Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Traffic congestion is a growing problem in large cities. The number of vehicles on the road worldwide is expected to quadruple to nearly 3 billion by 2050, while the number of roadways is expected to remain approximately the same in the city cores. The average number of occupants of a single vehicle is about 1.6 persons. This indicates highly underutilized current vehicle sizes. To alleviate traffic congestion and the resulting pollution in large cities, electric urban vehicles are gaining momentum. In addition to four-wheel configuration, these vehicles could be a three-wheel configuration with one wheel in front or rear. They could also be front, rear, or all wheel steering. Urban vehicles derive their appeal from tax and licensing advantages, higher fuel economy, and ease of navigation in cluttered urban centers. In some jurisdictions, narrow urban vehicles are able to lane-split, travel on bike lanes, and park in unconventional spaces, thus making them beneficial for relieving traffic congestion and dealing with the shortage of parking spots. Urban vehicles and their popularization are still in their infancy despite these advantages. This is due to a number of reasons but mainly because conventional vehicle technologies are not necessarily suitable or optimized for such vehicles. Current urban vehicles are mostly scaled down versions of passenger cars. This scaled down approach imposes serious limitations on the safety, usability, fuel consumption, thermal loads, and power management of the vehicle. These factors directly impact customer acceptance. The goal of this project is to develop new technologies, specifically for urban vehicles, to make them highly efficient, affordable, safe, and acceptable to consumers. These new technologies will be universal and can be used in the development of safer, more efficient, smarter, and more cost effective urban vehicles. The technologies developed in this project will be prototyped and evaluated experimentally. They will be further showcased and validated in urban vehicles for commercialization and marketing by our industry partners.