An innovative and bold next-generation EV concept is pushing the boundaries of design and engineering in the wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAVs) space. eVITA has been devised by CALLUM, the Warwick-based design and engineering business co-founded by car design legend Ian Callum, whose roll call of automotive creativity includes the Aston Martin DB7 and the Jaguar XJ and the I-pace, Jaguar’s first all-electric car.
“Today, electric vehicles are not offering the functionality and flexibility required by WAV users,” says Ian Callum, design director at CALLUM. “OEMs, their designers and engineers must plan ahead and embrace inclusive design principles to ensure that WAV users and disabled people are not forgotten in the transition to EVs. With eVITA, form and functionality have been developed in parallel, resulting in a well-considered, user-friendly EV that is both practical and stylish.”
Designing an eWAV that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional for its users has its challenges. Currently, typical EV architecture, with the battery in floor, restricts space and headroom in the cabin. Without solutions developed with inclusivity and accessibility in mind, customers in wheelchairs usually have to opt for larger vehicles than they need when switching to electric. But the eWAV’s striking exterior silhouette, with its sleek roofline accommodating access requirements, provides appropriate headroom for wheelchair users, who enter the vehicle via a rear split tailgate. With a wheelbase of 2,980mm, eVITA is 4,520mm long, 1,908mm wide and 1,800mm high – dimensions which give eVITA a far more compact footprint than available currently.
Critical to the design of eVITA is the positioning of the battery. Led by engineering director Adam Donfrancesco, the CALLUM engineering team has repackaged the EV battery, rearranging the internal components to reduce its overall height. With the reengineered battery pack positioned under the floor behind the first row of seats, the design ensures that the floor between the vehicle tailgate and front row is completely flat. The vehicle’s 50kWh battery provides an anticipated range of around 200 miles.
“The fundamental engineering challenge of an eWAV is a battery package one,” says Donfrancesco. “We repackaged the modules in the battery, but the changes aren’t really recognised by the car, because from a system perspective, the performance is the same. There was quite a bit of work to make sure that the coolant flow is the same, that the resistance is the same and, obviously, that the structural performance is there in equivalency. A lot of profiling of existing batteries to understand them and then ensuring that we’re acheiving that profile when we manufacture the concept battery.”
This packaging design allows for a ride height of 160mm, similar to that of a hatchback. This contributes to easier access and increased headroom. It also means that the wheelchair user has an improved, lower seating position in the cabin. Having wheelchair users at a similar height to other vehicle occupants helps them to feel more connected to other passengers and also improves visibility (with a higher seating position, visibility can be restricted by the roofline). Sitting lower, in a glasshouse of over 35,000cm2 with a cutaway panoramic roof, ensures optimum visibility for all vehicle occupants.
Donfrancesco and his team are also very proud of their innovative work on their car’s split tailgate, an electric door opening system with an upper section that acts as an extension to the roof, keeping users dry when entering and exiting in wet weather. A wide, low angle ramp automatically extends from inside, with a winch aiding wheelchair users’ entry into the vehicle cabin. Typically, a ramp in a WAV would hinge at the rear of the vehicle, but in the eVITA, says Donfrancesco, “there’s a hinge point in the vehicle floor, so the floor goes down, then the tailgate drops down and then falls out. The ramp is actually contained within the tailgate. It’s a unique feature in vehicles like this.”
eVITA also features two charging ports – one at the nearside rear and a lower front-mounted option – a highly damped rear suspension for predictable handling, energy-efficient LED puddle lights that visually project onto the ground the essential space required for the extended ramp at the rear of the vehicle, alerting other motorists to keep the space clear.
Concept cars tend to be futuristic flights of fancy, designed to wow motorshow attendees and hoover up likes on Instagram, with little hope of ever making it to production. eVITA is different, swapping the if-only-one-day designer’s dream for the reality of what’s possible with an eWAV today, and to start important conversations with OEMs and across the entire automotive industry about inclusive design being front and foremost in the vehicle development process so that no one is left behind in the transition to EVs.
“The converters in the industry at the moment do a fantastic job,” Donfrancesco points out, “but what they’re given to work with is a production-line-based vehicle, which isn’t designed in any way to have that conversion. And they manage to deliver the products they do at the moment, which are great. But if OEMs think about things from the ground up, so if you’re able to bake in some of these features, early on in the vehicle’s development, you can get a much better end result, This is exactly why we’re doing eVITA: to develop original and unique features, but also to get some traction and focus on this issue with the OEMs.”
The evolution of eVITA
This concept is born of a co-operation between CALLUM and Motability Operations, the commercial organisation that delivers mobility solutions to over 760,000 disabled people across the UK. It currently has in its fleet of cars, wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs), powered wheelchairs or scooters over 34,000 battery electric vehicle customers and more than 83,000 customers driving hybrids. In recent evidence to the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Select Committee Inquiry on EVs, Motability said almost half of its users are committed to their next vehicle being electric.
Every year about 4,000 people apply for WAVs through the scheme. Currently, converters adapt existing vehicles, but purpose-built, first-principle wheelchair access vehicles provide a much better experience for the user, which is why Motability Operations approached CALLUM with the brief to create a bespoke eWAV.
“Collaboration is key to making the EV transition a success for wheelchair users,” says Motability Operations CEO, Andrew Miller. “We need our partners, manufacturers and policy makers to believe in better and to work alongside us to take action. eVITA shows what can be done.”
The concept has already changed hearts and minds. “We’re in talks with all sorts of people, as are Motability Operations,” says eVITA engineering lead Adam Donfrancesco of CALLUM. “It’s certainly making waves and got the reaction we all wanted. It’s got the conversation started right.”
