NL2017515B1 - Vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vehicle, comprising at least two wheels, each having a suspension, a plastic shell defining an envelope of the vehicle, and wherein the vehicle is frameless and the suspensions of the at least two wheels are connected to the 5 plastic shell. The vehicle may be a two-wheeled vehicle, in particular a scooter or motorcycle.

Description

Patent center

The Netherlands

© 2017515

BI PATENT (51) Int. Cl .:

B62K 19/16 (2016.01) B62K 11/10 (2016.01) B62K 19/08 (2017.01) (21) Application number: 2017515 © Application submitted: 22/09/2016

(Tl) Application registered: (73) Patent holder (s): 29/03/2018 Bolt Mobility B.V. in DELFT. (43) Application published: - (72) Inventor (s): Bart Jacobsz Rosier in Amsterdam. (7) Patent granted: Marijn Laurens Flipse in Amsterdam. 29/03/2018 Joris Koudijs in Delft. Adriaan Aarnoudse in Genemuiden. (45) Patent issued: Daniel Thomas Alexander Muusers in Delft. 03/04/2018 Thomas Swart in The Hague. θ Authorized representative: ir. P.J. Hylarides et al. In The Hague.

© Vehicle © The present invention relates to a vehicle, including at least two wheels, each having a suspension, a plastic shell defining an envelope or the vehicle, and the vehicle is frameless and the suspensions of the least two wheels are connected to the plastic shell. The vehicle may be a two-wheeled vehicle, in particular a scooter or motorcycle.

NL BI 2017515

This patent has been granted regardless of the attached result of the research into the state of the art and written opinion. The patent corresponds to the documents originally submitted.

Vehicle

The present invention relates to a vehicle with improved performance.

Due to many factors, including health and environmental beliefs, performance, legislations and subsidies, there is a current trend away from vehicles driven by combustion engines, and towards electrically powered vehicles.

Proven performance, technology advances, tax benefits and subsidies have promoted electric cars, and simultaneously the infrastructure for charging the battery packs or electric vehicles has improved significantly. The public is getting used to electric vehicles, and many people seriously consider an electrically powered vehicle as their next vehicle.

Cars tend to be very resource inefficient. On average, a car is standing still for 96% of the time. During the 4% of the time a car is driving, in around 3/4 of cases, a vehicle with a total weight or over 1500 kg is used for transporting a single person with luggage, the person and luggage weighing only about 80 kg. Taking into account that in 2050, the number of people living in megacities will nearly double to 6.4 billion and currently they spend up to 5.5 working weeks in traffic jams, cars are not the future of transportation.

A more resource efficient group of vehicles that is also very convenient and popular for small distance commuting and travel, is the two-wheeled vehicles group with vehicles such as scooters and motorcycles.

However, a lot of the small combustion engines that drive most scooters and motorcycles are extremely harmful to the environment and have been largely unregulated in the two-wheeler market. This is especially true for two-stroke engines. And the majority of the scooters is driven by such two-stroke engines. This type of engine emits up to 2700 times more pollutants than a modern van. Besides being a serious environmental risk, these pollutants cause heart and lung diseases among humans and animals. Scooters like this are riding on the road next to where pedestrians are walking.

Current scooters that are driven by an electrical motor have a limited range due to small batteries and lower than ideal efficiency drivetrains. In most cases, electrically driven scooters are poorly converted combustion engine scooters, resulting in a sub-optimal solution which is not appealing to customers.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle, that is improved relative to the prior art and that is least one of the above stated problems is obviated.

Such objectives as indicated above, and / or other benefits or inventive effects, are attained according to the present disclosure by the assembly of features in the appended independent device claim 1.

The vehicle according to the invention comprises at least two wheels, each having a suspension, a plastic shell defining an envelope or the vehicle, and the vehicle is frameless and the suspensions of the at least two wheels are connected to the plastic shell. Frameless is interpreted as lacking of an internal frame.

