Name: Umesh Dinde
Guide: Prof. Nishant Sharma
Course:Â Mobility and Vehicle Design
Design of an Urban Commuter
The  increasing urbanization due to rapid development of the economy has resulted in an explosion of vehicles on the urban roads over the past decade clogging the roads to such an extent that driving a car or wide track vehicles is nearly impossible.  The exploding traffic scenario poses a lot of problem like congestions, air pollution, noise pollution, frustration etc. The lack of adequate infrastructure and space have also contributed to it. Protection from the elements like rain,dust and smoke is another factor forcing commuters to drive big, inefficient vehicles to the workplace rather than riding a single track motorcycle, which offers no or minimum rider protection. Also, the inadequacy of Mass transport systems and a general perceiving of the vehicle as a luxury rather than a  necessity is  resulting in higher rates of vehicle ownerships. All these issues call for a new segment of vehicle which is for urban commuting addressing the issues of rider protection, parking, pollution  as well as making vehicles fun to ride.
“The Indian 2-wheeler market has grown 18-fold in the last 3 decades. Experts believe that factors like utility, price, low maintenance, fuel efficiency and the condition of Indian roads, apart from rising fuel prices are
responsible for this humongous
increase.
Motorcycles are preferred choice of Indian consumer
Scooter penetration lower than motorcycles
Scooters expected to lead growth on the back of a wider acceptability and addressable market
“
“Due to affordability on the rise with increasing per capita GDP that’s why Premium motorcycles to see fastest growth – command larger share of motorcycles.India has most mid age population that’s why people prefer to have
mileage and style and look as their
priority buying decision.
Second most influencing factor is ride quality and vehicle brand mostly this behavior observed from 45+ year users as they have surplus income to spend.”
“Initial form exploration and ideation shown in images. I urban region lots of people lives in slums where they don’t have parking space for vehicle. In this ideation, Basic thought here was to reduce parking space by literally folding a vehicle like old shaving knife. Another problem faced by 2 wheeler user is the weather protection so here idea is to cover opening I such a way that commuter won’t feel claustrophobic, and it should allow easy ingress egress motion
Weather proofing is not need all the time or it has to be in such a way that it could be folded down and stored without any trouble whenever user don’t need. And joystick type control system was in thought process.”
Exploration was concentrated on vehicle packaging. Here upright stance was chosen for comfortable posture a backrest support is given to lumbar section of spine. Vehicle uses 10 KWh high voltage Li-Po battery pack to able to cover long distances in single charge. Newly designed chassis is a cross chassis between motorcycle and scooter. Overall vehicle is in the form of moto-scooter.