GrabCAD, an online community of more than 120,000 mechanical engineers, has launched a design challenge tasking members to model an urban electric micro vehicle.
The competition begins on 12 March and will close on 15 April 2012.
The winning design, as chosen by automotive design experts and speakers at Auto(r) 2012 Automotive Design Conference (including Frank Stephenson, Design Director, McLaren; Gordon Murray, Gordon Murray Design and Sébastien Stassin, Kiska) will receive worldwide promotion as well as prizes directly from GrabCAD.
The urban mobility market is booming. By 2015 thirty million scooters will be sold annually. This niche is so big that manufacturers are starting to create vehicles just for this demographic. Motorcycle companies are experimenting with larger and more feature-filled motorcycles while automotive companies are shrinking their vehicles. These companies are all fighting for the same consumers.
GrabCAD has created a challenge where engineers can upload concepts in the form of 3d models. For more information or to view submissions, visit: http://grabcad.com/challenges/urban-e-v .
Requirements for the designs—aside from the electric powertrain—include:
– Ground-based vehicle
– Three or four wheels
– Small footprint
– Single seated or tandem (1+1 or 2 seats)
– Enclosed cabin
– Small trunk capacity
