To reduce the weight of the entire vehicle Japan wants to build a plastic electric car

SIMDrive is a technology development company of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. in Japan. DuPont, which supplies a variety of materials for SIMDrive, issued a statement on July 19, saying that due to the use of lightweight materials and a unique wheel motor system, the prototype's mileage has been significantly improved: a single charge can drive 218 Miles and it takes 5.4 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles.

James Hay, Director of Asia Pacific at DuPont High Polymers Division, said: “This project shows how lightweight high-performance materials such as ZytelHTN (Nylon) can maximize their effectiveness, allowing designers to increase the weight of metals without It is possible to give more innovation possibilities to electric cars and hybrid cars."

According to people concerned with SIMDrive, their goal is to create an electric car that is as good as a conventional gasoline-powered car in terms of energy and comfort. For example, SIM-WIL is not inferior to a mid-size sports car in terms of acceleration. The internal space of a car is similar to that of a luxury car, but its body size is only equivalent to a mini car.

According to a person familiar with the company, plastic materials are of great significance for car weight reduction, including powertrains, polycarbonate windows, and insulating plastics and other applications. The company hopes to work more closely with the plastics industry and said that its research has only just begun.

When the prototype was announced, SIMDrive did not specifically mention the special role played by plastics, but the company said it would use new materials, including the hard-shell steel space frame that was put into use for the first time.

It is understood that this framework is a major breakthrough in the weight reduction of electric vehicles, can reduce production costs and improve the body's rigidity.

The company’s stakeholders stated that they hope to put the car into mass production in 2014, and one of the purposes of producing the prototype is to demonstrate that the technology provided by 34 different partners can be used reliably in mass production.

According to DuPont, the prototype uses eight different plastics, films, papers, and coatings, such as Zytel for wheel motor spools, which are stronger and lighter than the original PPS material. Cost-effective.

The above-mentioned personnel also said that the car uses Kapton polyimide film in the lamp lighting, eliminating the need for circuit boards, and thus reducing the weight of lighting components by 80%.

An official from DuPont said that the prototype project is of great significance to DuPont.

Suzue Kikuyama, director of the hybrid tram business unit at Dupont in Tokyo, said that DuPont is also closely involved in the early design phase of the car, and it is often difficult for material suppliers to get involved in this stage of work.

She also said that DuPont is particularly interested in the project because so far no company has used wheel motor systems in mass-produced electric vehicles. Moreover, this is DuPont's Zytel material was first applied to the wheel motor spool.

In addition to DuPont, SIM has also cooperated with a number of other material companies, such as Japan's engineering plastics complex manufacturer Polyplastics Co., Ltd. and Kuraray Co., Ltd.