At the recent eCarTec exhibition in Germany, there were several organisations in the Visionary Product Concept category, basically searching for the iPad of electric vehicles. We show some of the poster presentations and vehicles here. What do you think?
Romo is an innovative electro mobile derived from robotics and planetary rover technology with highest manoeuvrability, consisting of four "eCorners" and being steerable via the driver's sidestick or autonomously via a high number of round-about distributed "panoramic" cameras. The autonomy features too, have now been verified and demonstrated.
To exploit the full potential of the features of an electric drive train with respect to package space, the specialist of BMW Group Research and Technology developed together with "Schaeffler" and DLR the integrated chassis and drive train concept FAIR. The electric drive train is connected with the vehicle body and positioned near to the rear wheel so that maximum packaging space is left and the drive train can be scaled freely without raising the so called unsprung masses. A transmission gear with chassis function is positioned in the rim. Thereby driving comfort, driving safety and efficiency can be maintained at a high level.
EO smart connecting car, which was developed at DFKI's Robotics Innovation Center in Bremen is a very agile vehicle than can easily adapt to specific mobility scenarios. By folding its chassis, the vehicle can shrink in length by 80 cm to a mere 1.50m. With such dimensions and four wheels able to rotate by 90 degrees, it is possible to squeeze sideways into even the smallest parking spot. In the future, EO smart connection car will be extendible with functional modules, such as a passenger-module, a cargo module, or a range-extender module. Several EO smart connecting cars will be able to form a "road train". The vision is that data and energy will be shared between vehicles to cover longer distances together and in a very energy efficient manner. Other development goals are the autonomous driving, parking and docking to other vehicles and charging stations.
Embodied in a stunning bib-dynamic Colani design the "Innotruck" aims to demonstrate how paradigm shifts in automotive, energy, and information technologies can help to address major societal trends and needs. Environmental care, urbanization, and demographic shift represent the main focal point - taking the complex interconnect between the vehicle, the infrastructure and user behaviour into account.
For more read Electric Vehicles 2012-2022.
