Transportation
Ultralight Hybrid Vehicle Design: Overcoming the Barriers to Using Advanced Composites in the Automotive Industry
This paper describes the many diverse and important barriers that inhibit automakers’ adoption of advanced composite materials. The authors argue that a strategy to produce an all advanced composite body-in-white commercially could be the best method to overcome these barriers. This paper summarizes the ultralight, hybrid electric Hypercar concept, emphasizing…
Moving Toward a New System
In this interview with the Society of Automotive Engineers, Amory Lovins responds to questions about the role of the government and business in setting transportation and energy policy, ultralight vehicles, and changes in the transportation industry. He also details the Clean Car Initiative of 1994 and discusses the design and…
Vehicle Design Strategies to Meet and Exceed PNGV Goals
A host of important and interactive factors contribute to the successful design of any production vehicle. However, the combination of hybrid-electric drive and low-drag platform design, with emphasis on vehicle mass and drag coefficient reductions, appears prerequisite to the simultaneous optimization of efficiency, emissions, performance, and cost. This paper examines…
Costing the Ultralite in Volume Production: Can Advanced Composite Bodies-in-White Be Affordable?
Advances in materials engineering, powerplant technology, systems integration, and fabrication processes now enable the automotive industry to design and prototype vehicles with improved performance and far better efficiency than current production platforms. The hypercar advanced vehicle concept embodies this technological potential. However, for hypercars to benefit society significantly, they must…
Reinventing the Wheels
This article describes a strategy for developing an ultralight car such as RMI’s Hypercar. The article describes the potential public benefits of Hypercars in terms of oil displacement, energy security, international stability, forgone military costs, balance of trade, climatic protection, clean air, health and safety, noise reduction, and quality of…