Innovative plug-in fuel cell concept of German aerospace
The concept combines a powerful fuel cell with a battery and all the energy stored in the vehicle’s flat floor / DLR
German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum fรผr Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) has developed a new concept of ‘ground breaking’ for a lightweight plug-in fuel cell vehicle that combines a 48 kWh rechargeable battery and a 45 kW fuel cell. Scope. New Character Words to Learn: PFCV, PFCEV, PHFCEV?
Interurban Vehicle (IUV) is the concept of the futuristic vehicle, with five people seated in a comfortable cockpit without B-pillars to allow wide-open sliding doors. It includes a number of clever new ideas, such as metal-hydride cooled air conditioning, a disappearing steering wheel, rotating seats, or wiring integrated into the body structure laminate.
1000 km range
The IUV is designed as a plug-in Fuel Cell Hybrid. It combines a fuel cell with a production capacity of 45 kilowatts, a 700-bar hydrogen pressure tank that holds 7,5 kg hydrogen and a 48-kilowatt-hour battery. It produces 136 kW (185 hp) and speeds up to 180 km / h.
You can plug the car in and charge the battery like a normal PHEV (Plug-in Electric Vehicle). Still, there is no combustion engine (ICE) to kick when the power is low, but rather a hydrogen-fueled fuel cell.
It is 1000 km long. And like a gasoline car, you only need five minutes to refill the hydrogen at the filling station, if you find one in a car that is thin today.
Tanks and batteries on the flat floor
With the clever combination of different lightweight construction methods, DLR engineers managed to reduce the car’s weight significantly, to less than 1 600 kg. It includes energy storage units such as batteries and hydrogen tanks installed on the vehicle’s flat floor. Less weight means less energy consumption and longer life.
“The IUV body structure weighs just 250 kilograms, less than a quarter of what is common in this automotive segment,” says Sebastian Vohrer, project manager at the DLR Institute of Vehicle Concepts in Stuttgart.
Crash-resistant sandwich items
The body of the car contains a large number of fiber-reinforced polymers and various structures made of aluminium or sandwich material. The top layer of fiber composite material is combined with a lightweight core made of plastic foam or balsa wood, where extra rigidity is needed.
Since the vehicle does not have B-pillars, the side skirts beneath the sliding doors are an example of a material that absorbs considerable energy in an accident. DLR has performed extensive crash testing to protect the hydrogen tank occupants and hydrogen tank on the vehicle floor during a side impact.
That car floor has another amazing function: it conducts electricity and transmits data, so no extra wiring is required. A modern car can put cable up to 1 500km today.
Step 4 Autonomous driving
This new lightweight body concept gives you more freedom in designing the interior. Especially when the vehicle is able to drive autonomously (SAE Level 4) there is no need for a driver.
โAutomation reduces the stress on drivers and lets in us to make the indoors of the automobile extra open and bendy on the equal time,โ says Vohrer. The crew evolved numerous designs for this cause and carried out reviews to decide their useful and technical feasibility.
Rotating seats
Like the retractable steering wheel on the dashboard, the front seats rotate to face rear passengers while the car is moving autonomously. The air conditioning concept at IUV is compatible with the interior. No longer equipped with central dashboard controls, each passenger can adjust the air conditioning individually using overhead interfaces, similar to aviation.
Air conditioning is a new concept, as it uses metal hydride storage systems and 700 bar hydrogen tanks and a five-bar fuel cell to cool pressure differences. That way the energy is saved, otherwise compromising the vehicle’s range, as it does today in most electric cars
Credited Joris Van Roy / Drivepilots
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