Contrary to conventional scooters, where the plastic shell only forms an aesthetic outer body that is carried by an inner structural frame, the plastic shell of the vehicle according to the invention, forms a structural part of the vehicle. In this way, a conventional metal inner frame for supporting the wheel suspension and load carrying capacity can be omitted. Because the inertial moment of the structural frame includes the stiffness and strength, and the inertial moment increases with the fourth power of the diameter. Increasing the diameter by a factor of 10, will increase the inertial moment by a factor of 10,000. Thus when placing all the load carrying structural material at the most outer cross-sectional points in the frame, the stiffness and strength may be increased by up to 4 orders of magnitude. This allows for a reduction in the overall weight of the vehicle while simultaneously increasing strength and stiffness. Due to this weight reduction, faster acceleration and increased range are obtained with the same drive train, reducing reducing costs and increasing the resource efficiency of the vehicle.

Additionally, because less material is required and there is no internal frame, the total available internal space is increased tremendously. This makes room for a larger battery pack and increases storage space by a factor of 2-6 in comparison to conventional scooters, enabling new use cases such as being able to carry two large grocery bags or a full sized beer crate. The additional space inside the frame allows for a battery pack that is 2-6 as large compared to any other currently commercially available scooter, allowing for a range or over 400km, which is as close as you can get to the optimal utility for shared electric scooters. This allows close to optimal use of resources in a network or shared electric scooters and ensures that the invention is future proof.

Next to weight reduction, additional space and an increase in performance, a frameless vehicle has further advantages. Contrary to a conventional steel or aluminum inner frame, a plastic shell is less susceptible to fatigue. By adapting the direction and composition of the fiber layout when a Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is used as the plastic material, the stiffness is highly controllable, allowing for local differences and a more optimal use of materials. The flexibility in design that a plastic material such as FRP offers, allows for complex forms, which allows for integration of components and results in a decrease in the number of molds required and less time spent on assembly.

The vehicle according to the invention has increased space for the battery pack. A modular battery pack is proposed. The diversity of range requirements for scooter owners worldwide is broadly distributed (e.g. people driving 15 km per day, people driving 100 km per day and everything between). In contrast to conventional modular battery packs, where modular batteries are connected in series and energy and power are balanced by costly power electronics, the vehicle according to invention, comprises a modular battery pack where multiple modules are connected in parallel. The method used for connecting the modular batteries fully eliminates the need for expensive additional battery management slaves. This is achieved by a detachable electrical connection between the one to X cell clusters or one to Y battery module respectively (eg a first cell cluster in a first module connects with a first cell cluster in a second module, which in turn connects with a first cell cluster in a third module and so forth until battery module Y). X defines the number of cell clusters per module and Y defines the total number of battery modules. The result of this setup is an optimal balancing of the energy among multiple cells, i.e. close to identical with a full single battery pack with the same number of total cells. Proper balancing of cells between modules is crucial to overall safety or the pack to prevent inrush currents due to voltage differences among modules. Such inrush currents are caused by insufficient differences due to differences among cells (for example: internal resistance differences or sudden failure or a single cell).

In addition to increased cost effectiveness, the nominal voltage or the battery pack remains unchanged no matter how many modules are connected to the battery pack. This allows for a constant nominal voltage for all power consuming devices (for example: motor controller, motor, DC / DC converter, and an Electronic Control Unit), allowing for an optimal and uniform specification of these power consuming devices.

Preferred or the invention are defined in the dependent claims.

In the following description preferred out of the present invention are further elucidated with reference to the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a scooter according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the scooter or Figure 1, the plastic shell is made transparent;

Figure 3 is an exploded view of the scooter or figures 1 and 2 from below, in which case a base plate with drive train, swing arm and rear wheel suspension are shown at a distance from the scooter;

Figure 4 is a side view of the base plate with drive train, swing arm and rear wheel suspension or Figure 3;

Figure 5 shows a perspective view from above of the base plate with drive train, swing arm and rear wheel suspension or figure 3;

Figure 6 shows a perspective view from below of the base plate on the right side and the drive train, swing arm and rear wheel suspension of Figure 5;

Figure 7 shows a perspective exploded view from Figure 6, with baseplate and swingarm tasks separately;

Figures 8 and 9 show a perspective view of the swing arm;

Figure 10 shows a cross sectional view of the front of the scooter or figure 1;

Figure 11 shows a perspective view of the cockpit with handle bars, touch screen, control interfaces and indicator icons;

Figure 12 shows a driver's view of the cockpit with handle bars, touch screen, control interfaces and indicator icons;

Figure 13A is a detailed view of the left control interface;

Figure 13B is a detailed view of the right control interface;

Figure 14 shows a side view of the left control interface or Figure 13A; and

Figure 15 shows a perspective view of a control interface from the rear.

