Founded by Oliver Kuttner with the goal of producing a high performance, highly efficient auto, Edison2’s design team has embarked upon a journey that defies common beliefs in the automotive industry. Sporting a design that’s already netted the Progressive X-Prize, the Edison2 team is looking to prove that adding speed to an auto doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice fuel efficiency.
Six years ago, Edison2’s founder Oliver Kuttner saw the need for a car that was not only efficient on the road, but also practical to produce. In the span of two short years Edison2’s team engineered a car from scratch to compete in the ultimate challenge, the Progressive Automotive X-Prize.
Simply stated, Automotive X-Prize was in search of a four wheeled, four-passenger car that could achieve 42 km/L (100 MPG), have a range greater than 322 km (200 miles) and accelerate to 102 km/h (0-60 mph) in under 15 seconds.
With those goals in mind, Edison2’s engineers created the VLC.
Building on their original success, Kuttner now frames the Edison2’s auto as a paradigm-shifting project. “The automotive industry needs to wake up!” Kuttner banged out as we spoke over the phone. “Heavily subsidized electrics and hybrids aren’t the solution for our auto-centric culture”, he continued.
According to Edison2’s founder, “The future of the world has to come out of engineering.” And what he and his design team are dreaming up is a blueprint that can redefine the future of the automotive world.
Unlike most automakers, Edison2’s goal isn’t to get into the business of building cars. For Kuttner, Edison2 is in the business of proving that good design can redefine what a car can do and reset expectations.
In concrete terms, this means Edison2’s new VLC is built not only for speed but for multiple passengers as well. With redesigned doors that accommodate a family, a more easily manufactured body and a number of added safety features, the VLC will be unlike any previous auto to ever challenge a land speed record.
As part of his vision, Kuttner wants the VLC to become the model upon which all future passenger cars are built. With the VLC’s highly re-configurable, relatively easy to manufacture body, the car’s design is meant to be exported around the world giving people access to an economy vehicle that can double as a racecar.
Mirroring the design of his VLC, Kuttner has created a nimble engineering and design team that can react to design challenges as they arrive. Using Siemens’ Solid Edge CAD monthly subscription, Edison pulls in expertise from around the globe and pushes the envelope of automotive design without the risk of adding a lot of overhead.
What’s more, Kuttner said Solid Edge’s subscription model has given him more opportunity to experiment with his auto’s design. On a month to month basis new design strategies for the VLC can be tested. If they work, the VLC’s performance improves. If not, the team is still secure knowing a small investment in innovation just didn’t pan out.
For the team at Edison2, winning the X-Prize and setting a new land speed record is only the beginning. Using their design, Edison2 wants to start a transportation revolution. Along the way we might just be fortunate enough to see the birth of a different type of car company.
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Siemens has sponsored promotion of their design software solutions on ENGINEERING.com. They have no editorial input to this post - all opinions are mine. Kyle Maxey