Pedal Power

We get the ultimate workout behind th one-off car controlled by bicycle-style pedals

- Hugo Griffiths

CARS may be a vital form of transport for over a billion people worldwide, but unless you’re a topflight racing driver they do little to help with physical health. Studies have found a lack of physical exercise kills three million people a year globally, but in the UK we spend over seven hours a day sitting down, with the average UK commuter travelling 54 minutes a day.

So what if commuting could be mixed with exercise? That’s what health-conscious Saudi entrepreneur Nasser Alshawaf asked a Dutch engineering firm.

The result is this adapted Audi A4 Avant. The FitCar PPV, or pedal-powered vehicle, has a normal petrol engine and automatic gearbox, but in place of the accelerator on this prototype is a set of pedals from an under-desk exercise machine. Put simply, the faster you pedal, the faster the car goes, giving you all the benefits of a modern car, but allowing you to exercise.

But while Alshawaf had the idea of combining a car with exercise, it was Oscar Brocades Zaalberg, and his design and engineering firm BPO, who made it a reality.

Workout

We’ve come to Holland to try out the PPV, to speak with Brocades Zaalberg and to learn how his team created a vehicle capable of giving drivers their daily workout without requiring a single trip to the gym.

Brocades Zaalberg explains how the project started: “Nasser is a tall, slim guy who is really into sports, and he travels an hour or two to his office, every day, just sitting in a car. He said ‘I want to use commuting time more efficiently, in a way that you exercise’.”

A number of options were considered before Brocades Zaalberg and his team settled on pedals. “We came with a rowing system, a muscle training system,” he says, “but we ended up with pedalling, because it is logical for moving forward.”