It might still look like a 4×4 Lunar Rover, but the Ampool foreshadows what could be tomorrow’s vehicle. The Ampool is the first electric vehicle that is « free », entirely customisable and connected. It is « Free » because the car’s plans are available online, in an open legal framework, which could allow everyone to build their own vehicles from a kit.

For now, the Ampool is composed of a chassis, four wheels, an electric engine, batteries, a steering wheel, and car seats. More elements need to be added, such as a car body, a dashboard, and a series of security equipments so that the vehicle might be approved for circulation on roads. In the end, it could be adapted to various uses such as urban travel, tourism, last-mile logistics, or agricultural, high-precision operations piloted at a distance from a GPS.

Multiple local partnerships

« At the beginning, the OSV (Open Source Vehicle) was launched by an Italian start-up that we met at the “Futur en Seine” exhibit in Paris, in june 2014», states Jean-Christophe Elineau, Aquinetic‘s director (Aquinetic is the regional cluster specialized in free technologies. It is now conducting the project). « We decided to develop an improved prototype in Aquitaine to present it at the ITS World Congress » (- The International Trade show on Intelligent transportation systems, which takes place in Bordeaux, October 5th to 9th, 2015).

Thus, since last February, the Aquinetic association started gathering local partners with complementary skills around the OSVA, including Gazelle Tech for a car body in composite material ; VLM for prototyping; the ESDL (Landes School of Higher studies in Design), the IUT des Pays de l’Adour for smarts grids and energy management, Aïga Design and TED for the car design ; Previmétéo and Dev1.0 for the dashboard and sensors , Welo for a fleet management system, Esens for communication and Babylon Ware for economic models on free technologies. « It’s a truly challenging project: how could we create a car prototype in a few month, with a collaborative model? It takes most car manufacturers years to achieve similar results », reminds Jean-Christophe Elineau.

The Aquitaine Proto subsidy:

The Aquitaine Region provided a grant covering 65 000 € of the project expenses within the Aquitaine Proto Program, to finance the development of the prototype and of the business plan. The goal is to promote technologies made in Aquitaine and to create new industrial job opportunities in a promising market.
Indeed, tomorrow’s habit will differ strongly: we won’t own a personal car, and will instead share collective vehicles that won’t need a driver. Which is exactly the concept of the Ampool !