In the embodiment described in the description below comprises a vehicle 1 or the electric motorcycle or scooter type. The skilled person will understand that the principles are also applicable to other vehicle types, such as trikes and motorcycles. Scooter 1 may be replaced by the general wording vehicle throughout the description.

The scooter 1 shown in figure 1 comprises two wheels, ie a first wheel 40 and a second wheel 80. In the shown version, first wheel 40 is a rear wheel or the scooter 1 that is drivable connected to a motor, more in particular an electric motor 114. The second wheel 80 is the front wheel or the scooter 1 that is steerable. Scooter 1 further comprises a battery pack 116.

Both wheels 40, 80 have a suspension, respectively a first wheel suspension 42 for the first wheel 40, and a second wheel suspension 82 for the second wheel 80.

A plastic shell 2 defines an envelope or the scooter 1, and according to the invention, the vehicle 1 is frameless. The suspensions 42, 82 or at least two wheels 40, 80 are connected to the plastic shell 2. Contrary to conventional scooters, where the plastic shell only forms an aesthetic outer body that is carried by an inner structural frame, the plastic shell 2 of the vehicle 1 according to the invention, forms a structural part of the vehicle 1. Therefore, a conventional metal inner frame for supporting the wheel suspensions 42, 82 can be omitted. When placing all the load carrying structural material at the most outer cross-sectional points in the structural part formed by the plastic shell 2, the stiffness and strength may be increased by up to four orders of magnitude (as explained above). This allows for a reduction in the overall weight of the vehicle 1 and a huge increase in internal space while simultaneously increasing strength and stiffness. Due to the weight reduction, a faster acceleration and increased range are obtained with the same drive train, reducing reducing costs and increasing the resource efficiency of the vehicle 1. Due to the internal space increase there is room for an up to six times larger battery pack

116 and up to six times larger storage space. Because less material is used for a lighter vehicle 1, costs of the vehicle 1 can also be further reduced.

In order to provide a user with the flexibility to adapt the performance to his / her needs, battery pack 116 preferably comprises modular battery modules 118 (figure 2). The battery 116 is arranged under a footrest 22 or scooter 1.

Suitable materials for the plastic shell 2 are e.g. fiber-reinforced polymers, such as carbon, glass, aramid, Dyneema®, and other fibers in a thermo-hardening or thermoplastic matrix.

Plastic shell 2 or scooter 1 comprises a first wheel casing 18 for accommodating rear wheel 40, and a second wheel casing 20 for accommodating front wheel 80.

Preferably, at least one of the wheels 40, 80 comprises a shock absorber 44, 84. In the shown embodiment, rear wheel 40 is provided with a shock absorber 44, and front wheel 80 is provided with a shock absorber 84. By using shock absorbers 44, 84, the peak forces that are transferred from the wheel suspensions 42, 82 to the plastic shell 2 during use of said vehicle 1, are reduced. Hence, the peak loads experienced by the plastic shell 2 are reduced.

In the shown embodiment, the suspensions 42, 82 or both wheels 40, 80 comprising at least one connector with a support surface 50, 88, 94 that abuts against a corresponding abutment surface 4, 6, 8 or the plastic shell.

The suspension 42 or the rear wheel 40 comprises a support surface 50 that forms a connector 48 (figure 5). The support surface 50 or the rear wheel 40 abuts against a first rear abutment surface 4 or the plastic shell 2 (figure 3).

The suspension 82 or the front wheel 80 comprises two support surfaces 88, 94 (figure 10). A first support surface 88 forms a first connector 86, and abuts against a first front abutment surface 6 of the plastic shell 2. A second support surface 94 forms a second connector 92, and abuts against a second front abutment surface 8 of the plastic shell 2.

The support surfaces 50, 88, 94 and their corresponding abutment surfaces 4, 6, 8 of the plastic shell 2 consist of a substantially complementary form, allowing for an optimal force transfer from the suspensions 42, 82 into the plastic shell 2.

