ARIA
Students from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, and ROC Summa have developed a new electric car. According to the designers, its components are easy to replace, which should make the car cheaper and easier to maintain.
The prototype of the car, the ARIA, was unveiled on Tuesday. It can drive, but it is not yet known when it should go into production. The makers call the car modular. “With clear manuals, standardized parts, a built-in toolbox, and an app that reads your car, you can do your own maintenance,” they say. The car has six small batteries instead of one large one, so they can be removed and placed by hand.
With the design of the car, the Brabant students say they want to prevent a car that is still in good condition from being discarded due to a few defective parts.
In the past, Eindhoven students built a car that ran on solar energy. That vehicle came from the solar car races in Australia in which the TU participated. The company, Lightyear, stopped producing its first solar car in early 2023 and went bankrupt shortly thereafter. Lightyear made a restart and now focuses on making solar panels for electric vehicles.
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