Do you know Canoo? An ordinary "car" that is "away from the car"

A cart with only seats and steering on a canoe skateboard chassis

Nowadays, start-up automakers are using so-called "skateboard chassis" that house driving functions such as electric motors, LiBs (lithium-ion batteries), control units, and suspensions in a thin chassis. "We put a freely designed cabin (top hat) on top of our industry's thinnest chassis," says Canoe, one of the startups. The company has announced the concept of pickup trucks, minivans, and delivery vans, offering them at a lower price than conventional BEVs (battery electric vehicles) and keeping TOC = total cost of ownership low. That is. Full-scale release is scheduled for 2023. TEXT ◎ MAKINO Shigeo

First of all, MPDV will show its true value in the last one mile

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The photo used for the title sequence is a cart with only a seat and steering attached to the skateboard chassis of the canoe. The company calls it a "skate cart." Now I'm running on the flat dirt. The appeal is that you can run as it is, but there is also a sports car in the future plan of the canoe. Exactly a year ago, Canoe announced a model called MPDV = Multi-Purpose Delivery Van [Photo 1]. There are two vehicle types, MPDV1 and MPDV2, and you can choose from three battery capacities of 80kWh / 60kWh / 40kWh, respectively. The market price is said to be from 33,000 dollars (3,762,000 yen when converted to 1 dollar = 114 yen), but this is probably the cheapest version of the 40kWh battery, and if you imagine from the announcement material, the seat is only the driver's seat, the interior (trim) ) Seems to be simple. It will start small-scale production in 2022 and will go on sale in 2023. The company says, "There is an option to co-develop custom specifications to meet the specific needs of large customers such as logistics and large companies, as well as for last mile delivery and retailers." Speaking of fleets (large customers) in the United States, the order scale is "hundreds of units" or "tens of thousands of units", and canoeing is aimed at these users. The published MPBV photo shows three specifications with different overall height and wheelbase [Photo 2]. The canoe skateboard chassis [Photo 3] is a steel frame. Double wishbone suspension with horizontal resin leaf springs around the legs. The steering system is SBW (steering by wire = steering by electric wire) type EPAS (electrically assisted power steering) with variable gear ratio. SBW is the standard, because it supports Level 2.5 autonomous driving. The vehicle also has a 125V or 240V power outlet, making it a workstation where you can use tools such as electric saws and compressors. Following MPDV, Canoe announced a lifestyle vehicle [Photo 4] and a pickup truck [Photo 5]. The chassis is the same as the MPDV, and it is a "dress-up" specification for the shed. The biggest merit of skateboard chassis, which BEV startups say, is that "the shed can be separated and the shed can be designed freely because the driving function is independent", but canoeing is also this method. Lifestyle vehicles come in a variety of commercial vehicles and minivans, and minivans have cabins as shown in [Photo 6]. The rear seats are a "U" -shaped four-seater that uses the inside of the door as the backrest, but it is doubtful whether this seating layout can meet the safety regulations for occupants. The body skeleton has a monocoque structure as shown in [Photo 7], and the use of structural adhesives such as the side impact beam built into the door and the Western style "keeping the joint strength by protruding a sufficient amount" is ". It shows that it is an "ordinary passenger car". Even if the chassis and cabin are separated, the cabin side will also be damaged in the event of a collision. For collision safety, we asked AVL of Austria, the largest engineering company, for consulting. Nothing has been announced about the skeletal structure, but if it is to be sold in the United States, it must comply with FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards), and of course, it should meet that standard. It is a canoe BEV that will be produced and sold in limited quantities from 2021 and mass-produced from 2023, but I guessed the details from the published photos and videos. First, the body of the MPDV has a skeleton structure assembled by welding a steel material with a closed cross section as shown in [Photo 8], which is similar to how to make a bus. Many variations are assumed, such as a specification that the side panel is flipped up and a complete "box van" specification [Photo 9], but the box van specification has a large outer panel, so it is better than making it with a monocoque. The skeleton is more rational. The steering is a type in which the steering mechanism and the operating part (steering wheel) are separated, saying that it can be placed anywhere [Photo 10]. The mechanical mechanism that changes the angle of the left and right front wheels is an electric motor type, and the operation part that gives the steering angle instruction to it is just an input device, and the steering angle instruction is sent as an electric signal. It's a complete SBW. How is it done? Looking at the video, the square steering wheel (although the wheel is no longer in the shape of a wheel) is only operated up to 90 degrees. What kind of road reaction force does the driver feel? Looking at the skateboard chassis [Photo 11], which has been deleted from the press release material image for some reason, the steering mechanism is the "forward pull steering" in front of the center of the front axis. The front and rear suspensions are double wishbones, and the frame to which the pivot is attached is made by bending (or hydroforming?) A steel plate with a thickness of about 5 mm. Considering the weight of the cabin and the load, this would be the case, but it is comparable to a 2-ton truck. The frame part of the skateboard chassis is made as a small part on the jig, and then the whole is assembled on the jig [Photo 12] [Photo 13]. Dimensional accuracy depends on the jig, which is also a track-like method. It is a method in which the robot welds after fixing it to a jig such as a door and clamping it, and the manufacturing process around here is an "ordinary car". LiB is not mentioned at all in the material, but in the scene that was shown for a moment in the video introducing the manufacturing process, a cylindrical battery like 18650 (18 mm diameter x 65 mm length) was seen [Photo 14]. .. 264 cells are combined into one module. Tesla uses about 6,500 Panasonic-customized 18650s per unit, but when you watch the canoe pilot production video, it looks like up to 16 modules. If there are 16 modules, there are 4224. What is interesting is that it seems that resin glazing is used for the triangular window of the lifestyle vehicle [Photo 15]. Glass of this size is not heavy enough to be handheld and attached to the body. Moreover, since the work is done by one person, it is probably a resin window. It seems that the application of adhesive is not a robot but a work. The canoe BEV has not been released yet. However, the design and manufacturing process is very interesting. It is said that "staff with experience in automobile manufacturers" were involved in product planning and development in units of 100 people. At first glance, it is futuristic or "away from the car", but if you look at the details, it is a "normal car". I am wondering how complete and commercial it is as a tool used by humans. In that sense, I'm looking forward to the release. https: \ / \ / motor-fan.jp \ / mf \ / article \ / 27003 \ / https: \ / \ / motor-fan.jp \ / mf \ / article \ / 25642 \ /

Shigeo Makino