Cross-Product-Generation Modularization for Value-Stable Cars in the Circular Economy

Authors

S. Peters, B. Schleich, Technical University of Darmstadt:

Year

2024

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

Modern vehicles are often referred to as “smartphones on wheels”. Unfortunately, those cars also tend to mimic the short-cycled lifespan and temporary attractiveness of smartphones. From the perspective of both the ecological and the economic dimension of sustainability, it is required to design vehicles in such a way that they are attractive to the customer longer than today and lose as little value as possible along that way. In this paper, the car will be thought of as an “apartment on wheels” which can be modernized frequently and in doing so, remains desirable and valuable for decades. The focus of the methodology is on a new approach of modularization across product generations. While most companies’ modularization efforts aim for synergies between derivatives and variants of a car and maybe also with a direct successor (e.g. by using equal parts), our primary goal is to enable downward compatibility for several generations of a car.

ISBN

978-3-9504969-3-2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.62626/68kq-3d48