High Value Low Carbon
Context
To support their vision for an eco-friendlier future, the UK Government has mapped out three main areas of investment for personal transportation; engineering, infrastructure and incentives with the aim of stimulating demand for and the production of low carbon vehicle platforms.
While this strategy addresses some barriers to purchase such as functionality, performance and price, it does not take into consideration other key factors in the buyer’s decision making process. It does not consider the user expectations and experience as part of the ‘value’ proposition and yet, it is factors such as ease of use and how the vehicle makes people feel that will ultimately drive consumer demand.
The Big Questions
- How do you move from Government ‘push’ to consumer ‘pull’ and establish sustainable consumer demand for electric vehicles?
- What features do customers value in an electric vehicle and what does it need to look and feel like in order to make it a credible alternative to petrol cars?
The Opportunity
Design-led thinking focuses on the human experience. It can combine tangible and non-tangible concepts and bring together measurable concepts such as materials, manufacture, costs and functions with more subjective concepts such as perception, meaning, sensory qualities and emotions.
By centring on human experience and user interaction we can help manufacturers understand what their customers truly value in a vehicle and then help them to translate that into new design solutions for electric vehicles.
In addition, by focusing on the human experience as opposed to physical or technological developments design creates a common connective platform for all of the stakeholders. In other words it can unite different disciplines and functions and open up the ‘problem space’ to explore a wide range of innovative solutions that add value to the user experience.
High Value Low Carbon
Founded by Matteo Conti and Stuart English, the High Value Low Carbon design unit at Northumbria School of Design is part of a consortium of vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers. To date they have worked with companies such as Nissan, Petec, Sanko Gosei, Labone, Thomas Swan and Bayer on a variety of projects. Depending on the project, As well as working with our dedicated HVLC team, our partners can collaborate with our undergraduate and postgraduate students and/or work with our Centre for Design Research to develop their concepts.
Scope
Given the breadth of this sector we work across a wide range of areas including;
- Providing a conceptual focus for ongoing collaborations
- Developing high quality interior design concepts for future electric vehicles
- Demonstrating how printable electronic technology can provide added value concepts in vehicle design
- Exploring the integration of hi-tech on-board info-entertainment equipment such as: screens, internet enabled computer, mobile phones, cameras etc.
- Providing a level of security through the on-board internet connection
- Exploring possibilities of battery technology to deliver added user benefits
Current Projects
We are currently working on a diverse range of projects including;
Avid CUE-V Exterior Design – Styling Project
ZET – Electric Motor-home - Developing the Next Generation Motor Home
Electric Vehicle Wireless Charging Concept
Electric Vehicle Intelligence – Advanced sat-nav systems which would also alert drivers when their battery power is running low
A Portable Electric Battery Carrier
Internet Access and in-car entertainment systems
For more information about the HVLC Unit, click here.
