Abstract
People’s demands to vehicles develop alongside the progress of social prosperity, values, and welfare. Values need to and indeed must be protected, while prosperity and welfare call for comfort and health and … energy as the indispensable basis for the implementation of the necessary efforts in total. The times when growth and progress are endangered are when negative (harmful) effects increasingly impact on the results of progress. Along with factors that have a direct negative impact on health (such as CO, HC, NOx ...) or an indirect one (such as CO2 , ozone …) these harmful effects include the growing scarcity and rising prices of the resources on which our individual mobility today depends. Where the car is concerned, the traditional drivers of progress, such as safety, comfort & convenience, and efficient mobility, are therefore being joined by new driving factors such as environmental compatibility and resource conservation. Just how these potentially conflicting interests – vehicle performance, economy, and ecology – can be mastered without compromising the desired progress in terms of driving safety, road safety, comfort & convenience, and economical transportation is what this article sets out to illustrate, using selected examples related to the chassis. Along with new value-added functionalities for the customer, the article also deals with the accompanying structural changes inside and outside the vehicle. The article shows how changes in the powertrain with the shift from internal combustion propulsion to hybrid solutions impact on the chassis, its components and the underlying (E/E) architecture and subsequently provides a perspective of the chances electromobility can offer with regard to fuel saving and economy of space.
Keywords: driving safety, road safety, comfort, convenience, efficient mobility, environmental compatibility, impact on chassis, underlying (E/E) architecture, economy of space