The suspension 42 of the least one driven wheel 40 comprises a swing arm 62 with an integrated motor housing 64 (figures 7-9). The motor housing 64 is configured to accommodate the electric motor 114. Integrating the motor housing 64 with the swing arm 62 into a single part has several advantages. Firstly, the number of components is reduced, simplifying assembly of the vehicle 1. Secondly, the entire heat capacity of the rear swing arm 62 material may now be functional as a heat sink for the engine 114, creating a substantial larger heat sink and a larger heat dissipation surface. This reduces the need for active cooling of the motor 114. Thirdly, the distance between the motor 114 and pulley 72 is constant, offering a reliable drive arrangement. Moreover, the placement of the pivot axis 66 of the rear swing arm 62 balances the weight of the motor 114 against the weight of the rear part of the swing arm 62 (with the wheel), which drastically lowers the unsprung weight, too much increasing comfort through spring and dampening response.

The motor housing 64 in the swing arm 62 has been developed to hold different motor 114 sizes, allowing for the electric motor 114 to be modular, such that it may be upgraded or downgraded dependent on the required performance, without requiring additional tooling for manufacturing the motor 114. This is achieved by keeping the diameter of the motor 114 constant, but varying the length of the motor 114 and therefore the power and performance in line with the requirements. This greatly increases the utilization of the production line and allows for a motor range that accounts for the global distribution in speed requirements, again increasing total resource efficiency.

The battery pack 116 may be modular, in such a way that increasing or decreasing the number of modules 118 in the battery pack 116 does not affect the nominal voltage of the battery pack, and additional electronics or control mechanisms are not required to guarantee safe operation . This property of a constant nominal voltage is highly desirable since power consuming parts are specified according to, and perform optimally at, a certain voltage. Connecting the battery modules 118 in series, as opposed to connecting battery modules 118 in parallel, would multiply the voltage by the number of battery modules 118. The latter results in a battery voltage spectrum that is too broad to optimize the power consuming devices of the vehicle. However, connecting the modules in parallel, without costly power management electronics, is dangerous because of the in-rush currents between battery modules 118 and other undesirable effects that can occur because of a (sudden) difference in module voltage caused by malfunctioning of a cell or the differences in internal resistance of cells. Therefore, battery pack 116 may include battery modules 118 that are interconnected using detachable electrical connections that connect cell clusters one to X or a first battery module to Y respectively (eg a first cell cluster in a first battery module 118 connects with a first cell cluster in a second battery module 118, which in turn connects with a first cell cluster in a third battery module 118 and so forth until the Y ^th battery module 118). X denotes the number of cell clusters per battery module 118 and Y is the total number of battery modules 118. The result is that every independent voltage level of the connected battery modules 118 (together forming the battery pack 116) is interconnected, generating a constant nominal voltage that doesn't require additional power management electronics per module to guarantee safe operation. In order to increase the safety level of the battery pack 116, every individual cell is double fused by means of an aluminum interconnection (between cell and cell cluster bus bars) that is dimensioned in such a way that it will fuse in a current exceeds case certain level. Thanks to this configuration of the battery pack 116, a user may upgrade or downgrade the number of battery modules 118 in scooter 1, effectively increasing or decreasing the range as needed (eg because of a change in daily commuting distance). Furthermore, in case of malfunction or one of the battery modules 118, it is also possible to only replace the battery module 188 that is defective.

Swing arm 62 supports rear wheel 40 or scooter 1 that is driven via a drive belt 70 and pulley 72. Swing arm 62 is provided with an integrated belt guard 68. The integrated belt guard 68 protects the driver's feet and fingers from the belt and eliminates the need for a separate protector.

The connector 48 or suspension 42 or rear wheel 40 comprises a base plate 52, and the swing arm 62 is pivotally connected to the base plate 52. The pivot axis 66 is shown in figures 5 and 6. A flange 56 of the base plate 52 forms the support surface 50 or the connector 48. In the shown embodiment, this flange 56 extends along three edges 54 or the base plate 52, ie two side edges and a front edge. These three edges substantially define a U-form or said flange 56.

Preferably, such a flange 56 extends along at least two edges of the base plate.

Said flange 56 furthermore preferably forms a support surface 50 that comprises at least one of an O, U, V, H, or I form. It is noted that a rectangle with an intermediate rib is considered to include an H form with added square connections between the ends of adjacent long ribs, i.e. it at least comprises an H form and additional ribs. If flange 56 extends along all edges of the circumference of said base plate 52, a substantially hermetic sealing may be obtained, protect or protect one or more than one electronic component 120 that is arranged on the base plate 52 from moisture and sealing the bottom side of the plastic shell 2.

The engineering design of the base plate 52 has been optimized to allow for the most ideal and shortest force paths possible within this configuration. The spring 46 and shock absorber 44 connect with the baseplate 52 at pivot 47. The distance between the pivot point 47 of the spring 46 and shock absorber 44 on the one hand and the pivot axis 66 or rear swing arm 62 on the other hand has leg optimized by arranging the rear spring 46 parallel to the swing arm 62 and arranging the front spring mounting point as close as possible to the side of the electric motor 114 to provide the shortest load path and the most compact assembly. In order to achieve the shortest possible load path and compact assembly, the rear spring 46 is pivotally arranged on top of the swing arm 62 to create an arm or sufficient length to reduce the needed spring force and peak loads on the swing arm 62, base plate 52 and plastic shell 2. With this setup additional usable space has been created in the buddy space 25 below seating 24. The creation of the short load path allows for the integration of the pivot point 47 of the spring 46 and shock absorber 44 on the one hand and pivot point 66 or rear swing arm 62 on the other hand, which allows for a single base plate 52, preferably made of aluminum, with drastically more accurate tolerances and conformity of production.

Besides further reducing parts, this reduces the required production tolerance on the plastic shell 2 and only requires a single production step to obtain desired production tolerances, which in turn reduces production costs.

Additionally, the engineering design of the base plate 52 described above increases stiffness and strength and allows for a horizontal load transfer of the spring 44 force into the already existing geometry of base plate 52, reducing the amount of additional material required to absorb this force.

Forces experienced by the rear wheel suspension 42 during driving are mainly related to bumps in the road and driving forces. Both forces are transmitted via swing arm 62 and shock absorber 44 towards the base plate 52. Base plate 52 transfers these forces towards the support surface 50, which equally distributes the forces over a relatively large area before they are transferred to the plastic shell 2. Abutment surface 4 or plastic shell 2 is designed such that the forces are received as compressive and tensile forces that are mainly oriented along a wall or said plastic shell 2 (instead of transverse or oblique to said wall).

Figures 5 and 6 show that the motor housing 64 or the swing arm 62 is accommodated in a motor accommodation 58 or the base plate 52.

Preferably, the motor housing 64 and / or the base plate 52 are made of metal.

Metals are strong and include excellent heat conductive characteristics, allowing for a transfer of heat from the motor housing 64 and / or base plate 52 to the environment. The motor housing 64 and / or base plate 52 may function as a heat sink. This heat sink functions as both a thermal mass and a heat dissipation surface. This allows the heat to be efficiently passively transferred to the environment, drastically reducing the need for active cooling and eliminating complex service intensive components.

More preferably, both the motor housing 64 and base plate are made of metal. The entire rear swing arm 62 which houses the motor 114 in motor housing 64 functions as a heat sink for the heat generated by the electric motor 114. The heat is then dissipated to the airflow around the rear swing arm 62.

However, the airflow comes in via cooling surfaces, eg the cooling fins 60 or a different surface increasing solution such as a (not shown) radiator, arranged at the underside of the baseplate 52. The fins 60 create a larger heat transfer surface for dissipating heat to the air and are in direct thermal contact with the one or more than one heat generating electronic component 120 that are thermally mounted on top or baseplate 52. Such electronic component 120 may include one or more of a battery management system, a motor controller , a charger, a (DC / DC) converter and an Electronic Control Unit (ECU). During riding, the airflow will effectively cool the electronic components 120. Since the maximum temperature range for such electronic components 120 is lower than that the maximum temperature range of the electric motor 114, the airflow coming out of the finnish 60 is still sufficient to cool the motor 114.

Figure 10 shows a cross sectional view of the front of the scooter 1, the plastic shell 2 defines at least one funnel-shaped portion 10, 16 with a support surface 88, 94 configured to receive a head tube 98 or scooter 1.

As can be seen in figure 10, the plastic shell 2 defines two funnel-shaped portions 10, 16. Each funnel-shaped portion 10, 16 comprises a support surface 88, 94 configured to receive the head tube 98 of the vehicle. The two funnel-shaped portions 10, 16 are aligned and the head tube 98 extends between both funnel-shaped portions 10, 16. Due to the distance between the two funnel-shaped portions 10, 16, head tube 98 is rigidly supported by the plastic shell 2, so that riding forces such as bumps and braking forces are readily absorbed by wheel suspension 82 or front wheel 80.

A first funnel-shaped portion 10 is a lower funnel-shaped portion 10 arranged in a wheel casing 20 defined by the plastic shell 2. A second funnel-shaped portion 16 is an upper funnel-shaped portion 16 arranged between panels of the plastic shell 2 defining a leg shield 14 and a front panel 12 or scooter 1.

A plastic shell 2 is far better able to absorb a tensile and compressive loads substantially oriented along a wall of said plastic shell 2 than it is in absorbing loads that are applied substantially transverse or oblique to said wall. The funnel-shaped portions 10, 16 ensure that plastic shell 2 is mainly loaded by tensile and compressive forces that are substantially oriented along the walls of said plastic shell 2.

The head tube 98 is a hollow tube that is arranged in bearings 100, the head tube 98 is rotatable relative to the plastic shell 2. An inner tube 106 including a spring and shock absorber 84 is rotatable and slideable arranged in head tube 98 ( figure 10). A fork 108 connects the front wheel 80 to said inner tube 106. When a rider turns steer 28, head tube 98 is rotated in bearing 100. Via link 104, also the fork 108 and front wheel 80 are rotated.

Forces experienced by the front wheel suspension 82 during riding are mainly related to bumps in the road and braking forces. Both situations are now described.

When driving over a bump, a vertical displacement is exerted on the wheel 80. The resulting upward force is transferred to the fork 108, which in turn transfers it into the shock absorber 84, reducing reducing and dampening the peak loads. This shock absorber 84 then transfers the resulting remainder of the dampened force into the head tube 98. Via the bearings 100, this force is then guided into the plastic shell 2 to the support surface 88 that forms first connector 86. Plate 102 forms this support surface 88 and abuts against first front abutment surface 6 or plastic shell 2. The walls of the plastic shell 2 or lower funnel-shaped portion 10 are mainly loaded by tensile forces substantially oriented along said the wall.

During braking with front wheel 80, brake system absorbs the kinetic energy of the vehicle 1 via front wheel 80. This will result in a deceleration force caused by the vehicle mass and experienced by front wheel 80. The resulting is force transferred into the plastic shell 2 in two places, ie the first front abutment surface 6 and the second front abutment surface 8. This results in the following force distribution throughout the shell.

Head tube 98 will try to pivot around the first (i.e. lower) funnel-shaped portion

10. Thus, upper end or head tube 98 will move in forward direction relative to front wheel 80 (i.e., to the left in Figure 10).

Front panel 12 will absorb a compressive force that is substantially oriented along said front panel 12, and to the contrary, leg shield 14 will absorb a tensile force that is substantially oriented along said leg shield 14. Hence, front panel 12 and leg shield 14 are mainly loaded in a preferred direction, ie in a wall or said plastic shell 2 (instead of transverse thereto). Said deceleration will also induce a weight transfer from back to front leading to a larger vertical force on front wheel 80. This will have an opposite, but less substantial, effect on forces induced in plastic shell 2.

As shown in figures 11 and 12, vehicle 1 comprises a display 34 with a user interface such as an operating system or application. The steer 28 of the scooter 1 comprises one or more control interfaces 32. In the figures, a left control interface 32L and a right control interface 32R are shown. The control interfaces 32 are designed to safely control all the functions required to control the entire operating system and one or more than one applications running in the operating system and displayed on display 34. The one or more control interfaces 32 are arranged so that the driver never has to take his / her hands of the steer 28 and that the controls can be used blindly. Detailed views of the left control interface 32L and the right control interface 32R are shown in figures 13A and 13B respectively. Although figure 14 shows a side view of the left control interface 32L or figure 13A, it is remarked that the right control interface comprises a similar configuration. A structural rubber of the control interface 32, which is shown in the perspective view of figure 15, has been dimensioned and constructed in such a way as to allow a user to clearly identify the current position of the thumb via touch, and furthermore allow for blind navigation among the control buttons 32L-1 to 32L-8 and 32R-1 to 32R-8. This is achieved by a domed structure as seen in the side view of figure 14. The thickness of the walls of the buttons 32L-1 to 32L-8 and 32R-1 to 32R-8 has been constructed in such a way as to be susceptible to sufficient pressure to allow for control and recognition of a successful press, even with gloved hands, and during rain and various driving conditions. The button interface 32L on the left side of the steer 28 has eight buttons or which five buttons have the following standard scooter functions: left blinker 32L-1, right blinker 32L3, high / low beam selection 32L-6, alarm lights 32L7, horn 32L-8. Buttons 32L-22, 32L-4 and 32L-5 are used for volume control and music / video playback or music / video and have the capability to control the volume or both the built in speakers 36 (left speaker 36L and right speaker 36R next to the display 34 that is preferably a touchscreen) in the scooter 1 and / or the volume of a connected personal device, such as a smartphone. Preferably, the connection is a wireless connection, e.g. via Bluetooth. Preferably, a user can control the playback or any audio / video stream in both the touchscreen 34 and the connected personal device. Button 32L-2 is used for volume up, button 32L-4 is volume down and button 32L-5 is used for play, pause and next and previous songs, the latter two by pressing two or three times respectively.

