Body Design in Electric Microcars: A Review

As the world is running out of fossil fuels and the environment is being seriously damaged by the combustion residuals of the internal combustion engines, the world countries have begun to search alternative ways for mobility. Lightweight electric vehicles with low energy consumption values are seen as one of the strongest candidates of future mobility. As the smallest versions of road vehicles, microcars are totally suitable for electric vehicle technology, with minimum energy consumption values due to their minimalistic designs. They reduce the energy consumption values when they also save the redundant sizes of conventional personal vehicles. Thus, they are also considered as an alternative solution to the expanding traffic jams in major cities. Body design for an electric vehicle also has a great importance since its weight reduction directly affects the vehicle driving range. Vehicle body is a larger design domain for the mass optimization, rather than the other parts. In this study, methods for design and optimization of a microcar body are introduced, which apply to weight reduction by removing materials from unloaded or relatively less loaded regions and makes an optimization between the mass and stiffness. Comparisons are also made between the materials which could be used and currently being used in microcar bodies in terms of strength, weight, and price.