POLICE
Prolonged Life Cycle for Electric Vehicles
Motivation and Procedure
The project aims to increase the service life of electric vehicles. In particular, a long service life of the base components is desirable, so as to reduce the vehicle costs relative to its lifetime and reduce adverse environmental impacts.
The base components include in particular the traction battery and vehicle body components, which are liable to wear. The desire for an up-to-date car can be met by remanufacturing, that is, by replacing or updating individual components. To be able to do so, the vehicle and the assembly process must be designed to be capable of adaptation and updating.
Research Objectives
The central goal of the project is to develop an updatable electric vehicle.
Further objectives are as follows:
- Development and construction of battery packs for remanufacturing
- Development of flexible integration concepts for exterior and interior vehicle components
- Identification and qualification of 3D printing materials for the production of exterior vehicle and passenger compartment components
- Development of an assembly and disassembly concept for remanufacturing purposes
- Economic and technological assessment and specification of boundary conditions for the licensing of update-capable electric vehicles
- Assembly of demonstrator vehicles and tests under real-life application conditions
Research and Project Partners
- StreetScooter GmbH
- Futavis GmbH
- Stratasys Ltd.
- DEKRA
- RWTH Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL)
- PEM at RWTH Aachen University
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy during the period from 01/01/2016 to 12/31/2018.
RWTH Aachen University uses Simio simulation software under a grant from Simio LLC (www.simio.com).