When approaching new mobility solutions such as car-sharing, it soon becomes apparent that it may be necessary to develop specific vehicles for this application. In this paper, Applus IDIADA explains its experience in the development of the iShare, an electric vehicle conceived as a demonstrator of our complete vehicle development capabilities following the principle of “development led by functionalities”, with the consideration that it would be used in open car-sharing fleets running according to the MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) “mobility-on-demand” concept.
This paper explains the process followed in order to reach the definition of the different parts, systems and components that are the result of the consideration of the Technical Functionalities, such as Active Safely, Passive Safely, Driveability, NVH, Fleet Management, Maintenance and Comfort, that in their turn result from the basic vehicle specifications defined from the analysis of the key functionalities of this vehicle that are suitability for the car-sharing business model and the mobility requirements of the potential customers.
In particular, the paper includes details about the vehicle layout analysis and why a 4-wheel and 2-parallel seats configuration was chosen instead of 2- o 3-wheel or 2-tandem seats configuration, the powertrain, steering, suspension, braking, Passive Safety and energy efficiency concepts explored, the process allowing a customer to book and have access to a given vehicle without a physical key and finally the systems to allow the car-sharing operator to keep the cars in good conditions by replacing interior and exterior trims easily and inexpensively and recycling the materials to make new trims out of it.