The automotive industry is at the cusp of critical transformations prefaced by a changing climate: transition from fossil fuels-based internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to sustainable electric alternatives. This transition involves technological advancements and therethink and redesign of vehicles. ALMA plugs into the gap, addressing the urgent need for lightweight, sustainable, and efficient EVs, and envisioning a circular model that explores efficient and cost-effective end-of-life (EoL) solutions, prioritizing reusability, repairability, and recyclability.
The main goal of ALMA is the development of a novel EV structure for a passenger car with reduced weight and environmental impact, thanks to the adoption of an integrated eco-design and circular approach across the entire life cycle supported by LCA and LCC tools as core activities at the forefront of the project. Through an eco-design approach leveraging advanced lightweight materials, ALMA seeks to redefine industry standards for EV construction. Moreover, ALMA pioneers an eco-design and circular approach in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for passenger cars, which includes choosing strategies such as the “right material for right application”, efficient assembly/disassembly solutions using debondable adhesives, recycling options and model-based characaterisation of materials at multi-scale level. It also adopts a circular approach across entire vehicle life cycle to enable further uses for the structure at the end-of-life (EoL). An integrated health monitoring and inspection system (HMS) detects and determines damages during operation preventing critical failure and enables future repair and reuse. In essence, ALMA's mission is to provide an impetus to the automotive sector, marked by responsible design, reduced environmental footprint, and a commitment to a circular economy.
In the face of climate change, addressing questions about EV range becomes an important consideration influencing the widespread adoption of electric mobility. ALMA’s holistic eco-design approach in vehicle construction using lightweight multi-materials combined with EoL material recovery and recycling solutions, addresses this societal and environmental need, setting the stage for a more sustainable automotive sector.
Following the implementation of these innovations, the ALMA project achieved its expected outcomes: the body-in-white (BiW) of ALMA’s concept car is 160 kg lighter, representing approximately 22% weight reduction compared to the baseline BEV BiW. Over the car’s entire service life, the use of other materials and weight reduction contributes to a total reduction of 1,850 kg CO2-eq, a 24% decrease in emissions. In contrast, the emissions for the entire car saw a 9% decrease.
