The issue of increasing urbanisation requires significant changes with respect to living and mobility. The quality of our cities is increasingly characterized by low emission zones, pedestrian areas and cycling lanes. Thus, the need for sustainable, resource-saving and environmentally compatible mobility concepts is rising.
Together with public transport, the soft modes of mobility such as walking and cycling will remain the backbone of future urban mobility systems. These modes have limits regarding individual comfort, speed and transport capacity. Nevertheless, users still demand their privacy and individuality, which public transport cannot completely fulfil.
At the same time urban transportation is becoming more and more multimodal. User behaviour is shifting from owning to using. Nowadays new mobility services such as sharing or pooling enrich European city centres. However, most of these systems are still based on conventional vehicle types, for example fossil fuel powered cars.
The society urges to tackle these future challenges of mobility in a comprehensive way, hence novel types of vehicles have to be developed. There is a growing demand for cost-efficient, clean, quiet, easy-to-park and easy-to-manoeuvre urban vehicles that enable a broad spectrum of users to freely, comfortably and affordably move around in highly populated areas. Electrified L-category vehicles – electric-powered two-, three- and ultra-light four wheelers – are potentially ideal solutions to fulfil this demand. Their compact size enables enhanced agility in congested areas and facilitates finding a parking space. GHG emissions of these vehicles are significantly lower or even zero for fully electric models (also concerning noise). In this way they offer a complementary solution to public transport and to the “soft” modes, in particular if equipped with electrified powertrains for minimized noise and air pollutant emissions.
So far the European L-category vehicle industry has faced relatively high component and subsystem costs because of only low-to-medium sales volumes per vehicle model and a lack of modular (carryover) strategies, as opposed to the high-volume passenger car industry. This situation keeps customer prices high and makes L-category vehicles less attractive to end users. Furthermore, due to the lack of cooperation, development methods and tools available in the 2-wheeler industry are often limited and less advanced than in the high-volume car industry.
The objective of EU-LIVE, a European R&D project funded by Horizon 2020, is to provide a solution covering a wide range of L-category vehicles i.e. a comprehensive platform for the next generation of electrified, cost- and energy-efficient light urban vehicles. It enables economies of scale by providing modular powertrains as well as bodies and an integrated co-simulation platform. Thus, EU-LIVE enhances the competitive position of the export-oriented European vehicle industry and makes an important contribution to a sustainable future mobility system.
