27/02/2019
SEAT is looking to the future of urban driving and mobility with the presentation of the Minimó at this year’s Mobile World Congress (25 to 28 February).
SEAT President Luca de Meo said of this concept car: “The SEAT Minimó has been especially engineered to adapt to the mobility platforms that will shape the future of city driving, where traffic will be restricted and only a few operators will be able to offer mobility.”
The best of a car and a motorcycle
The Minimó has been developed by combining the best of two worlds: the safety and comfort of a car with the agility and easy parking of a motorcycle. Comfortably seating two passengers, this 100 per cent electric concept car has been developed with an integrated battery swap system, enabling full vehicle charging in only a few minutes and provides a range of more than 62 miles (100 kilometres). As these cars don’t rely on being taken to recharging points, this innovative system means that car sharing operating costs are effectively reduced by 50 per cent.
At 2.5m long, and 1.2m wide, the car takes up 3.1 square metres of space compared to the 7.2 square metres of a normal car, considerably reducing its ecological footprint in the city. The Minimó can be parked in a motorbike parking area, and in a traffic lane it would fit side–by-side in a space where only one average car fits.
Technology behind the Minimó
The Minimó is also a hyper-connected vehicle with built-in 5G technology that provides a convenient and smooth digital user experience thanks to the ‘Digital Access’ key and wireless Android Auto™ on the car display. This allows users to connect to their smartphone without using a cable or socket. Among other functions, the car recognises whether the driver is 16 or 18 to adapt its speed to either 45 or 90 km/h, for example.
“In addition to the Google Assistant on Android Auto, users can keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel while using their voice to stay connected, easily get answers, manage tasks and control media,” explained de Meo.
As a major step in enhancing the SEAT Minimó user experience, SEAT and Android Auto have collaborated to enable seamless, intuitive connectivity, where the user can easily call phone numbers, read and respond to text messages, and make use of supported navigation, media, and communication apps on the vehicle’s display.
The future's not so very far away!
