ABOVE: A doctored action shot of the Pulse in its latest official stage of completion, ghosted to reveal the interior layout and frame. Firefly cast member Nathan Fillion and Castle costar Jon Huertas show off the concept’s tandem seating arrangement.
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Oregon-based electric vehicle company Arcimoto is developing a product aimed at providing a viable alternative to gasoline-based transportation. I was responsible for most of the project's interactive, ergonomic and aesthetic considerations through several vehicle iterations.
My main constraints as Industrial Design Lead during the design phase of Gen4 were three wheels instead of four, and dual-seat occupancy arranged in a tandem layout. My goal was to create a vehicle that breaks past these barriers to public acceptance: one that people can grow not just to accept, but indeed, be proud to drive.
ABOVE: The 'Pulse' as it might have looked parked outside of Arcimoto's offices in Eugene, Oregon
Background (Earlier Concepts)
My initial sketches during the design process of Gen3 explored a variety of basic body shapes. Originally the decision was made to incorporate a full-width front end, in the interest of maintaining as much of the familiar “car” look as possible.
LEFT: Modified pictures of existing cars meant to help the team visualize the final product.
RIGHT: While many sketches were done on blank paper (A), I found that ideating over the top of frame assembly imagery (B) kept me grounded in reality by providing accurate proportions to work with. I experimented with partially covering the rear wheel with the main body for a time (C) before settling on motorcycle design convention: body and wheel separated, with a rear swingarm cover.
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Preliminary Experiments
Pursuing a thinner road footprint and superior expected aerodynamic efficiency over Gen3, Arcimoto’s leadership directed a second seat be placed behind the driver for a new round of iterations that would become the Pulse concept. As the engineering team began putting together a new chassis, I began my first forays into the tandem seating arrangement.
Ideation & Development
As the new chassis came together, I was soon presented with real-world dimensions to work with. Coupled with a new battery layout plan, the new seats caused the vehicle footprint to grow both longer and taller. To better fit the new form, the full-width nose was dropped in favor of a thin one that matched the overall body side surface.
ABOVE: (1) The Phase 2 silhouette superimposed over a rendering of the Phase 1 concept illustrates the shift in roofline and length. (2) A simple diagram illustrating one method of maintaining visual mass equilibrium between front and rear on tri-wheel vehicles.
Identity
Lengthy development time has allowed for the exploration of a great many potential Arcimoto identities, a fraction of which are shown here. Focused as they were on defining an electric vehicle brand, my ideations tended to emphasize notions of speed and agility, not power; of ‘slipping’ or ‘cutting’ rather than ‘pushing’ through the air.
Frame
This version of the frame, “Proto 4,” was the first to feature metal tubing in an arrangement, supervised and at times constructed by myself, that contoured to the body style designed to dress it. Proto 4 consequently has a more finalized look than previous frames, even without body panels.
Ergonomics & Interior
During the design phase of Gen4 I was responsible for constructing a detailed 3D ergonomics wireframe. This wireframe served to drive the location of interior items such as the seats, steering wheel and parking brake, as well as certain frame members, keeping them in ergonomically sound positions relative to the vehicle occupants.
During the design phase of Gen4 I was responsible for constructing a detailed 3D ergonomics wireframe. This wireframe served to drive the location of interior items such as the seats, steering wheel and parking brake, as well as certain frame members, keeping them in ergonomically sound positions relative to the vehicle occupants.
Ideations assumed the existence of fully-enclosed body panelling and a car-like interior, complete with custom machined and/or molded components. Some side effects of the tandem layout, such as the positioning of the passenger's legs and knees, offered unique ergonomic challenges to be addressed.
Dashboard (http://www.coroflot.com/marcosnolandesign/ARCIMOTO-Dashboard-Progression)
Gen4 saw incremental advances in dash layout design, and major steps forward in methods of real-world construction and implementation. Methods for creating an interior experience comparable to that of major-brand vehicles were devised and refined.
See ARCIMOTO Dashboard Progression (http://www.coroflot.com/marcosnolandesign/ARCIMOTO-Dashboard-Progression) for a detailed look at the Gen4 Dashboard design process.
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ARCIMOTO GEN-4 'PULSE': Tandem-Seating Electric Vehicle
Oregon-based electric vehicle company Arcimoto is developing a product aimed at providing a viable alternative to gasoline-based transportation. I was responsible for most of the project's interactive, ergonomic and aesthetic considerations through several vehicle iterations.
My main constraints as Industrial Design Lead during the design phase of Gen4 were three wheels instead of four, and dual-seat occupancy arranged in a tandem layout. My goal was to create a vehicle that breaks past these barriers to public acceptance: one that people can grow not just to accept, but indeed, be proud to drive.
