Followup – Motoring Innovation

I came across an interesting article today on stackable cars that is a good followup to my article about vehicle ownership and whether the combined Zipcar and Flexcar represent an innovation in the automotive industry.

The stackable electric cars are being developed by MIT with a grant from General Motors, along with an electric scooter. Unlike Zipcar’s round-trip rental policy, MIT is advocating a one-way rental system both for the electric scooters, but also the stackable electric cars. This is similar to the way that free bicycle systems work in several cities around the globe. The main downside will be whether or not a one-way system can maintain even coverage across the city to serve customers.

There is no reason that Zipcar couldn’t benefit from this invention. Assuming that these cars could be purchased by Zipcar, they could make more cars available in a smaller amount of space. This could be quite handy for Zipcar. Do the benefits of a vehicle like this stack up?

What do you think?