Economical, quiet, environmentally friendly, safe and comfortable – this is how automotive travel should be in the future. Fraunhofer scientists are researching ways to make this a reality, for instance by looking into sustainable drive concepts and intelligent lightweight technologies as a way to decrease fuel consumption. Finding ways to improve resource and energy efficiency also plays an important role in new vehicle production technologies.
Space missions are an expensive business. Satellites and probes contain a plethora of custom parts that require extensive testing prior to launch. But that might soon change thanks to a joint project by Fraunhofer INT and the European Space Agency (ESA) that aims to use off-the-shelf auto parts for space exploration.
New thin-film electrodes made of silicon and lithium for the “Research Fab Battery”
In the umbrella concept “Research Fab Battery”, German scientists want to develop novel batteries that are capable of storing at least 70 percent more energy for electric vehicles and smartphones than conventional lithium-ion solutions while maintaining the same volume. As part of the cluster of competence for battery materials “ExcellBattMat“ funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Dresden's “ExcellBattMat Center” (project KaSiLi: structural cathode adaptation for silicon and lithium materials) contributes key components for this new battery generation. On November 1, 2019, researchers from Fraunhofer, TU Dresden and Leibniz started working together on innovative battery electrodes consisting of ultra-thin silicon or lithium layers to achieve high energy densities.
October 21, 2019
Ultra-high-strength aluminium alloys are the future of lightweight construction in conventional and e-mobility. The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability (LBF) and its research partners are developing resource-optimized process technologies within the framework of ALLEGRO, the central project of LOEWE – Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz (State Offensive for the Development of Scientifically Economic Excellence), with which local component properties can be adjusted to meet future requirements. The scientists evaluate the entire process chain in order to optimize it economically and ecologically and to enable a more sustainable product design.
With its future strategy BAYERN DIGITAL, the Bavarian government wants to transform the state into a pilot region for the digital age. Within the project "Connected Mobility - Vehicle Communication", Fraunhofer IIS is focusing on the development of innovative transmission concepts in cooperation with the Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern (ZD.B), a coordination center for the state’s digitization programmes.
For the first time, the internal structures of a vehicle are rendered visible during crash thanks to the newly installed technology for X-ray car crash (X-CC) at the Crash Center of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
The AutoTram® Extra Grand demonstrates a future-oriented technology for public transport. As an intermediate public transport vehicle, it combines features of conventional buses (e.g. high flexibility, low infrastructure costs and moderate life cycle costs) with the advantages of trams like high transport capacity, driving comfort and the possibility of partial emission-free operation.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft