DETROIT: The Toyota uBox concept is intended to appeal to the Gen-Z generation of car buyers, with the student-created project achieving an industry first by using a new method to make a frame to support a curved glass roof.
Designed, engineered and hand-built by graduate students at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), the vehicle is the result of a two-year collaboration with Toyota Motor North America designers and engineers.
The CU-ICAR / Toyota collaboration, called Deep Orange, immerses students into every aspect of automotive development – from market research and design studies to engineering design and manufacturing.
Toyota executive program manager Craig Payne singled out a unique pultrusion technique developed by the students that allows composite carbon fiber rails bonded with aluminum to hold up 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.”
The typical customer for uBox is potrayed as a young entrepreneur who wants a vehicle that can provide utility and recreation on the weekend but that can also offer office space or other career-centric or lifestyle uses during the week.
The uBox has a bold, youthful and distinctive exterior design. A versatile interior can be rearranged for various activities, from working or operating a business, to hauling bulky cargo. A low floor allows for reconfigurable, removable seats on sliding tracks that can be nested.
Vents, dashboard display bezels and door trim can be personalised and made with 3-D printing technology, and an online community for owners where they can share design ideas. A compact, dual-purpose, all-electric powertrain provides a fun driving experience and emission-free stationary energy to power consumer electronics, power tools or other devices through various 110-volt sockets located throughout the interior and exterior.
Toyota and the Clemson Deep Orange Team unveiled the uBox on Tuesday at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress and Exposition at the Cobo Center here. It will then remain on display in the Cobo atrium through Thursday.
