PHYLLA, the synthesis of different skills and competences brought together. Regione Piemonte conceived the idea of an industrial research project aimed at defining a vehicle prototype able to meet - in an innovative and efficient way - the requirements in terms of mobility and sustainability by involving the centres of excellence present in the region through a convergence of skills and knowledge in order to face the challenge and achieve the objective.

This idea transformed into the definition of an urban, electric vehicle which embodies the concept of sustainability exploiting directly, and indirectly, renewable sources and vectors of energy (mainly photovoltaic and hydrogen), while seeking the optimal combination. Efficient and totally recyclable, the aim has been to design a vehicle to effectively nullify emissions - due to polluting gases and CO2 - in urban areas during the entire product lifecycle (from the production to end-of-life)

These are the main characteristics of the Phylla concept vehicle which represents a sustainable solution for reducing CO2  emissions, dependency from oil, polluting gases, noise, traffic congestion and energy consumption.

The name Phylla - meaning “leaf” in ancient Greek - aims to communicate the capacity to convert solar light into energy, and the synthesis of different skills and competences, the result of the synergic cooperation between: Regione Piemonte, which sponsored and financed the project; Environment Park, which helped defining and selecting the most innovative and environmental friendly technologies; CRF (Centro Ricerche Fiat), as Vehicle project leader, responsible for the technical and architectural choices for the running prototype development; Politecnico di Torino, with the role of Programme Manager, managing the whole project and co-ordinating the partners. Furthermore, the Camera di Commercio di Torino contributed to the project through the “From Concept to Car” initiative as did the Istituto Europeo di Design and Istituto di Arte Applicata e Design, Novamont Proplast Consortium, Sagat, ENECOM, Sydera and Bee Studio.

The different working groups dealt with the different tasks and came up to a common output:

·          the research of the best solution in the combined use of different sources of energy (sun, hydrogen, biogas)

·          the experimentation of high-efficiency and totally recyclable materials

·          the selection of the innovative technologies which are most suitable for urban mobility (i.e. new-generation batteries with high-density energy)

·          the possibility of addressing a wide target of users and different uses and purposes.

The aim of the project was the realization of a concept for a sustainable urban vehicle, but also economic and capable of achieving a cost per km value 10 times lower than a conventional gasoline-powered production model.

This project is a sort of “Technological Lab” for testing innovative solutions for a sustainable urban mobility, endowed with the following technical and technological characteristics:

§         electric, in order to search the best solution in the combined exploitation of alternative sources of energy. It is a ZEV (zero emission vehicle) and BEV (battery electric vehicle), conceived for the electric power train and so not conditioned by the typical limits of vehicles coming from normal thermal engine vehicles.  The electric architecture is modular in order to enable and facilitate the subsequent testing of energy/electric power sources (supercaps and Fuel Cells) to be used in combination with the batteries.

§         efficient e totally recyclable, as it’s able to exploit the solar energy directly through the photovoltaic cells, to implement experimental solutions able to minimize energy consumption and the rolling resistance force (ultra-green tyres and aerodynamic active systems) and it’s made with high structural-efficiency materials and recyclable;

§         flexible, endowed with an architecture that allows to implement through the time solutions to improve the performances and reduce the costs (batteries with high-density energy and quickly rechargeable, motorwheels with high energy efficiency, functionalized materials, new-generation Fuel Cells, projectors and headlights with Chip Led technology, drive assistance systems, Drive by wire, etc.);

§         multi-use, flexible in use and customization, able to satisfy the mobility needs in a urban and sub-urban context. The reduced dimensions (4 seats in less than 3 metres), together with the highly re-configurable interiors and the SPLIT-FRAME architecture (passenger cabin separated from the lower frame) allow to use different body styles on the same platform (passenger car, pick-up, delivery-van) and the application of the most suitable manufacturing technologies in function of the volumes of production.