Think back, if you will, to April. That's when Kawasaki first showed off an audacious new concept vehicle it's apparently been working on for some time now. Neither a bird nor a plane, nor really anything that's ever been seen before: It's Corleo, the mountain mobility robot horse!
You could be forgiven for thinking that we wouldn't likely hear more about this guy anytime soon. Even for concepts that OEMs choose to advance through multiple iterations and/or generations (think of Yamaha's Motoroid series, for example), it's usually at least a year and sometimes more between public announcements of any developments that have been made.
Not so with the Kawasaki Corleo, though. It's December as I write this, and Team Green says it's set not just one, but two deadlines to get Corleo up and running through the mountains in the next decade.
The first deadline you need to know about is 2030. That's when Kawasaki says its Business Development Team plans to have the Corleo up to operating at Expo 2030 Riyadh, with the express intention for use as venue mobility at the event.
It's unclear how many Corleos it plans to have ready for this event, but my mind instantly went to on-site mobility devices available at theme parks, and I couldn't help but imagine Expo visitors pulling up on Corleos at drinking fountains and in hallways, just chatting while seated on these guys. Maybe blocking hallways; maybe not; a bit like an exaggerated shopping cart jam at your favorite megastore.
The second deadline you need to know about is 2035, because that's when Kawasaki says it's hoping to have the Corleo ready for full commercial production. That's a full decade away, and it's still unclear at this time exactly how and to what types of entities Kawasaki Heavy Industries envisions marketing Corleo. It's mentioned mobility and rescue potential, particularly in mountainous or otherwise difficult-to-access geographies, but presumably additional transportation scenarios are also under consideration as to Corleo's suitability.
Four-wheeled mobility is one thing, but four-legged mobility is something completely different; at least, if it's done via a machine and not an animal. As such, Kawasaki also says it plans to have a full Corleo riding simulator completed by the end of 2027, and may also make the data it gathers and develops regarding this part of the project available to both the gaming and e-sports industries, for their own use.
Another key part of the Corleo development project will involve a more robust navigation system that is specifically designed with mountain living in mind, and will include things like road conditions, animal presence, weather, and real-time safe route information.
The overall aim is to bring the stability and maneuverability information that Kawasaki has gathered from its decades of motorcycle development to bear in a four-legged, truly all-terrain machine that uses a hydrogen-fueled engine to generate electricity. Will it succeed? It's far too early to say, but setting out a public timeline like this definitely raises the intrigue levels considerably. What isn't too early to say is RideApart's Jonathon Klein wants to ride it. Let him, Kawasaki.
