The development of a multifunctional, fully electric municipal utility vehicle is the goal of a research project at the TH Mittelhessen. Its directors are the Friedberg professors Dr. Alexander Kuznietsov and Dr. Udo Jung from the Competence Center Automotive, Mobility and Materials Research. They are cooperating with Hako GmbH, a cleaning and municipal technology company, and Edag Engineering, an engineering service provider for the automotive industry. Other partners are the municipality of Ortenberg and the business development agency Wetterau. The state of Hesse supports the project with 490,000 euros.
Municipal commercial vehicles are machines used, for example, for street cleaning, winter service or green space maintenance. Manufacturers are small and medium-sized companies. The niche market is not attractive for automotive groups. The advantages of electrification include the avoidance of local CO2 emissions and low-noise work. Since no exhaust gases are produced, the use of electric vehicles also serves to protect workers.
"Converting municipal commercial vehicles to electric drives is completely new territory," says Udo Jung. Mainly because of the batteries, the vehicle weight increases by up to half a ton. This reduces the payload by a third. The partners therefore want to use proven principles and materials of lightweight construction for the vehicle frame, chassis and modular front and rear attachments in order to compensate for the weight disadvantages and thus develop a vehicle with a practical range and work performance.
“A central energy management system should optimize the total charging time of the commercial vehicle fleet. Vehicle-specific data is transmitted to a central computer for this purpose. Battery charge status and age, vehicle operating times, current electricity prices, power grid capacities are the data basis for making the charging process and fleet use efficient,” explains Alexander Kuznietsov.
In addition, a photovoltaic module should use the solar energy.
The development work is based on a conventional commercial vehicle from Hako. Production-ready components from well-known manufacturers are intended as drive components. The city of Ortenberg is advising the scientists and will be the pilot user. The new vehicle is being tested there in the maintenance of cemeteries, playgrounds, parks and in landscape maintenance.
The result of the project should be a vehicle as a technical prototype with a purely electric drive in lightweight construction. The development of the prototype and series vehicle follows.
The research project will run for two years. The total cost is 776,000 euros. It is supported as part of the "Electromobility in Hesse" funding programme.