Retrofitting existing cars for handicapped drivers and to store wheelchairs is a huge expense. The Kenguru lets people in a wheelchair roll themselves right into the driver’s seat.
All Stacy Zoern wanted was a car she could safely drive on her own. Born with a genetic condition called spinal muscular atrophy, the intellectual property lawyer uses a wheelchair to get around her downtown Austin neighborhood and calls friends when she needs a ride. So when Zoern, 32, read an article in the spring of 2010 about a tiny electric car designed from the ground up to be wheelchair accessible, she called the Hungarian company that made it and tried to buy one. But the company had halted production right after it completed the prototype. “Their bank loan had fallen through,” says Zoern.