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3D-Printed Electric Tricycle Concept Is Produced Guilt-Free, From Plastic Waste
By Ell Ko, 01 Sep 2021
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Image by © Studio Theresa Bentz and featured with permission
This endearing all-electric tricycle prototype, dubbed the ‘ZUV’ (short for zero-emissions utility vehicle), was produced entirely through 3D printing. It touts enough space for two adults plus a bunch of cargo at the front.
Created by Austrian design firm EOOS and Rotterdam high-tech production company The New Raw, the ZUV is envisioned to “drive forward the development of social and sustainable design projects.” It stands at 24 x 75 x 21.6-inches and weighs around 220 pounds, while being able to carry up to twice its weight. The tricycle can hit a top speed of about 15.5 miles per hour.
Image by © EOOS Next and featured with permission
“Three wheels ensure stable road holding on any surface,” the company states, “be it on the picnic meadow or in the muddy street of an informal settlement.” With a range of 31 miles per full battery charge, it’s more than suitable for a few grocery runs or to get around the city on.
Image by © Studio Theresa Bentz and featured with permission
The vehicle is kind on the planet, from the design itself to its manufacturing. With a custom robotic arm, salvaged from a disused industrial robot, The New Raw’s technology prints diagonal layers instead of just vertical or horizontal ones, as reported by Dezeen. This diagonal structure doesn’t need any other support material while being printed.
Image by © The New Raw and featured with permission
Image by © The New Raw and featured with permission
Locally-sourced waste from “our throwaway society,” particularly supermarket plastic waste, goes into this quirky mode of transport.
And while bikes are hard to manufacture locally—no thanks to high shipping costs both environmentally and financially—the ZUV is out to change that.
“We wanted to design around local, affordable production,” EOOS founder Harald Gründ tells Dezeen in an interview. “Because of the high labor costs in Europe, almost every bike frame is produced in Asia. But we want a local ZUV production facility in every city around the world.”
Image by © Studio Theresa Bentz and featured with permission
This would mean that once the bike frame is printed, everything else—the motor, wheels, handlebars—can be fixed onto the structure to complete the vehicle. “Bicycle or motorbike workshops exist in every country,” EOOS points out in the product’s press release. “Based on their know-how and spare parts stock, local production can individually complete the ZUV.”
Image by © EOOS Next and featured with permission
In the name of a circular economy, the ZUV’s sustainable design means that it can be taken apart and shredded at its end of to be 3D-reprinted into a new ZUV.
“Service schemes with a designed ‘take back’ will be the future,” Gründ is reported to have said. He notes that it’s “way easier” for the loop to be closed locally “rather than sending around ships full of waste as we do today, which is stupid.”
Image by © EOOS Next and featured with permission
[via Input, images by EOOS Next, Studio Theresa Bentz, and The New Raw and featured with permission]
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