The IKEA “FOLKVÄNLIG” Isn’t Furniture, It’s An Electric Bike

Swedish furniture maker IKEA has grown to include solar panels in select stores, and now it is adding electric bikes to its maze-like aisles as well. Two IKEA stores in Vienna, Austria will begin selling the FOLKVÄNLIG electric bicycle at a cost of €749, or about $1,023 dollars at today’s exchange rate.

The FOLKVÄNLIG is being offered in both male and female flavors, with an aluminum frame weighing about 60 pounds and a range of about 37 to 45 miles of pedal-assisted power between charges of the lithium-ion battery pack. Charging takes about five hours, but the 250 watt motor is hooked to a Shimano transmission with six different driving modes. IKEA Family members also get a €100 discount, making this IKEA e-bike that much more affordable. The question is, will it come in a flat-pack box?

While just a pilot program for now, people have proven willing to drop far more than a $1,000 on stuff they really don’t need at IKEA. The Swedish company has gone further than most in its efforts to go green, including installing a number of electric car stations at stores across the world. This e-bike is honestly one of the more useful things the Swedish company makes (says the guy who has at least a dozen IKEA pieces in his home at any one time). Should it prove successful, maybe IKEA will work some of its furniture know-how into a folding e-bike design for the cramped apartments of many major metros.

The IKEA FOLKVÄNLIG already has one of their unpronounceable names, and they’re even offering a two-year warranty so I’d say they’re already halfway there.

Source: IKEA

Build Your Own Flat Pack Electric Car in Under an Hour

Given an hour and a set of tools, you can turn that semi-organized jumble of parts up there into a light, capable electric car that’s perfect to take down to the local store. At least, that’s what OSVehicle, the makers of the TABBY flat pack electric car, would have you believe.

Once you’re finished inserting all the Tab As into the Slot Bs, OSVehicle’s pile of TABBY parts is supposed to look like this …

… which, actually does look pretty car-like, in a Model T sort of way.

OSVehicles hopes to offer their “open source” TABBY design in a number of emerging and third-world markets, in addition to offering it as a lot vehicle or NEV here in the states. The TABBY will also be made available with a variety of optional power trains, ranging from 50 and 125 cc scooter engines to an “integrated hybrid engine”, which seems similar, in concept, to what Buell patented a few months ago(just drop a “0″ from the end of the horsepower numbers).

While the hybrid version of the TABBY isn’t quite ready for sale, the electric version is- and it can be yours for just over $2000. The electric battery to power the thing will run you an additional $950-ish, depending on the exchange rate, but all in all that doesn’t seem excessively high compared to something like the Gem NEVs.

So, will the TABBY ever be a thing that you can walk into an American dealership (or an IKEA, for that matter) and buy? Not a chance. Still, it’s a neat idea- and the OSVehicle guys put together a great time-lapse video showing that you, indeed, can build one of these flat pack electric cars in about an hour. You can check it out, below, and call me a shill for the Big Three and the oil companies in the comments at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Source | Photos: OSVehicle, via Inhabitat.

IKEA To Start Selling Solar Panels In The UK

In a few short months, flat-packed solar panels will be sold at all 17 IKEA stores in the United Kingdom, and if the panels prove to be a hot seller, they could even find their way into American stores soon. A pilot program is already up and running and began in July in IKEA’s Lakeside store in the U.K. where, according to IKEA, a solar panel system is now sold almost every day.

You can already buy solar panels from a varity of big box stores here in the US, but IKEA has a very different target audience. While Home Depot is a place for serious DIY types, IKEA offers inexpensive, space saving, home furnishings for weekend warriors with a basic toolbox but few skills. It seems likely that IKEA is betting that their customers will be attracted to solar panels based on the idea of energy savings and, maybe, the popularly of “getting off the grid” and energy saving status symbols like driving a Prius. Just imagine driving your Prius down to the Whole Foods and then back to your solar powered, IKEA-furnished home. For some that would be pure bliss.

Unlike most IKEA products though, the installation of the roof top solar panels will not be something the typical customer can handle. Full installation is currentlyoffered in collaboration with Chinese energy giant Hanergy. There will be a nine step installation process, a design system simulation for your home, and a fully managed personalized web portal for IKEA solar panel buyers all through Hanergy. All told, these solar panel systems could cost buyers as little as $10,000 from IKEA, and the company could help proliferate solar panels throughout the UK, and perhaps eventually America too.

Could IKEA prove to be an important tipping point for the adoption of solar panels in the UK and America? It certainly seems like the company has the potential to do just that, bringing clean energy to a wider audience.

Source: Washington Post

Sawyer Cycles Builds a Flat-pack Chopper-style IKEA Bicycle

We’re a flat-pack generation, but we still want to feel like we have something cool, stylish, and uniquely “us” whenever we make a big purchase. If Dutch artist Jurgen Kuipers gets his way, we’ll soon have a cool, stylish, flat-back bicycle with plenty of opportunities to customize the thing and make it uniquely ours. Jurgen’s calling his “IKEA bicycle” design the Sawyer Cycles chopper, and it’s brilliant!

The Sawyer has already won design awards in Europe and as far away as Taipei, and the prototype shown here is meant to explore some of the customization options possible with this renewable/recyclable wood frame. In this case, high-quality pedals, a front suspension, high-end disc brakes, and a springer-style cruiser seat help to make Jurgen’s Sawyer uniquely Jurgens. I feel like I’d put a trike axle at the back of mine, and maybe a Rubbee, but – like, narrow. Yeah … a narrow trike, with maybe some Indian Larry-style details burned into the wood before I give it a dark stain.

Definitely a dark stain.

Jurgen hopes to partner with an established bicycle manufacturer or wooden furniture flat-packer to get the concept into production and out to the public. What do you guys think? Is it a natural for IKEA? Would you buy an IKEA bicycle? Is something like a Sawyer what you need to convince you to join America’s bicycle-commuting revolution? Let us know what you think – and how you’d build yours! – in the comments, below.

  

Source | Photos: Sawyer Cycles’ official site, via Motorpasion.