|
Gordon Murray Design’s T.25 City Car will
make its first public appearance at the Smith School’s World Forum on
Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford today.
Sir David King, Founding Director of the
Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment said:
“Our transport sector is
hugely dependent on fossil fuels and we need to de-fossilise our economy
as quickly as possible. We know most of the technologies already exist
in delivering low carbon transportation and the T.25 and iStream®
manufacturing processes are clear examples of
how the transition can bring new and exciting developments”.
The T.25 represents a major
breakthrough in city car design in the areas of weight, footprint,
safety, usability and efficiency. Whilst applying a holistic and fit
for purpose approach to the design and development of the T.25, Gordon
Murray Design have taken the opportunity to incorporate solutions to a
multiple of urban mobility problems into the T.25 design.
A world leading 6 metre turning circle
will help with urban manoeuvring and parking whilst its 1.3 metre width
opens any opportunity for timed lane zones with 2 vehicles travelling
and over taking in one lane. Combining this with the car length, could
triple lane usage at peak times. The T.25’s short length also opens an
opportunity to park end on to the curb and the door opening allows 3
cars to be parked in one parallel parking space.
Gordon Murray Design was established in
2007 to develop an innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing
technology trademarked iStream® and the design and prototyping of the
T.25 city car was central to both the development and validation of
iStream®. This manufacturing process is now industrialised including
final factory designs by specialist automotive consultants.
Holger Erker, Managing Director of
IPE Engineering said:
“After a complete and comprehensive
comparison of the process details and seeing the vehicle prototype
build, our conclusion is affirmative that the innovative vehicle and
process design of this project is outstanding. From our analysis the
iStream®process can be positively qualified as the most promising
manufacturing process development in the car industry of the next
decade”
The iStream® assembly process is a
complete rethink and redesign of the traditional manufacturing process
and could potentially be the biggest revolution in high volume
manufacture since the Model T. Development of the process began over 15
years ago and it has already won the prestigious 2008 ‘Idea of the Year’
award from Autocar who were given privileged access in order to make
their assessment. The simplified assembly process means that the
manufacturing plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a
conventional factory.
This reduces capital investment in the
assembly plant by at least 80%. Yet the flexibility of this assembly
process means that the same factory could be used to manufacture
different variants. The iStream® design process is a complete re-think
on high volume materials, as well as the manufacturing process and will
lead to a significant reduction in full lifecycle CO2.
- Low capital investment / fast
return on investment.
- Lightweight.
- Low energy manufacturing.
- Ultra safe structure.
- Flexible product design.
- Long life chassis.
- Low cost variants.
- Recycled materials.
- Reduced distribution costs and
damage.
- Low cost accident repair.
- Flexible body in white tooling.
- Small footprint production plant.
- De-centralised manufacturing and
assembly opportunities.
- Quiet and clean plants.
- No paint plant at BIW assembly
plant.
- Rapid vehicle assembly.
- Low capital investment in tooling.
The T.25 has recently been seen testing
on public roads and has featured in many publications but the Smith
School World Forum is the first public appearance and Gordon Murray
Design are excited to now be able to release the first images of the
car’s interior and seating position. |
