CLIENT

Our customer is a leading manufacturer of low-speed utility vehicles, supplying both electric and gasoline powered variants to commercial and government customers.

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REQUIREMENTS

Our customer wanted to develop a new vehicle for a very specific market. In many countries, three wheel vehicles are classified as motorcycles and are subject to less stringent requirements than four-wheel vehicles. They identified that there was an untapped market for an enclosed, low-speed, three-wheel electric vehicle to be used for delivery and transport. In order to maximize the time the vehicle spends on the road, a swappable battery pack was required.

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CHALLENGE

The market for electric vehicles is rapidly evolving, so they wanted to get a robust prototype ready for marketing purposes as soon as possible. The prototype needed to have a distinctive design to appeal to potential customers while having a high level of functionality as a delivery vehicle. The delivery use case implies heavy usage over a long day, a challenge for an electric vehicle with range limitations due to battery capacity.

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MOTIVO’S SOLUTION

Motivo started the project with a design phase, developing several concept sketches that were reviewed with the customer and eventually narrowed down to one concept. A trade study was also conducted to analyze different track widths and their effect on stability. This concept was then further developed in parallel with engineering of the vehicle package, allowing rapid convergence on a vehicle design that met aesthetic expectations desires and functional requirements. Motivo developed a custom fast-swappable battery pack, allowing a mid-day battery change to enable the delivery use case. Component sourcing and supply chain was also carefully managed, tracking thousands of parts as part of the build. Motivo designed, built and validated the entire vehicle, including chassis, suspension, electric powertrain, and vehicle controls.

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OUTCOME

As always for Motivo, the project timeline was very aggressive, taking just 56 days from conception to delivery of the prototype vehicle. The result was a high-quality, fully functional prototype that continues to be used for marketing purposes.