Efficiency in design and production to achieve sustainable development challenges in the automobile industry: Modular electric vehicle platforms

Abstract

Electric vehicles have been based on a new product architecture: modular electric vehicle platforms (MEVPs). Through a case study, this paper uses efficiency and sustainability criteria to analyse this modular architecture as implemented by three automobile manufacturers in their European production networks. The results show that MEVPs have been adopted to achieve the efficiency of mass-production electric vehicles in order to comply with regulatory environmental requirements. MEVPs are designed with structural compatible modules, an electric drive system architecture and modular batteries that can be adapted to each vehicle. These designs are focused on limiting energy consumption by reducing weight with the use of high-performance materials or extra-thin batteries. Some of these MEVPs use fewer components in their design to facilitate disassembly and recycling. This new modular architecture has been implemented through compatible, flexible production systems accompanied by different sustainable production initiatives. The production system has incorporated carbon-neutral production processes or circular economy production models, which include remanufacturing and reuse. Networks resulting from these new MEVPs are geographically concentrated and are not conditioned by location factors. The roles of the plants have been mainly driven by economies of scale to achieve high-performance specialised products and high volumes. These plants play a role as hubs for electric vehicle production in the manufacturers' European production networks.