Design and manufacture of electric vehicle body with solar panels for urban use

Abstract

The automotive industry faces the urgent need to reduce environmental impact and mitigate climate change. One alternative in this fight is the use of the urban Electric Vehicle (EV), a compact, low-speed, and more economical vehicle. One of the major challenges is the integration of solar panels into the EV's body to improve its energy autonomy. This work presents the design of an ultra-compact EV body, created in SolidWorks and rendered with 3D Blender software. The area irradiated by the sun is estimated to place flexible solar panels on the hood and roof of the EV and to understand their contribution to the vehicle's energy autonomy. Finally, the manufacturing process of the monocoque fiberglass body is described. The aforementioned concepts aim to make the EV more cost-effective and practical for urban mobility. The plans obtained in SolidWorks provide the measurements and details for both the solar exposure energy calculation and the fiberglass manufacturing process, which includes a model in polystyrene and the body prototype according to the final aerodynamic design. The process highlights the use of clay in modeling the EV instead of automotive clay, which is much more expensive and polluting.