While electric vehicles, driven by energy from renewable sources, could be an attractive option for urban mobility, e-cars derived from conventional cars are too heavy and too expensive to gain the acceptance of the masses. Light cars, in contrast, do not reach an acceptable level of safety. The Technical University of Munich has now launched a research project aiming at designing a vehicle that is light, safe and at the same time easy to manufacture.
In the "Visio M" project, the researchers are working side by side with experienced professional car designers - the research consortium is led by carmaker BMW. The specifications for the concept car to be developed are: 15 kW engine power and maximum weight excluding battery of 400kg. In addition, the vehicle will have to meet the requirements of the car approval class L7e.
In the scope of the project, the researchers will use the MUTE electric concept vehicle which has been developed by the Munich Technical University in an earlier project, in order to explore new technologies with respect to vehicle safety, drive, energy storage and HMI concept. The focus of the research activities is on the safety design: Despite its very low weight, the goal of the Visio M concept is a safety level on par with today's conventional cars.
BMW acts as the consortium manager in the Visio M research group. Besides BMW and TU Munich also carmaker Daimler AG is involved, as well as tier ones Autoliv and Continental, electricity provider Eon, Siemens, chip vendor Texas Instruments, and safety services provider TÜV Süd. The project is funded in part by the German federal research ministry.
This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.
Previous：
Next ：