Centennials might be a tough nut to crack, since most individuals of the “Generation Z” don’t have the means to buy a car yet, but Toyota reckons it knows what the next generation of buyers want.
So, the Japanese car manufacturer teamed up with Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), and created an innovative, flexible concept, called uBox, intended to appeal to the aforementioned generation.
The project – called Deep Orange – was designed, engineered and hand-built by graduate students, immersing them into every aspect of automotive development – from market research and design studies to engineering design and manufacturing.
“Deep Orange gives students’ hands-on experience with the entire vehicle development process, from identifying the market opportunity through the vehicle build. It’s like automotive boot camp for the real world, and it wouldn’t happen without industry partners like Toyota,” says Johnell Brooks, an associate professor in Clemson’s graduate engineering program.
Since the typical customer for uBox is described as a young entrepreneur who wants a vehicle that can provide both utility and recreational activities, it gets a wide array of features, including “a youthful exterior design”, “a versatile interior”, and a compact, dual-purpose, all-electric powertrain that can provide a fun driving experience and powering various devices through its 110-volt sockets located throughout the interior and exterior.
Toyota Executive Program Manager Craig Payne was particularly impressed by a unique pultrusion technique developed by the students, allowing composite carbon fiber rails to bond with aluminum to support a curved glass roof.
“The roof pultrusion was something unexpected and very interesting when they first started talking about the concept,” said Payne. “The fact that they were able to achieve an industry-first manufacturing technique as students speaks volumes for this program.”
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