Project Visio.M:
Electric mass mobility for urban environments
Munich - Electric
vehicles powered by electricity from renewable energy sources are an
attractive option for mobility within the urban area and beyond.
However, previous approaches lead to vehicles that either are too heavy
and too expensive or do not meet mass-market safety requirements. Within
the joint research project Visio.M scientists at the Technische
Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), in cooperation with engineers from the
automotive industry, will develop concepts to produce electric cars that
are efficient, safe, and inexpensive. Lead manager of the project is BMW
AG. The project has a total volume of 10.8 million euros and is funded
by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
Electric cars are
silent and cause no emissions where they go. Therefore, they are
considered an important option for future individual mobility in urban
areas and beyond. But on the way to mass production of electric
vehicles, there are still significant technological hurdles to overcome.
Previous small electric vehicles offer only a minimum level of vehicle
safety and therefore are not mass-marketable. Electric cars that were
derived from gasoline-powered models are usually too heavy and require
large and expensive batteries.
Within the joint research project Visio.M
well known companies of the German automotive industry, together with
scientists from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, explore how the
price and safety of small, efficient electric vehicles can be brought to
a level enabling them to achieve a significant share of the mass market.
The mobility concept deriving from these visionaries will be a vehicle
with a power of 15 kilowatts and a maximum curb weight of 400 kg
(without battery), meeting the requirements of the European regulatory
category L7e.
The consortium partners use the electric
vehicle prototype MUTE developed by the TU Muenchen as their test
carrier to explore innovations and new technologies for vehicle safety,
propulsion, energy storage, and operational concepts for implementation
under the framework requirements of large-scale production. Special
attention is given to safety-related design issues. Despite minimal
weight, Visio.M is expected to achieve a level of protection equal to
that offered by conventional cars with combustion engines.
Participants in the Visio.M consortium
are, in addition to the automotive companies BMW AG (lead manager) and
Daimler AG, the Technische Universitaet Muenchen as a scientific
partner, and Autoliv BV & Co. KG, the Federal Highway Research Institute
(BAST), Continental Automotive GmbH, E.ON AG, Finepower GmbH, Hyve AG,
IAV GmbH, InnoZ GmbH, Intermap Technologies GmbH, LION Smart GmbH,
Neumayer Tekfor Holding GmbH, Siemens AG, Texas Instruments Germany GmbH
and TÜV SÜD AG as industrial partners. The project is funded under the
priority program "Key Technologies for Electric Mobility - STROM" of the
Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
