DELIVER electric light commercial vehicle demonstrator to make its debut at FISITA
28 May 2014
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| DELIVER. Click to enlarge. |
Liberty Electric Cars, the European subsidiary of Green Automotive Company, has completed the build of the first fully functioning example of “DELIVER”—an electric light commercial delivery vehicle funded by the European Commissions’ 7th Framework Programme. DELIVER will have its world premiere at FISITA World Automotive Congress, which starts on 2 June 2014 in Maastricht (NL).
The DELIVER (Design of Electric LIght Vans for Environment-impact Reduction) project started in November 2011 with the goal of reducing the environmental impact in urban areas by 40%, along with delivering optimized ergonomics and loading space at affordable costs. Ten partner companies are involved in the design and construction of an electric light commercial vehicle.
The project, which is co-funded by the European Commission as part of the European Green Vehicles Initiative, is coordinated by Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) of RWTH Aachen University and gathers ten partners from across Europe, including major OEMs, research partners and cities’ representatives. The consortium comprises Fiat (IT), Volkswagen (DE), Liberty Electric Cars (UK), Michelin (CH), Polis Network (BE), SP – Technical Research Institute of Sweden (SE), HPL Prototypes (UK) as well as CADEM (TR) und Mobit (TR).
The DELIVER prototype is a lightweight commercial vehicle of 2,200 kg (4,850 lbs) GVW and a payload of 700 kg (1,543 lbs), with a range of features for the delivery driver and 18% additional capacity when compared with today’s vans of a similar wheelbase.
The fully electric drive train features Michelin in-wheel motors on the rear axle with 2-speed transmission; gear ratios are 26.057:1 and 14.545:1. The 375V motors each deliver maximum power of 57 kW and maximum torque of 42 N·m (31 lb-ft). Maximum motor speed is 13,600 rpm.
The 21.6 kWh battery pack consists of 80 prismatic Li-NMC cells and has peak power of 96 kW, and a range of voltage of 230 - 336 VDC. The battery management system (hardware and software) is custom-made.
With a flexible ergonomic cabin concept and removal of the B pillar on the curb side, there is a decrease in both workload and the duration of the delivery process itself. The ability for the driver to easily exit the vehicle on the kerb side not only minimizes walking distances around the vehicle, but improves driver safety. The “Walk in door” concept reduces potential obstacles caused by the door sills.
With a minimum range of 100 km (62 miles) and a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), DELIVER is targeting urban and intra urban applications such as postal, parcel, supermarket and city council service operations.
After executing a broad conceptual design study which started by establishing initial design specifications and continued right through to the detailed virtual performance assessment of the final fully electric vehicle concept, a driving demonstrator concept vehicle was built by Liberty Electric Cars to demonstrate as many of the new vehicle innovations as possible.
Liberty Electric Cars were nominated Chief Engineers of the design of the vehicle and played a key role in the development of the battery, the battery management system and the integration of all the vehicle electrical systems in the development of this vehicle.
An extended testing phase on the test tracks at the Aldenhoven Testing Center, RWTH Aachen University’s new testing ground, enabled the project partners to analyse performance indicators such as energy efficiency, dynamic and static structural performance, active & passive safety, ergonomics or range.
The DELIVER project ends in October 2014.
Resources
Micha Lesemann, Lutz Eckstein, Thomas Welfers (2014) “DELIVER – Fully Electric LCV with Intelligent Body Design Features.” Presentation at Strategies in Car Body Engineering 2014, Bad Nauheim
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