Render vanuit Keyshot. Afbeelding | TU/ecomotive
  • Corona , Student

Luca’s recycle gadgets unveiled online

Luca is finished. Student team TU/ecomotive’s new environmentally friendly car - largely made from waste - will be presented on October 8. Due to the corona pandemic, the unveiling event will take place online and a few months later than planned. However, as a result of that delay, the interior of the sporty electric two-seater features even more recycle gadgets than the design presented by the team in December.

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image Keyshot TU/ecomotive

Since the corona pandemic made it impossible to present Luca before the summer, the team was able to spend extra time on the interior, says Lisa van Etten of TU/ecomotive. “We could now integrate different kinds of waste in the interior.” She divulges one detail in advance: “For example, we’ve used the remainder of the flax with which we made the chassis, our own waste, in the interior.” The chassis is further made from ocean waste and recycled PET bottles.

An important difference between the new model and the original plan for Luca, is that the car’s body isn’t made of UBQ - an eco-friendly plastic based on residual waste - after all. “Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to find a sheeting company that could make the necessary plates from that material,” Van Etten says. “We could have used injection molding as an alternative, in theory, but that technique is more suited for mass production. For Luca, it was simply to expensive.” That is why the team eventually decided to use recycled plastic as material for the car’s body.

Het chassis van Luca is gemaakt van petflessen, oceaanafval en vlas. Foto | TU/ecomotive
The chassis is made from flax, ocean waste and recycled PET bottles. Photo | TU/ecomotive

TU/ecomotive has by now returned to their familiar location in the Momentum building on the campus, but the team was forced to look for a temporary location during the closure of the TU/e terrain, Van Etten says. “We first spent some time in a private garage, together with University Racing Eindhoven, but there wasn’t enough space at that location once the building process started.”

The few team members who had to be physically present to build the car eventually found an accommodation in a larger hall, of Mat-Tech in Son. “At that same time, the few team members responsible for electronics moved to an empty shop premises in the Tongelre district; that is where the circuit boards and wiring harnesses were made.”

The unveiling of Luca is now set for the 8th of October and can be watched via a livestream by everyone who is interested.

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