Project Neodrive is an open, collaborative effort to design a new class of ultra-efficient, human-centered vehicles for urban travel. vehicles that are as easy to use as a bike, as comfortable as a small car, and 10–50× more energy-efficient.
We aim to build vehicles that make switching away from cars not a sacrifice, but an upgrade : cleaner, lighter, cheaper, and more joyful.
Neodrive is not just one vehicle, it’s a research platform. Our first prototype is a light electric vehicle (LEV) under 50 kg, classified legally as a bike.
- Pedal-by-wire: The pedals don’t drive the wheels mechanically — they measure input effort, and the motor compensates for system losses to provide a “superhuman” but still bike-like experience.
- Efficient: Target energy use is less than 10 Wh/km (≈ 150 km range on a 1 kWh battery).
- Comfortable and practical: Weather protection, upright seating, space for a passenger or cargo.
- Sustainable materials: Recyclable PET sheets, aluminum/steel, and wood with the goal of being easily repairable.
- Accessible: Designed to be affordable, open-source, and modular.
The project’s end goal is not just a product it's an experiment to see how to design and think tommorow's vehicle.
Transportation is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, congestion, and wasted energy. Cars are overbuilt for most daily trips — often carrying a single person and hundreds of kilograms of steel through short city journeys.
We believe that:
- The future of cities is lighter, quieter and smarter.
- Every person should be able to move efficiently, safely, and comfortably without a car.
- Open, interdisciplinary design accelerates innovation engineers, designers, urbanists, and makers can co-create the next generation of vehicles.
Neodrive exists to prove that sustainable transport can be elegant, exciting, and practical and to share everything we learn.
Here’s an overview of what’s currently under the Project Neodrive organization:
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| efficiency-frontier | Compared the efficiency / energy and power need of different class of vehicle |
| Need 4 Tilt | tool to help decide if we need a tilting mechanism and it's impact |
| Vehicle CAD V1 | FreeCAD Implementation the vehicle 3D part |
| Battery CAD V1 | FreeCAD Implementation the Battery pack 3D part |
Neodrive is open to anyone who shares our curiosity and ambition. You can contribute by:
- Prototyping and testing components.
- Modeling, simulation, and optimization.
- UI/UX design or human–machine interaction.
- Documenting and communicating results.
- Bringing interdisciplinary ideas (urban design, psychology, economics…).
- Open Source Everything Transparency accelerates progress.
- Design for Humans, Not Machines Comfort, safety, and joy first.
- Sufficiency Over Excess Minimal energy, maximal utility.
- Repair, Reuse, Reimagine Low tech materials and modular design.
- Build, Test, Iterate Science, not slogans.