Hinterland 1

Hinterland 1 Aluminium electric vehicle.

Given that more and more attention is given to greener vehicles and that Canada, in particular, seems to be looking for an alternative to the everyday mode of transportation, I believe the time has come to present to you a project developed by our team of industrial designers on which we have been working since 2004.

Having been an industrial designer specializing in transportation with a background in aeronautics for 20 years (16 years as a designer for Bombardier Recreational Products and aeronautics), I designed and created, with the help of my colleagues, the Hinterland 1 (borrowed from the German, meaning a place untouched by man, far from urban areas) and applied for intellectual property protection (industrial design) in Canada (119595), in the United States (US D560,554S), and in Europe (000776398-0001). Certificates were issued in 2008 for Canada and the United States.

The entire project aimed at giving a very distinctive and innovative form to a Canadian design for a long-range electric vehicle. This form is meant to stand out from current industry standards and could be adapted for individual transportation and carpooling (taxi); a hybrid form of transportation combining aspects of individual transportation and mass transit.

The basis for this thought process consists in adapting a cylindrical form, as used in aeronautics for plane fuselages, to a four-wheel passenger car body. Because this manufacturing process has been mastered in our region (by Bombardier) it could become a visual statement for “green-transportation”. A “paradigm shift” for the car industry.

This original form is also an attempt to find a characteristic image for a Canadian economy electric car that could become a recognizable national icon, rather like our distinctive and characteristic emblems (Olympic Stadium, Montréal Metro). The case of London’s and New York’s taxis are good examples of this.

By combining sources of artistic, technical and scientific expertise (recreational vehicles, electric motors and batteries, aeronautics, aluminium, plastics processing, video games, etc.), we could design, produce and sell a technically and distinctly innovative passenger vehicle, elegant in its simplicity, non-polluting, recyclable, safe and adapted to the North American climate, while providing jobs for thousands of specialists and qualified workers.