Light materials for Electric vehicles

Challenge and our proposal

As electrical cars are powered by heavy-weight batteries, car manufacturers and suppliers must search for new light-weighting technologies to compensate this excess weight in other car components. These technologies can directly contribute to improve vehicle efficiency in terms of kWh consumed per km and vehicle range (kms with a full battery cycle), and to reduce the environmental impact.

To tackle this challenge, our consortium – formed by thirteen industrial and research partners from seven countries – will develop cost-effective lightweight components for electric vehicles using eco-design and circular approaches.

We will use for this multi-material solutions based on carbon fibre thermoplastic composites optimally integrated with metals, which will be produced using cost-effective and scalable manufacturing technologies. Thanks to their outstanding specific mechanical properties, these composites properly combined with metals are ideally suited for lightweight applications. The combination of these developments will allow us to obtain lightweight, cost-effective and eco-friendly components without compromising their mechanical performance, structural integrity and reliability, even improving their service life.

Eco-design and circular approaches in LEVIS

We will pay special attention on using recyclable materials and designing the components in a way that after the components’ end-of-life nothing will become waste and every part can be recycled or reused for the same or for other applications. Thus, only recyclable resins, bio-resourced and recycled carbon fibres will be used for building the target components. Moreover, the components’ service-life will be maximised, and all structural parts will be designed to enable a simple and effective dismantling and reuse of the components.

Introducing lightweight components into the market

The consortium’s goal is to introduce these innovative electric vehicle components into the market by the end of the project. For this, LEVIS will follow a structured exploitation strategy, covering multi-actor stakeholder consultation, intellectual property protection, business modelling and an advanced commercialisation plan.

Our Partnership

Our partnership is based on supplementary competences.

Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón (ITA), Spain

Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste (AIMEN), Spain

Centre Technologique Nouvelle-Aquitaine Composites & Matériaux Avancés (CANOE), France

Stichting Cenex Nederland (CENEX NL), Netherlands

Leartiker S. Coop (LEAR), Spain

Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), France

Marelli Suspension Systems Italy S.p.A (MSS), Italy

Mersen France Angers SAS (MERSEN), France

Privé Srl (PRI), Italy

Rise Sicomp AB (RISE), Sweden

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum der Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH (SEZ), Germany

Tofaş Türk Otomobil Fabrikasi A.Ş. (TOFAS), Turkey

Yeşilova Holding A.Ş. (YOVA), Turkey

Our Concept

LEVIS has the ambition to set-up new design and manufacturing routes for lightweight structural parts for electrical vehicles combining

  1. advanced lightweight and sustainable materials,
  2. cost-effective production and assembly processes capable to produce multi-material
    solutions in an efficient way,
  3. advanced simulation methodologies-workflows for improved structural integrity/life
    predictions and highly optimized designs,
  4. novel sensorisation and monitorisation technologies for superior functionalities, and
  5. suitable end-of-life approaches for the materials and processes considered.

To achieve this ultimate ambition, LEVIS’ proposed developments, solutions, technologies, tools and strategies are divided into five main blocks of intervention according to different areas of work covering the whole value chain for the product.