At the end of the three-year research project, 2 real demonstrators of an electric motorcycle (L3e) and a plug-in hybrid tricycle (L5e) and a virtual prototype of a four-wheeled vehicle (L6e) were presented.
EU-LIVE – “Efficient Urban Light Vehical” was a European R&D project (Horizon2020) with the participation of Spirit Design with a total budget of 6.7 million euros, which brought together the know-how of 12 renowned partners, including Virtual Vehicle Research Center, Groupe PSA, Peugeot Scooters, Continental Automotive GmbH, Frauenhofer-Gesellschaft and Samsung SDI. The focus of EU-LIVE was on the development of common parts (including drive train, components, battery) in order to show that the scooter and automotive industry can offer the end consumer efficient and cost-effective light vehicles in the future. Spirit Design created a uniform project branding right at the start of the project. Not only externally to the different steakholders, but above all communication within the project partners was made easy with the uniform project branding. (www.eu-live.eu)
Together with the fka (forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen mbH Aachen), Spirit Design also laid the basis for product development. Several focus groups were conducted in 3 European countries. Functions were derived from the results and flowed into further product development. After an open design contest, the winning concept “Cityflex” was further developed into a virtual prototype by Robert Hahn from Spirit Design and fka. A feasibility study made it clear that the integration of a modular drive train could be a solution to cost-effective and efficient L-category vehicles. The real prototypes L3e and L5e were presented to the public for the first time in Vienna at the TRA. Spirit Design is very proud to have been part of this pioneering project.
