Larger and more densely populated urban areas are causing new challenges to mobility systems in terms of congestion as well as pollutant and noise emissions. Considering these challenges, the Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) at the RWTH Aachen University has developed an innovative light weight design vehicle concept with focus on a sustainable urban mobility. This has been accomplished in cooperation with several partners in the European research project called epsilon.
MOTIVATION AND OBJECTIVE
Today already 54 % of the world population lives in urban areas. 2050 there will be 66 % according to UN forecasts [1]. This increasing urbanisation results in rising congestion as well as pollutant and noise emissions in urban areas. For a reduction of CO2 emissions, the European Union adopted in 2009 a regulation to reduce the CO2 emissions from passenger cars to 95 g/km until 2020 [2]. Besides the reduction of emissions, new urban vehicle concepts should be developed, considering actual customers’ needs [3, 4].
Since only 10 % of the population have an average daily driving distance of more than 90 km per day [5], the battery capacity for small urban vehicles could be limited, while considering different climatic conditions. Apart from the demand for inexpensive and efficient vehicles, vehicle safety is a must for the acceptance of small electric vehicles [3], [6]. In this context, Euro NCAP tested electric lightweight vehicles of the L7e-class in 2014 and 2016 regarding passive safety. The investigation of Euro NCAP showed critical shortcomings in structural design and restraint systems resulting in high risks of fatal or serious injury for the occupants [7, 8]. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) recommended already in 2013 the introduction of the new vehicle class M0 for vehicles between 400 and 800 kg, considering an appropriate safety level, comparable to conventional vehicles of the class M1 [6]. These challenges motivate the conception of a safe and efficient small electric vehicle. The vehicle concept called epsilon (small electric passenger vehicle with maximised safety and integrating a lightweight oriented novel body architecture) has been designed for such a vehicle class M0 and should close the gap between lightweight vehicles (L7e) and conventional vehicles (M1). The following targets were defined at the beginning of the project:
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