Main components of the project (except the vehicle itself) are designed, manufactured and ready to be integrated in the vehicle prototype, whose manufacturing has been started.
Vehicle’s exterior and interior designs have been finalised and all information required for their fabrication has been prepared. Other activities carried out for this aim:
• Market analyses and interviews, ergonomics analyses, development of different exterior and interior designs, and several mock-ups to physically check the new vehicle concept validity.
• Selection of all commercial components to be installed in the vehicle prototype.
Vehicle’s chassis (underbody) and structure (upperbody) have been designed and manufactured. Main activities carried out:
• Preparation of the new manufacturing process for the chassis profiles: pultrusion (a highly automated continuous process to produce constant cross-section composite profiles), in combination with out-of-die ultraviolet curing of the material, which increases the speed of the curing process and is able to manufacture 3D structural composite profiles on an easy and fast reconfigurable.
• Design of chassis and structure, in terms of structural safety, durability, NVH and vehicle architecture attributes. Chassis is mainly made out of pultruded fibre glass composite material. Structure’s material is aluminium.
The PINCER, its particular suspension and steering have been designed, manufactured and tested. The PINCER is a telescopic cylindrical friction mechanism with a ball screw actuator. The suspension design allows the translation of the whole suspension system when PINCER is activated. The steering system consists in a mechanical wire that transmits the torque from the steering wheel to the steering mechanism.
The compact electric powertrain has been designed and manufactured: a new transversal-flux switched-reluctance motor, a gearbox fully inside the motor rotor, modular power and control electronics with adapted design to the motor shape. The electric motor is switched-reluctant and has non-active free space at rotor interior part which is used to integrate the gearbox. The power electronics module has been designed from scratch because it has a modular architecture to control each motor pole independently, which mainly reduces components size and wire section and length, contributes to a compact design of the power electronics and minimization of electromagnetic compatibility issues, and allows motor operation (derated) even in case of failure of several motor coils or electronic modules. Powertrain tests are finishing.
Another key concept of the WEEVIL project is battery interchangeability: the possibility to equip the vehicle with different batteries that may become available on the market, choosing between technologies, performances, producers and cost. The whole vehicle has been designed to allow an easy replacement of the battery, without compromising on safety and dynamic performance optimization. Two different battery packs have been designed and manufactured with their corresponding BMS specifically customized for WEEVIL project in order to prove the interchangeability concept. Tests of the first battery pack are finished, and those for the second battery pack are finishing.
A new Multibody Dynamics Simulation model for 3-wheelers has been entirely developed from scratch (no commercial software had it). The model has been used to compute the physical interactions among PINCER, chassis suspensions and vehicle structure.
Vehicle manufacturing and assembly have started. All commercial components to be installed have been acquired. Vehicle panels are being manufactured. And the electrification of the vehicle is under definition.
