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Spirit City Electric Vehicle by Hui Li

Spirit City Electric Vehicle by Hui Li is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 A' Design Award in Vehicle, Mobility and Transportation Design Competition Category.


IronVehicle· 2018

Spirit City Electric Vehicle

by Hui Li

Client: Nanjing Jiayuan Special Electric Vehicles Manufacture Co., Ltd

A' Design Award Winner in Vehicle Category

29,604

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #60800

Colors

The Design

About Spirit City Electric Vehicle

Spirit is a compact electric city car designed for crowded urban streets. The body measures 2245 by 1290 by 1570 millimetres, so parking and passing through narrow lanes become easier. A semi-load bearing frame and a birdcage structure protect the passenger space. Four independent suspensions and four disc brakes support stable and comfortable driving. The motor has a maximum output of 15 kilowatts. The inner and outer covering parts are made of recyclable plastic and formed by injection moulding, which keeps the vehicle light and reduces energy use.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award

Spirit City Electric Vehicle is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Spirit City Electric Vehicle is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Spirit City Electric Vehicle is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.

Interviews

Design Interview

What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

Inspired by my three-year-old son. He's cute and innocent, like a Spirit of the Forest. In order to design a green new energy small electric vehicle, can freely walk through the urban building forest.

What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

This electric mini car has the smallest body in the world. The new semi load-bearing frame and bird cage structure provide great safety for the passenger space. The covering parts are all made of environment-friendly and recyclable plastic materials, which makes the body lightweight and saves energy consumption. Four wheel independent suspension is adopted to make the vehicle flexible and stable during driving. Perfect performance makes it highly valued in the Israel market, and has been vigorously promoted by the Israel government.

This mini electric vehicle has a minimum size and lightweight design, and is certified to the new standard e168 / 2013. Its stamping body and standard injection molding parts make its performance get excellent protection. At the same time, the lovely appearance has won the favor of most consumers in the market. In the design of this model, the inner and outer covering parts are made of environment-friendly and recyclable plastics, which makes the vehicle achieve a high degree of harmony with green new energy and realize the human-computer interaction with nature.

The design of urban spirit has considered the foreign market from the very beginning, combined with the current mainstream aesthetics, taking the EU standards as an important basis in the engineering design, so as to ensure that the urban spirit can be legally driven in most countries. In the product verification stage, 3D printing technology is used to verify the internal and external structure, which effectively shortens the verification cycle and ensures the product development quality. The spirit of the city has been exported to more than 30 countries such as Japan, the United States, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, Britain and Spain.

Consider the characteristics of urban driving. The cute appearance is a high specification safety design. The challenge is to design a collision zone in a small space. The multi wheel optimized folding structure can ensure the mechanical requirements and the size limit at the same time. Of course, the challenges are all-round. With the smallest door design, electric lifting window, exquisite door anti-collision design to ensure side safety, reinforced body and integrated stamping side structure are constantly testing our R & D ability.

What are your future plans for this award winning design?

This design has been mass production, harvest a lot of fans, they are very fond of it. This model will be further improved in 2021 to make it a classic product.

Read the Full Interview

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
This electric mini car has the smallest body in the world and has won the new standard EU certification e168/2013. The completely new semi-load bearing frame and the birdcage structure can provide a great safety of passenger space. The covering parts use all environmentally recyclable plastic material, which can make the body lightweight and save energy consumption. Also four wheel independent suspension is adopted that make the vehicle flexible and stable during driving. The perfect performance made it highly valued in the Israeli market and was promoted by the Israeli government.
Dimensions & Packaging
The maximum output power of the motor is 15KW, during 0-80km/h speed, the acceleration time is 9.5/s, economic power consumption: 7Kw*h (100Km, full load). The dynamic parameters are excellent enough in similar models. The electric mini car adopts Four Independent Suspension and Four Disc Brake, Rear engine and Rear drive, make the driving more safety and comfortable, at the same time the driver will have a superior driving experience. Also the car overall dimensions (2245*1290*1570 ) mm guarantees the possibility of driving through the crowded city.
Tags
Electric, Spirit, Safety, Mini, Environmental
Production Technology
The internal and external covering parts are all use injection molding process, in combination with body frame and external accessories, rapid stamping parts and plastic injection parts are formed to ensure production efficiency and consistency.
Design Challenge
Consider the characteristics of the city driving. In the cute outlook is a high specification of safety design. The challenge is to design a crash zone in a small space. Multi - wheel optimized collapse structure ensure the mechanical requirements while taking into account the size limitations. Of course, the challenge is all around, under the smallest door design the electric lift window, the delicate anti-collision design of the door to ensure the side safety, the reinforced car body with integrated stamping side structure and others are constantly testing our R & D capabilities.
Research
From the beginning of the design of CITY spirit has considered the foreign markets, combined with the current mainstream aesthetic, in engineering design which is based on EU standards as an important basis, to ensure the CITY SPIRIT can be legally driving in most countries. In the product verification stage, we adopted 3D printing technology to verify the structure of the interior and exterior, effectively shortened the verification cycle, and ensured the product development quality. The CITY SPIRIT has been sold to Japan, the United States, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, Britain, Spain and others more than 30 countries.
Inspiration
The design inspiration comes from the designer's three-year-old son. he is lovely, cute and innocent, Like a little spirit in the forest. Thus design a green new energy small electric vehicle that can travel freely through urban building forests.
Project Duration
7/2016-9/2017, Nanjing China
Operation Flow
This electric mini car has the minimum size and lightweight design, its stamping body and standard plastic injection plastic parts make its performance excellent protection. Meanwhile the lovely outlook earned the love of most consumers in the market. When design of this model, the internal and external covering parts are all environmentally recyclable plastic, so that the car achieves a high harmony with the green new energy and realize the human-computer interaction with nature.
Team Members
Hui Li
Image Credits
Image #1: Hui Li
Image #2: Hui Li
Image #3: Hui Li
Image #4: Hui Li
Image #5: Hui Li

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