New electric vehicle to make urban transport sustainable Larger and more densely populated urban areas are causing new challenges to mobility in terms of congestion as well as pollutant and noise emissions. An EU-funded project has unveiled an electric vehicle prototype that is lightweight and compact, promising to promote sustainable urban mobility. Transport and Mobility © Creative icon styles, Shutterstock Funded by the EU, the EPSILON (Small electric passenger vehicle with maximized safety and integrating a lightweight oriented novel body architecture) project successfully developed an innovative electric vehicle prototype specifically designed for urban environments. EPSILON’s new vehicle is considerably lighter, more energy efficient and requires less road space than today’s sub-compact cars, while offering the same level of safety. Compared to powered two-wheelers, the new prototype provides higher transport capacity and driving comfort under all weather conditions. It also defines a new vehicle class by filling the gap between ultralight vehicles (L7e) and conventional passenger cars (M1). EPSILON brought together some of the top automotive and engineering companies and institutes from all over Europe, making use of state-of-the-art components and integrating highly innovative components and systems. The space-frame body structure was made by high proportions of aluminium and carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) with respect to the set of crash and static load cases defined. Newly developed restraint systems based on simulations using the geometry, crash pulse and intrusions from the full vehicle crash helped achieve the required passive safety. Based on existing components, a chassis structure vehicle was also developed. All relevant driving manoeuvres were simulated using multi-body systems. Special focus was placed on reducing the chassis mass. To this end, project partners developed a novel CFRP-steel omega rear axle concept that is significantly lighter than a standard steel solution. This structure was designed and optimised using extensive finite element analysis. To ensure safe and efficient usage of the drivetrain, partners developed a thermal management system. Moreover, a vehicle control strategy was implemented. EPSILON placed special focus on the control of regenerative braking for both achieving high values of recuperation and providing a comfortable one-pedal driving feeling. The project’s new car prototype weighs around 600 kg and can accelerate up to 100 km within 10 seconds. It also boasts more than 150 km of total electric range and has energy efficiency of around 80 watt-hours per kilometre. Keywords Electric vehicle, urban mobility, EPSILON, carbon fibre-reinforced polymer, drivetrain
