VM Driving Report ACM City: E-Mobility 2.0
The goals of the ACM team are ambitious: They aim to achieve nothing less than cost and sustainability leadership in the passenger car segment of electromobility – that’s how ACM founder Paul Leibold, ACM Chief Production Officer Rainer Kühlwein, and ACM TCO Swagat Chopra formulate the goal for their compact vehicle. A fundamental mistake of electromobility is that currently, too many powerful and heavy combustion engines are being replaced by even more powerful and heavier electric cars, which again spend 95 percent of their time standing instead of driving. In terms of vehicle utilization, resource conservation, and traffic space, this means virtually ZERO progress.
The ideal vehicle is not a standing vehicle
Because the ideal vehicle, ideally, runs 24/7, is used by multiple people for various purposes, and can transport both a Euro pallet and a family. Ideally, it can be booked and paid for with a simple swipe on a smartphone – and the operator receives a detailed invoice for every kilometer driven, which includes not only energy costs but also tolls, insurance, service, and, if necessary, repairs. Less the advertising costs that are incurred via a screen on the back. There are also various utilization and charging scenarios, and so on...
And this is exactly where the difference lies between the timelessly designed ACM and many other electric cars. We meet ACM founder Paul Leibold, Rainer Kühlwein, Chief Production Officer at ACM Adaptive City Mobility GmbH, and ACM TCO Swagat Chopra at an abandoned office complex in the north of Munich, which offers enough space for initial test drives with the ACM City. The advantage of the currently vacant office complex is that in the empty underground parking garage, you can take as many test drives as you like and there’s enough room for the next development stage of the small city speedster, styled like a sturdy Rimowa suitcase.
And how does the prototype, which consists of only around 800 parts, drive? We close the door, which shuts with a comparatively solid thud. The seat can be easily adjusted manually and is surprisingly comfortable for a microcar. We release the also mechanical(!) handbrake and flick the selector lever with the brake engaged. And the City, programmed for extremely cautious acceleration, starts moving. The engine still sings uninsulated under the hood, but this will be fine-tuned in the production model, as will the driving programs and the suspension. The suspension offers quite decent comfort, although it could be a bit firmer in the production model due to the high body. Long waves in the road are comfortably absorbed, only short bumps are sometimes felt. The instruments are currently kept extremely simple and understandable with standard supplier switches, and the ergonomics fit.
Extremely spacious rear
Time to get into the rear: The prototype only has a door with handles on the passenger side, but this will be on both sides in the production model. Kühlwein explains:
“We have found that the omission of the complete door mechanism does not bring significant hardware savings, and it also means that right- and left-hand drive versions remain identical in that area, which saves costs again.”
The space available is truly cathedral-like, as the batteries lurk under the front seats, allowing for a flat floor—which also leaves comparatively high ground clearance. “With the 16-inch wheels, we have 18 centimeters,” Kühlwein notes proudly, adding that the wading depth is also a topic and will be increased in the production model as well. There are four additional 48-volt batteries under the trunk that can be swapped in no time. Another four can be mounted on the roof. And they can come from any supplier offering 48-volt exchangeable battery technology.
The rear can also be loaded by forklift—a Euro pallet fits inside!
The rear portal, which opens sideways for forklift loading, also opens and closes solidly, and the rear seat can be folded down very easily. This increases the load volume from 360 to around 1,400 liters. Brilliant: The folding headrests create a small partition grid. But even here, more professional conversion possibilities are planned for the production model, to really convert the City from a four-seater to a veritable van for a Euro pallet, including a partition wall at the front. Optionally, the front passenger seat can be omitted or its backrest folded down in the cargo versions, providing over two meters of loading length next to the driver. We close the portal and look at the advertisements running there: In countries where vehicle surfaces can be actively illuminated, they can be displayed in OLED and could generate around 3,000 euros a year, similar to taxis. The profit would be shared equally among ACM, the operator, and the user, unless the operator wants to use the space to promote their own sharing concept.
What does this mean?
Finally, a vehicle that simply takes you comfortably from A to B—and due to its intelligent overall concept would likely actually be used as such by many parties—ideally meaning it spends most of its time driving, not standing still!
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