15. September 2016

e.GO Mobile moving the market with its electric car

Aachen, 24th June 2016 – e.GO Mobile is developing a particularly cost-efficient electric car on RWTH Aachen Campus. Production researcher and e.GO Mobile CEO Professor Günther Schuh and his team show that German Industrie 4.0 (Industry 4.0) make highly iterative development processes and particularly cost-efficient production of prototypes as well as small series possible. Their work has shown outstanding results.

The new EC directive L7e, defining small vehicles of a top speed of 90 km/h and a maximum width of 1.50 m, has been beneficial to development. The standard e.GO Life is expected to cost 12,500 euro. If supplied with two additional batteries and 2 + 2 seating, the car will achieve a maximum range of 120 km and will cost 13,900 euro. In 2017 a first batch of 100 rapid prototypes will be manufactured, and 75 will be sold to beta testers.

e.GO Life is the second electric car developed on RWTH Aachen Campus. In 2010, StreetScooter was launched, which now produces an all-electric light commercial vehicle for last mile delivery in series. StreetScooter currently manufactures six cars per day in Aachen. These vehicles are used in daily operations by Deutsche Post DHL Group across Germany. In 2014, Deutsche Post DHL Group acquired StreetScooter. “Our objective is to show that already today, total costs of operations of all-electric cars are comparable to those of traditional cars with combustion engines,” says Professor Günther Schuh, e.GO Mobile’s CEO and former StreetScooter co-founder.

This e.GO Life is an attractive, compact city car, especially useful as a second or third car for larger families or as a fleet vehicle. Driving the car is simply fun, because it makes perfect use of the electric drives – above average torque and great utilization of space. “Once the e.GO Life has established itself on the market, we aim for a series production of up to 10,000 cars per year, produced at the Aachen industrial estate,” says Professor Günther Schuh.

RWTH Aachen Campus brings together science and business, which allowed for the development of this near-to-production car below 30 million euro. The 50 dedicated team members with an average age of 29 years have been applying scrum processes. These processes have been originally tried and tested within software development and were now adapted to vehicle development in cooperation with RWTH researchers. 30% of the initial prototype was made of 3D printed components. PLM software permits both real and virtual construction as well as parallel development of different functional prototypes by teams at different locations.

Regular, speedy design checks using aixCAVE, a virtual reality installation at RWTH Aachen’s IT Center, considerably accelerate the development process. Early simulations produced a chassis that can be particularly sturdy with electric cars by using the strength of the robust and stiff battery compartment, which enhances the passive safety qualities of the entire vehicle.

Structural plastic exteriors reduce overall production costs particularly if produced in small quantities, compared to customary integral bodies. Powered by a mass-production 48 volt electric engine as well as the consistent modular design further decrease the already very low production costs. “We had hoped to make our frugal engineering approach work and produce an extremely affordable electric car. However, we ourselves are very much surprised how fun it is to drive the e.GO Life”, says Professor Günther Schuh.

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Krentz/e.GO Mobile AG

Krentz/e.GO Mobile AG

(1) Design-Prototype e.GO Life (from the left): Prof. Günther Schuh (CEO e.GO Mobile AG), Matthias Kreimeier (Head of Purchasing e.GO Mobile AG) und Alexander Weis (Project Manager) e.GO Life); Copyright: Krentz/e.GO Mobile AG
01_eGO_Life_Chassis_Design-kl

Krentz/e.GO Mobile AG

(2) e.GO Life: Rolling Chassis (left) and Design-Prototype (right); Copyright: Krentz/e.GO Mobile AG

Key technical specifications

Powertrain: BOSCH 48V drive system
Performance: 15 kW continuous output
(2×10 kW peak performance)
Battery capacity: 9.6 kWh
Acceleration 0 -50 kph: 3.9 sec
Range: 80 km (standard model)
120 km (extended version)
Dimensions (length/width/height): 3150 / 1500 / 1460 mm
Curb weight: 450 kg (without battery)
Chassis: 2 + 2 seating

Further information: www.e-go-mobile.com

Design

Entwicklung

(1) RWTH Aachen Campus is building a new affordable electric car: e.GO Life.
(2) The challenge of the e.GO development team is to develop an affordable electric vehicle.
(3) The design is initially drafted on white paper, before being constructed as a 3D modell.
(4) The development team and production continue to work with these data in parallel.This allows them to create a prototype of e.GO Life in a very short amount of time. In this manner, a new electric car is created in one third of the average development time and at one tenth of the usual development costs! This is made possible by the network of science and business on RWTH Aachen Campus.
(5) The result is a competitive electric car. Technological aspects set aside: e.GO Life sets new standards in terms of driving pleasure.
Terms of use:

The images offered are to be used exclusively for the respective press
release and with contextual references to e.GO Mobile AG and/or e.GO Life.
The images are intended for use by journalists only. The use of the images
is free of charge. e.GO Mobile AG is to be notified of publication.

Images are to be attributed to: Krentz/e.GO Mobile AG