coupe.
The 50-year-old German designer is going against the mainstream (and non-mainstream) trend of making cars heavier and more expensive. Bloated vehicles have higher fuel consumption and sometimes come with an array unreasonable (if not unnecessary) options. Günak's model is named Mindset and has a 95 HP electric motor which can be recharged at home or with its ICE engine, a .63 liter V2 engine good for 24 HP. The trick is that the car is very light, topping only 730 kg (1600 pounds), not bad for a car that's 4.2 meters (14 ft) long, 1.4 meters (4 ft 8 in) high, and uses 22-inch wheels with very low-profile tires. With these figures, the Mindset should reach 140 km/h (75 mph) and go from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than six seconds.
Gunäk promises to have a full-scale model out by the end of this year and a concept ready for 2009. His target is to make 10,000 units per year.
[Source: GroenOpWeg via Autoweek.nl]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
eddy 6:49PM (2/16/2008)
The story is not completly true. Twike wasn't made by Günak and there were some twike-"cars" at the end of the 90s. This "cars " were very expensive and ugly. However the guy who owned the twike factory is the investor of Murat Günaks new electrical car company. Günak was the leading designer at VW from 2004 to 2007. He designed the EOS and the new Scirocco. Before he was leading designer at VW he designed the Maybach cars for Mercedes. Now he works on the mindset prototype. AFAIK the first driving technology prototype (no real carbody styling, just functional) has allready been tested a few weeks ago.
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A.Brien 1:43AM (2/17/2008)
Wonderful design.
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TIMMAH! 2:50AM (2/17/2008)
Looks like a jacked up Delorean with a beetle front end...
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rgseidl 10:09AM (2/17/2008)
Fugly.
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Mirko 12:55PM (2/17/2008)
Before he was leading designer at VW he designed the Maybach cars for Mercedes.
...and the 1st-gen C-class, the 1st-gen SLK, the Peugeot 206 line, the SLR...
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M@ 3:08PM (8/07/2008)
Correction to the correction about Der Twike:
"there were some twike-"cars" at the end of
the 90s. This "cars " were very expensive
and ugly."
There have been over 800 Twikes manufactured, most by the now defunct Swiss-LEM, and now by FINE Mobile GMBH (www.twike.com). They are most definately still being made, though nothing that would qualify as mass production. I've heard it described as 'one a week'.
No doubt that they are expensive. However, if you look long term... they are a justifiable expense (depending on your situation). I save almost $500 a year in parking fees as well as the equivalent of a 'tank of gas' in electricity costing me 25 cents. I've stopped daily watching the price of gas and scouring for the cheapest gas station -- THAT is priceless, adding years to my life.
Regarding ugly, the college co-eds that want to go for rides have never complained! Der Twike is a chick magnet. In a college town. In truth it's actually a people magnet, and while everybody may just be too polite, I've -never- heard the word 'ugly' to describe 433... "wierd" "flintstone/jetson mobile" yes, but never ugly ;-)
These are my experiences with commuting in a 10-year old Twike on campus at the University of Illinois for the past year (including a narly pothole-filled winter). Your mileage may vary.
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betul 3:44AM (10/27/2008)
he is not German, he is Turkish.
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Kenan 2:33PM (6/23/2009)
Yes, He is not German. He is Murat Gunak... he is a Turk...
Emre 7:13AM (6/24/2009)
Since when Turks are pretended or accepted as German. Hmmm! Let me guess! Probably since Germans found out about that there are some educated and successful Turks around.
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