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US 6,015,022 AGranted
Ultra-light road vehicle
OwnerJean-Luc Thuliezinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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OwnerJean-Luc Thuliezinventor
Estimating the term…
An ultra-light road vehicle, particularly an electrically powered one, wherein the weight of the basic construction is minimized so that the vehicle may be powered by batteries while having a standard degree of autonomy for the class of vehicles in question, and the space requirement of the vehicle is reduced for easier parking. For this purpose, the vehicle comprises a chassis (9) with a central hollow beam (12) consisting of an extruded profile section made of a lightweight material and forming a housing for batteries (52) and a driving engine (28), a body (8) consisting of a separate sealed hollow assembly mounted on the chassis, and two steerable wheels (17, 18) at the front and a drive wheel (15) at the back connected to the chassis via suspensions. The rear wheel (15) is mounted on pivotable arms (27) so that the vehicle can be converted from a normal position to a shortened position in which the wheel base is reduced. The pivotable arms (27) are substantially aligned with the central beam (12) when the vehicle is in the normal position, and at an angle thereto when the vehicle is in the shortened position.
An ultra-light road vehicle comprising only a small number of components, specifically a vehicle of the type known as a "city car" for commuting use, in particular electrically propelled, comprising a supporting structure, two front wheels and one rear wheel mounted by suspensions on this supporting structure and a separate passenger compartment fitted on to the supporting structure, the supporting structure comprising a hollow central beam, characterized by the fact that this hollow central beam (12) is constituted from extruded section of lightweight material of constant cross-section, that the two front wheels (17, 18) provide the steering and the rear wheel (15) provides the propulsion and lies approximately on the axis of the aforementioned hollow central beam (12), that the propulsion motor (28) and energy storage are housed inside the hollow central beam (12), and that the separate passenger compartment is fixed as a unit to the hollow central beam (12).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.