Germany's EVUM Motors wanted to be first to market with its unique 4x4 electric utility vehicle. To do so, the company needed to accelerate its product development processes, and put in place a robust and flexible technology platform to store all design information centrally and allow its engineers to work on designs and exchange data seamlessly.
The start-up implemented the cloud-based Electro Mobility Accelerator solution on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to connect design, engineering and manufacturing, and deliver scalable access to digital design and simulation applications in a single, secure, standards-based environment. EVUM Motors is using the proven end-to-end engineering solution to industrialize production and track progress from design to customer delivery.
Capable of carrying heavy loads and off-road-driving, the aCar from EVUM Motors is a new breed of modular electric utility vehicle designed for the mobility needs of rural populations. More a small truck than a car, the idea for this robust, functional, affordable and green 4x4 was born at the Technical University of Munich (TU Munich) where a team of engineers set out to build a prototype electric vehicle for the African market.
Their goal was to develop something that could be easily manufactured and financed in developing and emerging countries. It needed to be a simple, sustainable workhorse that could be built in close proximity to its customers, was low maintenance, ran on rugged terrains and could handle a variety of tasks, from transporting goods and people, to carrying hay and farming equipment.
The result was the aCar, an electric four-wheel drive with a range of up to 200km and a top speed of 70km/h, with a payload of 1,000kg. It’s powered by a 48V battery with solar panels on the roof to generate additional electricity, and a modular design makes it easy to outfit the aCar for different users, including tradesmen, vineyard workers and landscapers.
“The aCar is our contribution to making the world a little bit better,” said Martin Šoltés, a project manager on the aCar concept at TU Munich, now CEO and co-founder of EVUM Motors with Sascha Koberstaedt. “We emphasized a vehicle design that doesn’t just stick to one idea and enables local and
environmentally friendly manufacturing in close proximity to our customers. It is our contribution to a more even distribution of the world’s prosperity and to integrating people in developing and emerging countries in the economic cycle. It’s such an important mission to us that we wanted this to be more than
simply an idea; we want to industrialize it.”
Today, EVUM Motors is bringing the aCar from concept to reality and gearing up to produce it on an industrial scale from its manufacturing facility in Bayerbach, Germany.
As a start-up, it was critical that EVUM Motors had access to enterprise-level technology and gain the full capabilities it needed to get off the ground quickly. It recognized that the cloud would help it move its vehicle from design to manufacturing at unprecedented speed and scale.
“There is a short window of time for entry into electromobility, which is receiving large and strong funding from the state,” Šoltés said. “You have to be quick with a reliable, full developed product on the market. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud helps us to quickly exchange the data and information required
for accelerated development.”
To learn more about how EVUM Motors is changing the EV paradigm, read the full case study.
