Global warming concerns have led to the demand for higher energy-efficiency in the automotive industry. At the same time urbanisation is closely connected with the evolution of mobility with cities becoming more and more the centres of economical and social activities. These factors create new needs, opportunities and technological challenges in the form of lighter, thus more energy efficient vehicles but also in terms of new vehicle concepts providing efficient and affordable, yet safe individual mobility for urban areas.
Within the three EU funded projects and ALIVE, ENLIGHT and epsilon, all related to the SEAM cluster of projects, different approaches and technologies to address these challenges have been developed. The SEAM cluster has been initiated in 2012 by the four EU funded projects SafeEV, ENLIGHT, ALIVE and MATISSE. All four projects have been funded within the European Green Vehicle Initiative (EGVI) as part of the seventh framework programme of the European Commission. In 2013 the two EGVI projects epsilon and Urban-EV, in which CIDAUT also takes part, joined the seam cluster. With 55 partners from 11 European countries and a total funding of some 25 million Euro SEAM is the biggest European network on lightweight design. The results of the projects will be displayed during the Aachen Body Engineering Days 2016 within a dedicated impulse session and exhibition (for more information please refer to www.ika.rwth-aachen.de).
Following the conference, on September 22nd 2016 the project partners will demonstrate and communicate the projects outcomes in detail and would also like to discuss their findings and recommendations with relevant stakeholders, industry partners and other research initiatives and interest groups.
ALIVE aims to develop key vehicle lightweighting technologies for application to near-future electric vehicles to be introduced into the market from 2020 up to a level of technology readiness that would enable mass production (around 1000 vehicles/day). The key objective is to achieve affordable solutions for vehicle weight reduction targeting a further 20 % weight reduction of the Body-in-White (BiW) compared to the 30 % weight reduction already demonstrated in recent EU funded RTD projects. To arrive there, the vehicle modules went through regular iterations during the past year to optimise their design according to the needs of the materials and manufacturing technologies targeted throughout the project, whilst ensuring top safety standards and manufacturability at high volumes.
A significant 35% weight reduction was achieved for the Body in White (BiW) component, while for certain components reductions reached a staggering 50% comparing with reference modules.
ALIVE will showcase a full vehicle demonstrator model at the mentioned final event, side by side with the ENLIGHT demonstrator modules.
First prototype parts of the ALIVE cushion
For more information on the event please refer to: http://www.ika.rwth-aachen.de
For more information about ALIVE, please visit: http://www.project-alive.eu