The right control interface 32R on the right side of the steer 28 also includes eight buttons in a similar layout, but preferably with vastly different functions. The buttons 32R-1 to 32R-8 on the right are preferably all specifically configured to control the operating system and all applications that can run while riding. Preferably, the buttons 32R-1 to 32R-4 are all directional controls to navigate through the different applications and their respective focusable user interface (UI) elements. Button 32R-1 is left, 32R-2 is up, 32R-3 is right and 32R-4 is down. Button 32R-5 is used for clicking an UI element that has been selected with a single click or opening search when no element is selected. When button 32R-5 is pressed longer, the voice command opens and a user may then control the actions with voice commands. Button 32R-6 is used to go back a level, Button 32R-7 is used to bring up the menu and open additional options within an application. Button 32R-8 is used to return to the home screen from any open application or other screen.

Said buttons 32R-1 to 32R-8 also have tactile feedback so the operator does not need to look while operating them to know when he / she clicked them successfully. To help the user learn and understand the button functions, buttons 32L-1 to 32L-8 and 32R-1 to 32R-8 may comprise icons (figure 12). Preferably, the icons light up in low light conditions, continuously improving usability and safety while driving. Also buttons 32L-1 to 32L-8 may be provided with a similar tactile feedback.

Display 34 is preferably a touch screen, so it may also be used for controlling the operating system for situations that are considered safe to use by the operating system. The available option may be speed dependent, with full options and standstill, to a limited number of options while driving at moderate speeds, and with even further limited or no options at higher speeds. Preferably, full control of the touch functions is disabled when the vehicle moves not to tempt the operator to take hands of the steer 28. The primary safety this setup allows that it is a user no longer needs to take a phone out of his / her pocket to accept / deny calls, navigate, play music or control any other app powered function that would otherwise result in the user taking his / her hands of the handles 30. This setup may prevent many lethal accidents, since to date using an app on while riding is cause of death number one in traffic accidents in various European countries.

The operating system may be connected to the internet through wireless technologies such as 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi. The connection with the internet may consist of multiple independent access points. A first access point may connect directly with the public internet and a further secured access point may connect with a backend server that has the capability to connect, update and transfer data from and to all connected devices remotely.

If vehicle 1 is a vehicle that is driven with an electric motor 114, it is equally silent when turned on. In order to prevent someone from turning the throttle into the right handle 30 while the vehicle 1 is turned on, a safeguard is provided. After all, turning the throttle would result in the vehicle 1 riding away, which is only desired when a driver is sitting in or on vehicle 1.

As shown in figure 2, scooter 1 comprises a seating 24. A sensor 26, eg a pressure sensor, is arranged under the seating 24. This sensor 26 is configured to sense a presence or a driver on the seating 24. Sensor 24 is connected to a control unit of said vehicle 1, eg electronic component 120. This control component 120 may be a motor controller that is configured to allow the electric motor 114 to drive said vehicle 1 only when a user is sitting on said seating.

Although they show a preferred embodiment of the invention, the above described embodiment is intended only to illustrate the invention and not to limit in any way the scope of the invention. Considering the invention is shown using a scooter, several aspects of the invention are applicable for other road vehicles, such as motor bikes and trikes as well.

Although the scooter 1 described is an electric scooter 1, driven by an electric motor 114, the skilled person will understand that a frameless vehicle according to the invention would also reduce the weight of a vehicle with a combustion engine, hence improving performance of said vehicle .

