A compact, fully electric vehicle for urban mobility
Crisscrossed by a network of trains, buses and trams, Europe is renowned for its comprehensive – and convenient – public transportation system. But while this network can get you to a lot of places, it can’t get you everywhere. “From disparities in access to limited infrastructure, poor connectivity between modes of transport, lack of accessibility, and unequal distribution across neighbourhoods – urban mobility is full of gaps,” says Jenni Pippuri-Mäkeläinen, principal scientist at the VTT Technical Research Centre. Working to fill some of these gaps is the EU-funded REFLECTIVE project. “We want to address those areas of urban mobility not served by public transportation by developing a fully electric, reconfigurable light vehicle,” adds Pippuri-Mäkeläinen, who serves as the project coordinator.
A compact, modular and fully electric vehicle
With the goal of creating a convenient and sustainable vehicle that can serve multiple purposes, the project created a compact, modular and fully electric L7e category vehicle (heavy quadricycle). The vehicle features removable rear seats and adaptable charging solutions, meaning the same vehicle can be used to carry passengers or cargo. With safety, usability and comfort being priorities, the vehicle is equipped with conductive and wireless chargers and automated features, along with the latest safety technologies. The vehicle’s small, compact design is perfect for manoeuvring through and parking in often dense urban areas, while its battery is powerful enough to cover multi-stop journeys. The project also developed an adaptable electric powertrain that can be used to power not only the heavy quadricycles, but also small passenger vehicles, thus enhancing flexibility and broadening the range of applications it can be used with. “We’re pretty proud of the fact that we developed a vehicle from scratch in less than four years – work that covered not only the design of the vehicle itself, but also the selection and/or design, manufacturing, procurement and integration of all its components,” explains Pippuri-Mäkeläinen.
Electric vehicle tested in real-traffic environments
Not only did the project design an innovative new vehicle, it also tested its efficiency, usability and safety in both labs and real-traffic environments in Finland and Germany. One highlight of these tests was a successful demonstration of the vehicles’ ability to automatically relocate to a wireless charger between uses. Based on these tests, the REFLECTIVE vehicle earned a performance equivalent to a four-star Euro NCAP rating according to the L7e category protocol. “This is a remarkable achievement considering that market vehicles in this category tend to receive a two-star rating at most,” notes Pippuri-Mäkeläinen.
A safe, feature-rich, fully electric vehicle in an adorable package
In addition to developing an electric vehicle designed to fill in some of the gaps found in today’s urban mobility landscape, the project demonstrated that a vehicle doesn’t need to be big to be safe, flexible, feature-packed and cool. “While there certainly are some things that could be improved, we were able to demonstrate good energy efficiency and excellent crash safety performance, and, in my opinion, deliver a completely adorable-looking small vehicle,” concludes Pippuri-Mäkeläinen. With the hope of seeing commercial products or even a full vehicle based on the REFLECTIVE design someday hit the streets, the project team is currently exploring opportunities to further develop and commercialise its innovative solutions.
Keywords
REFLECTIVE, electric vehicle, urban mobility, public transportation, quadricycle, electric powertrain, Euro NCAP, wireless charger, energy efficiency, crash safety
