ARPRO® backs electric vehicle pioneer
Lightweight material specialist ARPRO backed this year’s prestigious Economist Innovation Awards with sponsorship of the 2011 Energy and Environment Innovation category. The coveted title was presented to electric vehicle pioneer Chetan Maini, at the awards ceremony at London’s Science Museum yesterday evening.
Chetan Maini is the inventor of the G-Wiz electric vehicle and is now Chief Strategy and Technology Officer of Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles. In 1994 he co-founded the Reva Electric Car Company (RECC), the first firm to build electric cars in India, which was acquired by the Mahindra Group of India in May 2011.
RECC’s inaugural model, the REVA, was introduced in 2001. Around 4,000 of the vehicles have been sold in more than 20 countries, the majority in Bangalore and London (where EVs are exempt from congestion fees).
Paul Compton, JSP President and Chief Executive Officer – Europe, Middle-East and Africa, who presented the award, explains: “Chetan Maini is a pioneer in every sense of the word: challenging the status quo, overcoming technological limits and fuelling a revolution in automotive engineering. By delivering successful consumer adoption, Chetan’s pursuit of mass-produced, affordable, electric vehicles demonstrated exactly what could be achieved: prompting further electric vehicle advancement, encouraging widespread low-carbon development and influencing the future of transportation. Chetan’s alternative thinking drove positive change”.
This vision to help deliver mass market solutions is behind an enabling technology which capitalises on the benefits of ARPRO called inrekor, an ultra-lightweight sandwich structure technology using an ARPRO® core with bonded skins to give exceptional strength to weight performance.
ARPRO is committed to working with the automotive industry to achieve improved light-weighting in vehicles, whilst still meeting the highest structural and safety standards, we are now working with manufacturers on the next generation of mass market electric vehicles. Here ARPRO is helping designers to achieve a strong structural lightweight chassis, essential for future developments in this field.
“We share Chetan’s passion for the potential of this market which is set to transform future transport in cities all over the world and are delighted to have the opportunity to recognise the important role Chetan has played in driving the development of electric vehicles for the mass market. It is this kind of development that could bring Chetan Maini’s vision of widespread adoption of electric vehicles closer to reality,” concluded Compton.
The inrekor technology, utilising ARPRO has the potential to save 10 billion litres of fuel and 50 million tonnes of CO2 emissions globally each year and is already being designed into prototype electric vehicles, where its insulating properties are also helping to minimise the need for heating and air conditioning demands on the battery, while helping to minimise NVH (noise vibration and harshness).
Commenting on the award decision by a panel of independent judges, Tom Standage, Digital Editor at The Economist, said: “Mr Maini’s success reminds us that electric cars need not be expensive, and that developed countries do not have a monopoly on innovation. Indeed, India has emerged as the champion of ‘frugal innovation’, cutting costs to make new technologies more widely available.”
The potential of ARPRO, as a material capable of transforming the chassis specification of electric vehicles was showcased at The Economist Innovation Awards ceremony.
