A strategic assessment of alternative engineering concepts for a low volume sportscar manufacturer to meet european stage II pedestrian head impact legislative requirements

The Lotus Elite concept car was revealed at the Paris motor show in September 2010 and is a two- door 2+2 Sports Grand Tourer planned to compete in the High Luxury Sportscar vehicle segment and is part of a revolutionary model strategy based on a new platform to revitalise Lotus Cars into a profitable and sustainable business through increased margins and volumes. Future Lotus vehicles will therefore have to comply with any future legislative requirements. These are primarily focussed on vehicle and occupant safety crash performance and these requirements are an important attribute of the proposed Lotus Elite design and development programme. Road traffic fatalities are a worldwide issue according to a report by the World Health Organisation, an estimated 1.2 million people lost their lives and 50 million non-fatal injuries were due to Road Traffic Accidents. Over the past decade automotive safety initiatives have grown in scope to not only include the vehicle occupants but also to pedestrians. Legislation relating to Pedestrian Protection currently exists in the European Union with further requirements and stricter targets planned for introduction in 2012 and beyond. These new requirements pose a quandary for Lotus due to the fact that aesthetic style is an important attribute of delivering Lotus core brand values and legislation requirements relating to pedestrian protection may drive a need to compromise and potentially degrade the impact of this key attribute. These compromises are driven by the potential physical geometric changes that maybe required to the front end surfaces to meet targets. A review of current literature was extensively performed to benchmarking of competitors, identifies industry trends and market landscape to determine what has been, is, and is going to be possibly done in the future to meet pedestrian protection requirements. A set of requirements and targets were defined to enable a more structured review of what technology automotive vehicle manufacturers and suppliers are offering and whether these technologies or strategies could meet the needs of the Lotus Elite to meet requirements. The current status of the Lotus Elite showcar relating to the achievement of pedestrian protection head impact requirements was derived. Identifying the head impact landscape of the vehicle geometry and highlighted areas of the vehicle that require further analysis and engineering focus to meet pedestrian protection targets. Both legislative and consumer test regime validity to ‘real’ world accident injury data are reviewed and discussed with a view that existing test criteria and methods do not address the primary causes of injury to pedestrians in the windscreen and ‘A’ pillar areas. Conclusions draws on research and CAE testing carried out by the Lotus Cars Engineering team to recommend that Elite must meet pedestrian protection requirements in order to support its growth strategy. The adoption of a passive pedestrian protection design strategy is also proposed by the Elite programme team, potentially allowing a lower technical risk and a faster time to market with reduced cost compared to active systems.