Icoma’s CEO says he used to design “shape-shifting robots” for a toy company (so Transformers, basically). That background goes some way towards explaining the Tatamel bike, an electric moped that folds down to the size of a desktop PC.
Folding e-bikes come in many shapes and sizes, but we haven’t seen too many that boast moped levels of power.
The very-slightly-folding Vassla is one example and we also recently reported on an odd-looking one that is going to be used in Tokyo’s new share scheme.
In neither of those cases does the bike’s folded-down state look like its default state though, which we’d argue is the case for the Tatamel.
That sense in large part derives from the bike’s side panels.
If you don’t like the timber effect on display in the accompanying imagery, you’ll be excited to learn that these are replaceable.
This means you can personalise the look of your bike. Icoma says you can even choose to have solar panels or LCD displays.
Unfolded, the Tatamel is 1.23m long, 1m tall, and 65cm wide. Folded, it’s 70cm long, 68cm tall and 26cm.
Okay, that’s actually a bit larger than a PC, but we don’t feel we’re stretching things too much by saying that.
Come on, just look at it.
The Tatamel’s top speed is 40km/h with a range of 50km.
Yanko Design reports that the bike is due to go into production and will be sold in Japan.
