EcoCAR Mobility Challenge Year 1 Competition

The first step in any product development process is to define the customer. A set of technical specifications for the product can then be established to quantitatively define the characteristics of the product which will appeal to the targeted customer. Finally, the product can be engineered to meet those specifications. For the purposes of EcoCAR, some elements of the target market have been pre-defined: teams must design a car for a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) market, specifically a fleet-owned carsharing application (similar to Maven or Zipcar). By nature, this is a dual market where the vehicle must appeal to both the fleet-owner (operator of the carsharing service and purchaser of the vehicle) and the customer (the person that subscribes to the carsharing service and drives the vehicle). In this presentation, teams will define and characterize both the fleet-owner and the customer for this MaaS market and justify that the geographical region of this market suitable to support a carsharing service. Teams will also discuss the wants and needs of the fleet-owner and the customer as it pertains to the vehicle, including any areas where the fleet-owner and customer diverge. Finally, teams will present a single set of Vehicle Technical Specifications (VTS) that combines the wants and needs of the fleet-owner and customer into a unified vehicle design.