Bath's CLEVER solution for urban transport

The CLEVER team: engineers Matt Barker and Ben Drew

The latest prototype looking for onward funding is the CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) vehicle is a fuel-efficient runaround that is only a metre wide.

The university is now looking for partners or investors to take the prototype forwards. Spokesman Tony Trueman said, “We are open to offers and happy to talk to anyone.”

The prototype, unveiled at the University of Bath last month, is the fruit of  a £1.5 million collaboration involving nine European partners from industry and academe.  

The three-year project has produced a tilting three-wheeled vehicle, part micro-car, part motorcycle, that is fully enclosed and has seats for the driver and a passenger. It has a strengthened frame to protect the driver and a top speed of 60 mph (about 100 kph).

At just over 1 metre wide, it is 0.5 metres narrower than a micro-car, and 1 metre narrower than a medium sized conventional car.  

German, French, British and Austrian organisations, including BMW, began work on the project in December 2002 and completed it in March this year. Partners include: the Technische Universität Berlin in Berlin, the Institut Français du Pétrole in Vernaison near Lyon, and the Institut für Verkehrswesen – Universität für Bodenkultur, in Vienna.

The University of Bath’s Centre for Power Transmission and Motion Control, developed a novel tilting chassis concept to keep the vehicle stable in corners. The vehicle controls the amount of tilt automatically, unlike on a motorcycle where the rider controls how far to tilt the vehicle.

CLEVER runs on compressed natural gas, emits about a third of the carbon dioxide of a conventional family car, and its fuel consumption is equivalent to 2.6 litres per 100 kilometres (108 miles per imperial gallon) of petrol. The vehicle would not be liable for the congestion charge in London, or any other city where the charge is likely to be adopted.

Jos Darling, senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath said, “Making our vehicles smaller is a good solution to the relentless increase in traffic in our towns and cities. The advent of micro cars was a first step, but with its manoeuvrability and narrowness, the CLEVER vehicle is the ultimate in the search for a small vehicle to get around cities like Bath and London.

"The fact that it has a stylish design, can carry a passenger, is not open to the weather and is as high as a conventional car, will mean it will be much more popular with motorists than previous novel city vehicles.”