EU project LEVISMaking lightweight and affordable components for electric vehicles a reality

The LEVIS project aims to develop lightweight components for EVs using eco-design and circular approaches. LEVIS makes use of multi-material solutions based on fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites integrated with metal, which will be produced using cost-effective and scalable manufacturing technologies. The project consortium’s goal is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of producing these components in three real-case demonstrators at a large scale: a suspension arm, a battery box set and a cross-car beam.

Since its start in early 2021, the LEVIS consortium has achieved excellent results and moves closer to realising its vision of making lightweight and affordable components for electric vehicles a reality. Based on the progress made in the development of innovative materials and the demonstrator design, weight reductions at the vehicle and component level are estimated to range between 23-28%, which is well in line with the ambitious project objectives. Guidelines for the demonstrators for the entire development process have been established, including requisites that the components must fulfil in real life.

Eco-design and circular economy

To integrate eco-design and circular economy principles from the very beginning of the design process, an Eco-Design toolkit (integrated Eco-Design Guideline and Evaluation, iEDGE) was developed and used by the electric vehicle (EV) component manufacturers. A material card able to reproduce experimental results carried out at coupon level on new materials has been defined and integrated into virtual analysis to assess how the new materials impact product performances. A new design for each LEVIS demonstrator has been drafted and the first loop of virtual analysis validation has been carried out successfully. For life monitoring and predictive failure detection of the demonstrator components, a range of sensors has been manufactured. In addition, strategies for parts harvesting, repair, reuse and recovery are currently defined to make sure that after the components’ end-of-life, nothing will become waste and every part can be recycled or reused for the same or other applications.

The LEVIS prototypes will undergo experimental tests during 2023. Parameters for the demonstrators’ fabrication have already been tested, improved and validated. As the first part of the full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the LEVIS demonstrators, the preliminary results for benchmark products, representing the conventional use of materials and processes, have been obtained. This will allow the project to assess the improvement and overall impact that will be realised through the demonstrators developed using new materials and processes.

As a project partner, the Steinbeis Europa Zentrum is responsible for the dissemination of the project results and supports the exploitation of the project results.