It should be understood that where features mentioned in the appended claims are followed by reference signs, such signs are included solely for the purpose of enhancing the intelligibility of the claims and are in no way limiting on the scope of the claims. The scope of the invention is therefore defined solely by the following claims.

Claims (6)

Conclusions 1/9 A vehicle, comprising: - at least two wheels, each comprising a suspension; - a plastic shell that defines an enclosure of the vehicle; - wherein the vehicle is frameless and the suspensions of the at least two wheels are connected to the plastic shell. 2/9 The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the wheels is steerable. 3/9 The vehicle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one of the wheels is drivable. Vehicle as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, wherein at least one of the wheels comprises a shock absorber. 5/9 A vehicle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the suspension comprises at least one connecting piece with a support surface that abuts against a corresponding abutment surface of the plastic shell. Vehicle according to one of the preceding claims, further comprising an electric motor and an energy storage, in particular a battery. The vehicle according to claim 6, wherein the battery is arranged under a footrest of the vehicle. Vehicle as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein the battery comprises modular battery modules, wherein all potential levels are mutually connected by means of detachable electrical connections. The vehicle of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the suspension of at least one driven wheel comprises a pivot arm with an integrated motor housing configured to accommodate the electric motor. The vehicle of claim 9, wherein the connecting piece comprises a base plate, and wherein the pivot arm is hingedly connected to the base plate. The vehicle of claim 10, wherein a flange of the base plate forms the support surface of the connector. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the flange extends along at least two edges of the base plate. A vehicle according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the flange forms a support surface that comprises at least one of an O, U, V, H or I shape. The vehicle according to any of claims 10 to 13, wherein the motor housing is accommodated in a motor accommodation of the base plate. The vehicle according to any of claims 10 to 14, wherein the motor housing and / or the base plate are made of metal. The vehicle of any one of claims 10 to 15, wherein the base plate is provided with one or more than one cooling surface extending outward from the base plate. The vehicle of any one of claims 10 to 16, wherein one or more than one electronic component is mounted in thermal connection with the base plate. A vehicle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the plastic shell defines at least one funnel-shaped portion with a support surface configured to receive a head tube from the vehicle. The vehicle of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the plastic shell defines two funnel-shaped parts, each funnel-shaped part comprising a support surface configured to receive a head tube from the vehicle. The vehicle of claim 19, wherein the two funnel-shaped parts are aligned and the head tube extends between both funnel-shaped parts. The vehicle of any one of claims 18 to 20, wherein a first funnel-shaped member is a lower funnel-shaped member disposed in a wheel housing defined by the plastic shell. The vehicle of any one of claims 19-21, wherein a second funnel-shaped member is an upper funnel-shaped member disposed between panels of the plastic shell defining a leg shield and a front panel of the vehicle. The vehicle of any one of claims 18 to 22, wherein the head tube is a hollow tube mounted in bearings, the head tube being connected to a handlebar of the vehicle, and wherein the head tube with the handlebar relative to the plastic peel is rotatable. The vehicle of any one of claims 18 to 23, wherein an inner housing including a spring and a shock absorber is rotatably and slidably mounted in the head tube, a fork connecting the second wheel to the inner housing. A vehicle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the vehicle comprises a display with a user interface, and wherein a steering wheel of the vehicle has one or more than one control interface, which is configured to perform vehicle functions and / or functions of a control system. includes driving. The vehicle of claim 25, wherein the user interface comprises one or more than one button mounted on or near one or more than one handlebar handlebar. The vehicle according to claim 25 or 26, wherein the display is touch sensitive. The vehicle of any one of claims 25 to 27, wherein the control system is configured to run applications. The vehicle of claim 28, wherein the one or more than one control interface is configured to further control one or more than one of the following: - a function of an application that runs on the operating system; - a function of a device connected to the control system; and - a function that is displayed on the screen. 30. Vehicle as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, further comprising a seat and a sensor configured to detect the presence of a user on the seat, wherein the sensor is connected to a control unit of the vehicle, and wherein the control unit is configured to only allow the engine to drive the vehicle when a user is sitting in the seat. 31. Vehicle as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, wherein the vehicle is a two wider, in particular a scooter or motorcycle. 6/9