¬ A New Car For A New Era : EMIL THOMSEN SCHMIDT

A New Car For A New Era
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Made in collaboration with Lau F. Rasmussen

Year 2010
Concept An electric car which is not trying to imitate current cars, but instead is trying to solve the enviromental and traffical problems of the future, while retaining the emotional appeal of the car itself.

The car stands before a new time in which it faces the strongest opposition ever. The global enviromental awareness has forced the worlds car makers to start making their products more sustainable, and the increasing number of cars on the streets is troubling the already crowded public space. The solution for the pollution related problems is to use a more eco-friendly form of propulsion, in this case electric motors, and the solution to the traffical problems is simply to make the cars smaller. Today most cars have a capacity for four or five passengers and their luggage, even though this space is rarely used, and that takes up unnecessary room on the streets.

The use of electric motors make it possible to start with a clean sheet when designing a car, because of the possibility of placing the motors inside the wheels, therefore eliminating the ordinary engine compartment in the front of the car.
This concept only has three wheels and three seats, because this way it takes up the least amount of space on the streets, while still providing ample room inside. Put simply, the wheels are placed where there are no passengers and vice versa. If a luggage compartment is needed one or both of the seats are folded to create the necessary room.
In order to take full advantage of the space when parking, the car has an array of small wheels placed perpendicular to the larger wheels (similar to the Honda U3-X personal mobility device), which allows the car to drive sideways making it possible to park in a space inches larger than the car. An added bonus to this technology is that a u-turn is a thing of the past, since the front wheels can be set to drive left and the rear wheel set to drive right making the car spin round its own axis. Once parked the door opening mechanism also takes up a minimal amount of space while still providing a generous opening.
Besides all the practical features, the car also utilizes its three-wheel setup to enable carving in the bends. The idea behind the carving-technology is to move the center of gravity towards the inside of the bend making the car more stable, just like a bicycle. Besides stabilizing the car while turning, the carving principle represents a new type of driving pleasure, since an electric car doesn't have the familiar features linked with the joy of driving (engine noise for example).

Modelled in SolidWorks and rendered in Photoworks.

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