Because of the increasing fossil fuel prices and strict emission rules, electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular. Unfortunately, batteries have low energy storage- to- weight (or price) ratio and therefore large vehicles require heavy and expensive batteries. Consequently, majority of the electric powered vehicles on the market consist of bicycles and motorcycles owing to their low weight.
Our team designed and manufactured an extremely low weight (257kg) L7e car and our goal is to prove that a light electric car can have acceptable range without requiring heavy and expensive batteries.
To keep the weight low, a very light aluminum space frame chassis is built and all vehicle components are designed (or selected) within a narrow range of safety factors. A roll cage is also available for safety. In city conditions, Hugo can reach up to 100km range with only 53kg LiFePo4 (5kWh) battery pack. In other words, this car consumes 50wh/km that is one of the least energy consumption for an L7e car in the world. This prototype is a good example for the future’s light weight electric vehicles. Beside the high range objective with a small amount of batteries, fun handling is our philosophy. Thus, the vehicle is equipped with relatively powerful motors, double wishbone suspensions and four relatively large brake discs.
Note: During this project, we spent only 17000$ with a volunteer team.