Project description
Making electric vehicles lighter
The future of electric vehicles hinges on their weight. Since it takes less energy to accelerate a lighter object, advanced lightweight materials can help improve efficiency. The EU-funded ALMA project will develop a novel battery electric vehicle (BEV) structure for a passenger car with 45 % weight reduction potential. The project will adopt circular economy principles through the application of eco-design strategies to create a novel recyclable and affordable BEV platform. Specifically, the project will design a multi-material modular platform made by combining advanced high-strength steels, advanced sheet moulding compound and steel hybrid materials, characterised with multiscale model-based tools. The platform will be recyclable since it will be possible to separate components at the end-of-life for repair and reuse.
Objective
In the need to improve the efficiency and driving range of electric vehicles (EVs), one strategy is the weight reduction of the global vehicle. There are already available solutions based on advanced light materials with promising structural properties but they still need further development to increase their TRL and reach the market. Furthermore, increasing environmental awareness and forthcoming stricter regulations demands the adoption of circular economy principles across the entire vehicle life-cycle.
To respond to this challenge, ALMA will develop a novel BEV structure for a passenger car with 45% weight reduction potential compared to current baseline (15% additional reduction if compared to prior-art solutions) at affordable costs (below 3€/Kg-saved of additional cost), thus enabling up to 2.2 KWh/100Km efficiency increase and 11% LCA improvement. For this purpose, ALMA will develop a multi-material modular platform (BIW, chassis and closures) made of a combination of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHHS), Advanced-SMC and steel-hybrid materials, characterized with multiscale model-based tools.
ALMA will adopt circular economy principles from early stages through the application of eco-design strategies to create a novel BEV platform “made to be recycled”, using a structural reversible bonding technology to enable the separation of components at the end-of-life (EoL) for repair and reuse. A ground-breaking health monitoring system based on acoustic emissions will be integrated in the structure to detect and locate damage while in-service. At last, efficient recycling and material recovery options will be analysed to complete the circular loop.
ALMA involves a well balance group of 9 partners from 4 different EU countries, 5 of them are market-oriented companies (with 2 SMEs), being one an automotive OEM. It also includes 3 RTOs and one international association. ALMA has also gathered the support of 15 external supporting partners in the Advisory Board.
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IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
36400 Porrino Pontevedra
Spain