Murray-Yamaha city car edges nearer production

GORDON MURRAY’S MOTIV city car is heading for “a positive announcement” before the end of the year, the designer has announced. The tiny two-seat Motiv was created last year on behalf of Yamaha as the latest showpiece for Murray’s super-efficient iStream manufacturing process.

The car has yet to receive final production approval from the Yamaha board, although Murray insists that signs from the company are “all good news”.

Last week Murray showed the car for the first time in the UK, at this year’s Low Carbon Vehicle show, held at Vauxhall’s Millbrook proving ground. The Motiv has been designed to meet European safety standards and design rules. It was launched as an electric prototype at the Tokyo motor show last December but is also being engineered for an economical petrol engine, Murray said.

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

he said. “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 said he’s never been busier. He has eight different vehicles in various stages of development, including an extremely durable light truck, called the Ox, which can be flatpacked for easy transportation to the world’s developing areas and assembled on site