A vehicle platform designed to be used for up to 7 life cycles in 30 years has been developed.
Nowadays, vehicles are only used for s few years, leading to high energy consumption during their production. The aim was to design the key structural components that could be used for several product life cycles.
Due to their particularly high fatigue resistance, carbon fibre composites were identified as the ideal material. A design making intensive use of section profiles, on which work can be performed with low-cost tools, was selected. What is more, recycled fibres are used in various components, in order to further reduce the ecological footprint.
The solution is aimed primarily at fleet operators, car sharing companies for instance, whose vehicles are both technically and optically no longer in a very good condition after just a few years' use.
This reusable platform offers companies several advantages at one and the same time: the vehicles have a lower energy consumption due to their lightweight design, individual components have a long useful life, and as a result of this, costs and the environmental impact during production are also reduced. This means that the end user can be offered a lower price.
The demonstrator presents the advantages, and it will soon be possible to see it at the first shows.
If you have any questions regarding sustainable vehicle development, then please contact Stefan Caba (Dr.-Ing.).
For further information see www.fibereuse.eu.
FiberEUse is a research project sponsored by the European Union, in which 20 partners from 7 EU countries are involved.
