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How to Fight Range Anxiety with Zero Prototypes
Range anxiety is a leading cause of why consumers remain hesitant to make the switch from traditional combustion to electric vehicles. In turn, frustrations mount for manufacturers as they test new solutions to alleviate this issue. The automotive French start-up Gazelle Tech was one such manufacturer until they found a solution that solved their problem, reducing energy consumption of their vehicle by half and making their vehicle one third the weight of its competition.
Gazelle Tech's Challenge
With the car market expected to double in the next 20 years, and fossil fuels becoming scarcer, disruptive and innovative green, light cars must be developed. Developing these types of vehicles, which can be produced close to the final customer, presents an interesting opportunity to reduce the total CO2 footprint. With cutting-edge technology, that is exactly what Gazelle Tech is working to do to decrease our carbon footprint yet still offer mobility to all.
ESI Virtual Performance Solution saves us time and money. We are able to validate the performance of our innovative composite vehicle virtually before even manufacturing the first real prototype -
Gaël LAVAUDCEO Gazelle Tech
The Story
Gazelle Tech, a French startup company created in 2014, is the first peri-urban composite vehicle manufacturer of its kind. Their vehicle is currently in production. It features a composite chassis and body technology that makes it one third the weight of its competition and reduces energy consumption by half. The model will be offered in both gas and electric versions for a B2B market in France, as well as emerging countries in Africa and Asia.
Gazelle Tech offers disruptive innovations, both in their car concept technology and its production model. The chassis, composed of 10 pieces (vs. 300 on a standard vehicle), can be assembled without the need of special tools within an hour in micro-factories supplied in containers. Additionally, modular production units can be installed quickly and closest to where the customer is. For example, if the customer is in South Africa, the vehicle will be produced in South Africa. This reduces energy consumption linked to the transportation of vehicles.
Based on their new design and car concept, Gazelle Tech created a virtual prototype of their car in order to test safety and comfort virtually and to anticipate any issue before building the first real prototype. For several months, using ESI Virtual Performance Solution (VPS), they subjected the composite vehicle to rigorous crash and structural rigidity simulations and carried out vibration analysis to refine passenger comfort levels until an optimum design was achieved. In their next phase, Gazelle Tech plans to focus on the optimization of the manufacturing
processes of the car’s composite parts.
For more information visit https://www.gazelle-tech.com
Learn more about Innovating the Future of Mobility.
Image courtesy of Gazelle Tech
Author
Natasha Baccari
Content Marketing Specialist
Natasha Baccari began her career with ESI in 2014, gaining unparalleled experience in the Virtual Prototyping space, while also establishing herself as a respected voice in the industry. As a content writer, Natasha is known for her expertise in taking technical facts and turning them into an easy-to-read story. When she isn’t writing success stories, she is focused on creating engaging content for the company’s website, blog and collaterals. While her writing currently focuses on software, Natasha started her career in medical writing when she published her own medical magazine for the public.
Category: Automotive
Tags: Future of Mobility, Lightweight