Member Article

North East uni drives eco-designs of the future

DESIGNERS from Northumbria University have joined forces with industry to “enhance the appeal” of electric vehicles to encourage people to buy into the low-carbon future.

Matteo Conti and Stuart English, founders of the High Value Low Carbon design unit at the University are part of a consortium of industry partners and academics seeking to find new design solutions to the emerging new technologies to make the vehicles more attractive to motorists.

“The move towards electric and hybrid vehicles provides a unique opportunity to customise the design of the interior using new technologies to allow the car to interact with its occupants,’’ said Matteo, a senior lecturer in transportation design.

“The engineering side of electric vehicles is very advanced and sophisticated and we need to be able to reflect the same quality of engineering in the design.”

As part of the project, Mr English and Mr Conti work with a range of partners on the re-design of electric and hybrid vehicles and products associated with them.

One idea, soon to be prototyped, is a portable carrier, which would enable drivers without a garage to transport electric batteries to their home where they could be re-charged.

The team also worked on the exterior re-design of an electric car, giving it a futuristic look and that car will soon go into production.

Stuart English, the lead design manager in the project added: “There’s a risk that if you put the focus too heavily on the technology and engineering aspects that you could neglect the end user.

“We see our role as integrating with industry to produce high value innovation for the people who will ultimately buy these cars.”

“We are leading the drive to create more eco-friendly design solutions for the future.

“How electric vehicles look and feel will play a big part in persuading people to purchase them and with almost one quarter of CO2 emissions coming from transport, this is not an area we can afford to fail in.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .