BEOND – The future of Electric Vehicles

The Beond aim is to develop a product of "ultra light urban electric vehicle " (ULEV) that currently is not on the market. This product will take shape from the experience, technologies and know-how created around XAM 2.0 and its research activities in the automotive sector. Beond count by 2016 to have designed and built an advanced prototype that gathers the best of current technology to meet the new targets for electricity consumption in Europe, which attach to a study of process and production of such a vehicle.

Beond Srl has created around himself a local and international car industry network. This chain is made up of multinational corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises. Currently there are about thirty companies ready to invest in this project, with all the skills to be able to design, build and test the first prototypes but also able to handle a possible first small production. Beond expects to hire 10 to 20 engineers with high professional profiles (researchers and PhDs) in the next three years, while the entire project relapses can be very large, we are talking about hundreds of job palces in the auto industry piedmont or even thousands of job places when will start the production.

The Beond Business Model was to design, develop and product and sell fleet of last generation Electric Vehicles.

The Market for theese urban electric vehicles is growing, just look at the initiatives of the BMW i3, with the Renault Twizzy, or with electric Smart and Mercedes Car to Go, which opens a path well marked. Beond sees space for a supply of thousands of vehicles in Europe and in the World to municipalities, public authorities, public utilities, car sharing and car rental companies, shipping companies, transport companies, companies with fleets of company, tour companies, companies that manage and organize major events (Olympics, Expo, etc..) between 2018 and 2019. It will foreseen an explosion of this market in large numbers between 2020 and 2022, in the tens thousands of vehicles.

Beond is looking for investors, investment funds and entrepreneurs that they are willing to invest in the production of first product prototypes and then in small production of Beond ULEV. The Market for urban mobility is increasingly growing and full of business opportunities in where the supply of many car manufacturers is still low and timid, with very high costs, technological solutions are not yet adequate, the traditional support networks and distribution are not yet ready, while the market demands real solutions.The vehicle XAM 2.0, that has run at the Future Car Challenge 2012, is nothing more than the road legal evolution of the vehicle XAM (eXtreme Automotive Mobility) created by the Team H₂politO Politecnico di Torino presented June 13^th, 2011 at the Politecnico di Torino and that has participated at the Shell Eco-marathon every year since 2011.

The members of Beond are: Carello Massimiliana, Assistant Professor of Applied Mechanics at the Politecnico di Torino, coordinator of the Research Group " Innovative Hybrid and Electric Vehicle", teaches "Chassis Design" for the course of Automotive Engineering and Faculty Advisor Team H₂politO; Airale Andrea, PhD student on composite materials , with a degree in automotive engineering , it was Team Leader and responsible for fund raising, sponsorship and management of the strategic plan of the project IDRA and XAM; Ferraris Alessandro, PhD student on the dynamics and nvh vehicle, a graduate in mechanical engineering, he was Project Manager and responsible for relations with partners and technical coordination of the design, testing, production and testing of the project on track IDRA and XAM;

XAM 2.0: the “Proof of Concept”

XAM 2.0 has participated and won against of well known manufacturers such as Nissan , Smart , Opel, Jaguar , Mercedes, Renault and BMW to the FCC (Future Car Challenge) a regularity race crossed the 103 km of roads from Brighton to London.

XAM 2.0 has L7e vehicles prototype, 2 seats, weighs 410 kilogram, 2.8 meters long, 1.3 meters wide and 1.28 meters high. It is a fully electric vehicle , equipped with a permanent magnet electric motor of 15 kW, which can reach the maximum speed of 80 km/h and accelerates from 0-50 km/h in 6 seconds. Batteries are lithium polymer battery of 6.8 kWh, providing a range of 70 km in all conditions could be downloaded from the home network in less than 6 hours. XAM 2.0 is also equipped with a small range extender, which is an internal combustion engine which, throw an electric generator, transforming thermal energy into electrical energy to charge batteries . With the Range Extender , XAM 2.0 is able to extend its range to 400 km with only 10 liter of gasoline, or E85, which is a second-generation ethanol, an alternative fuel can be obtained by fermentation of agricultural waste. A 7 inch exportable tablet allows to any driver to receive all the information needed to control vehicle, in case of failure to locate the vehicle, a screen explaining the operation of the hybrid in the different phases of driving.

XAM 2.0 is a demonstration of how the system innovation and research in automotive environment is possible, with sustainable cost and time. XAM 2.0 has been developed in close collaboration with companies in the Piedmont area, that supplies experience, assets, technologies and financial resources. Theese companies are sponsors of the project XAM 2.0, that is not yet a vehicle manufactured but may represent the idea of ??starting a sustainable urban personal mobility according to a simple model of product , lightweight and essential to every type of customer.

XAM 2.0 is the result of the work of the Research Group of Dr. Massimiliana Carello of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace (DIMEAS) "Innovative Electric and Hybrid and Innovative". The research group has a fundamental role within the University, to integrate the expertise of all engineering departments, with the aim of creating a synthesis on the vehicle. Indeed, this group collaborates across with numerous research groups and departments. For the realization of the project took 12 months of work, involving teachers, young researchers and students. The project was supported by the Politecnico di Torino, Sponsors, Partners and Institutions that the same research group has engage.

From this research activity was born in 2013, a spin-off of Politecnico di Torino, Beond Srl. The spin-off was founded by Dr. Massimiliana Carello and young researchers and PhD students of the Research Group "Innovative Hybrid and Electric Vehicle".

Contact person for Communication:

Massimiliana Carello

massimiliana.carello@beond.net

massimiliana.carello@polito.it

+39 333 63 73 119