Currently reading: Yamaha city car is making progress, says Gordon Murray

Designer Gordon Murray shows off his innovative small car in the UK for the first time at Low Carbon Vehicle event

Gordon Murray’s Motiv, the tiny, two-seat electric city car created last year on behalf of Yamaha as the latest showpiece for Murray’s super-efficient i-stream manufacturing process, is heading for “a positive announcement” before the year-end, the designer has announced.

The car has yet to receive final production approval from the Yamaha board, though Murray insists that signs from the company are ”all good news”. Earlier this week, Murray showed the car for the first time in the UK at this year’s Low Carbon Vehicle show, held at Millbrook proving ground.

The Motiv, designed to meet European safety standards and design rules, was launched as an electric prototype at last December’s Tokyo motor show, but is also now being engineered for an economical petrol engine as well, Murray says.

“We’ve been doing a great deal behind the scenes on things like model range, factory layout and production procedures,” says Murray.

“It’s all good news and we expect an important announcement in November or December. Yamaha’s people are brilliant engineers and great to work with. The company is the perfect co-operative partner when you’re doing a project like this.”

Murray says he’s never been busier. He has eight different vehicles in various stages of development including an extremely durable light truck, called Ox, which can be flat-packed for easy transportation to the world’s primitive areas and is simple enough to be assembled on site.

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Add a comment…
voyager12 13 September 2014

contest

Interesting to have a contest between this one and the Smart ForTwo sometime next year then, and to hear why Yamaha thinks the Motiv will succeed where the ForTwo failed to catch on with the public. Until this very day the Smart division has failed to make any money for Daimler. As a matter of fact it was hemorrhaging company funds like there was no tomorrow. It still is.
IAD 12 September 2014

The new mini of our generation?

Or another Smart car Mini wannabe? I think this is a very interesting car and looks better than the Smart car. The key thing will be the price and how it sits within our modern lifestyle of ipads and iphones etc. We all know that the mini isn't just a car anymore but a lifestyle brand product. So brand and design is going to be very important. Maybe get someone like Marc Newson or a Thomas Heatherwick as an consultant. It's worked for the Evoque.
Andy_Cowe 12 September 2014

Really interesting car

The T25 and T27 had slightly too many innovations, which introduced some compromises (the door solved some problems, created others), and didn't look quite right. This looks right, appealing at the right price, and still innovative.

If the chassis system is flexible as it appears, we could see manufacturers create interesting niche cars without having to worry about it fitting a shared platform, therefore not compromising their design, or avoiding them not happening at all.