Engineering news
;
The three year, €3.5 million Moby car project is being led by Italian power systems firm Bitron and includes partners in the UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.
The multinational research consortium has developed a modular, urban electric vehicle platform that can be configured for different types, as a pick-up, van, taxi, and even a small restaurant. All the versions share the same chassis and powertrain and use common electrical systems.
The latest to be demonstrated, the solar-powered Plus-Moby restaurant van, can run up to 20km on solar power and has a range of up to 150km using its batteries.
The mobile restaurant was presented at the Transport Research Arena conference in Warsaw, Poland, last month.
The vehicle builds upon the concepts and innovations of several earlier EU-funded projects, P-Mob, Wide-Mob and AVTR, and features solar panels on the roof, a battery and a permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motor (PMaSyR) to power the vehicle. It can reach speeds of more than 90 km/h and is stable in all weather conditions.
The researchers have also refined the chassis and the powertrain to achieve efficient acceleration, safety and affordability. “We selected the most suitable steel for lighter components and reduced the number of components and curved elements in the chassis to simplify production,” the project coordinator, Marco Ottella from Bitron, says.
Safety has been another strong concern for the project, to ensure that being green does not expose drivers to too high a risk in case of accidents. The use of advanced high strength steels allows the car to meet these requirements: the vehicle weighs 450 kg, making it less energy-consuming and easier to assemble.
Crucially, says the researchers, the car be easily recharged from domestic plugs, and with the development of the solar technology, they believe they can circumvent concerns about a lack of charging infrastructure, especially in southern European countries.
Otella says: “Unfortunately, a limited infrastructure of charging stations has been a barrier to the adoption of some electric vehicles in Europe.
“But we have come up with a solution to this challenge in the Plus-Moby and Free-Moby projects. Drivers will be able to charge the vehicle in the same way that they charge their mobile phones,”
Local assembly
Another key objective of the Moby project was to design a vehicle that is easy and relatively inexpensive to build. The production of Plus-Moby vehicles therefore differs from the manufacture of traditional cars, so they can be produced with only small investments in plant and equipment
“The simple design of the Plus-Moby components means that it can be produced by SMEs,” Ottella says.“By August, we’ll be able to demonstrate the feasibility of this production line.”
The final stage will be to finish the Moby production line and supply chian in Torino, Italy, then replicate it in the UK, Poland and Romania. According to the researchers, Moby cars could be seen on European roads within the next three years.