This article was taken from the July 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Need a new runaround? Meet Tabby, a skeleton on which you can build a customised vehicle. "It's based on a universal platform and road-legal chassis that anyone can modify, as well as an ad hoc hybrid engine," says Carlo de Micheli, cofounder of OSVehicle. He launched the Hong Kong-based company in 2006 with Macau-born businessman Francisco Liu, 64, and Ampelio Macchi, 58, an Italian engineer. Having worked in the car industry for 30 years, Liu and Macchi wanted to mass-produce an affordable, easy-to-assemble template on which owners could design and build something for their specific needs.
After seven years' R&D near Milan, they launched Tabby in October 2013. Here's what you get: a two- or four-seat chassis for £412; an electric powertrain system (£1,250); a battery pack (£574); a set of wheels (£278); and two seats (£65). The company claims that the parts, which come flat-packed in four crates, can be assembled in just 60 minutes without specialist tools, via instructions downloaded from its website, which in future will offer plans for additional designs contributed by a global community of car hackers.
Last December, OSVehicle also launched the £5,000 Urban Tabby, a two-seater version. For now, the company offers only the electric powertrain, which de Micheli, 24, says can reach 75kph. It starts shipping this month and plans to launch its hybrid engine by the end of the year. "Anyone will be able to create his or her own personalised vehicle," says de Micheli. "We will be successful when there is a worldwide community creating electric and hybrid vehicles satisfying their own country's needs."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
