Tindo – the solar-powered bus of Adelaide, Australia
Nikola collected data about the usage of an electric bus in February 2011. For this purpose Nikola team interviewed Adelaide city officials, local bus drivers and passengers. Adelaide and its solar-powered bus was chosen to be the place of the research, because it has exctionally long experience in running an electric bus as a part of the city's public transportation. In addition to the interviews Nikola did literary research on the acquisition and running costs of electric busses. Written and illustrated report and a video compiled from the interviews were presented to the client - Lahti Region Mechatronics Cluster – at the end of the project.
EVS25 – China's Electric Bus Industry & Market
In October 2010 Nikola did a study about China's electric bus industry and Chinese market for electric busses for Transition Company Oy – a Finnish start-up specializing in electric vehicle conversions. To do the study effectively Nikola team travelled to Shenzhen – one of the major cities of Southern China's Guangdong Province – located next to Hong Kong and participated the most important international annual electric vehicle event, Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS25). A week in Shezhen and participating EVS25 gave Nikola an opportunity to interview several Chinese official, business people and researchers involved in electric vehicle industry at one go.
The findings of the research include the following:
• China aims to electrify the public transportation (busses and taxis) of its largest cities during the next 5-10 years
• The motivation for increasing number of electric vehicles is based on the urge to develop China's own vehicle industry as well as on decreasing the vast country's dependence on oil
• Chinese believe strongly that electric motor will replace internal combustion engine in automobiles in the near future. Supporting and expediting this development is seen as a mean to support China's own developing vehicle industry in its battle for domination with the western car companies.
Electrictraffic.fi or Electric Traffic Helsinki Test Bed is a joint business development and research project between 20 companies, 5 cities and 3 research and educational institutes. The project is partially financed by Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation – and is the largest project in Tekes' Electric Vehicle Systems (EVE) program. Electrictraffic.fi is also one of the largest of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 projects.
As the whole name of the project implies, at its center is an electric car test fleet consisting of EV's that are used in regular traffic. The performance of the vehicles as well as their drivers are measured in may ways and the results will be analysed to learn more about the EV user experience. The test fleet also facilitates the testing of new business and service models related to electric traffic.
The project aims to create in Finland new business related to EVs and especially to the various services and the infrastructure that the cars and their drivers need in the future. Nikola was in charge of project's communication to media and general audience. We have designed the visual identity of the project and have applied it to many uses. Nikola is also in charge of the project's web site.