Innovative chassis made from EPP and CFRP of an urban-concept vehicle

The paper presents a fully new chassis of a high efficiency vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon competition. The chassis is realized by a sandwich structure with an expanded polypropylene (EPP) core and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) external skins. The chassis is connected to the body to realize a safe and stiff structure. Numerical analyses have been performed to assess the stiffness, safety and dynamic eigenfrequencies of the chassis. A Finite Element model of the entire chassis and body was developed. The manufacturing process of the entire chassis and body is described in the paper and some data obtained during on-track tests of the vehicle are presented. The vehicle reached the 4th place at the 2019 edition of the Shell Eco-marathon competition, with an equivalent energy consumption of 184 km/kWh.