LBrands are already designing your next car. And any resemblance to the one you drive now is purely coincidental… The first cars revolutionised mobility 130 years ago. Now we are witnessing the reinvention of the very concept of a vehicle. And electrification is just the tip of the iceberg.
Liux, a Spanish start-up, designs prototypes that aspire to become the first cars made entirely with 3D printers and biodegradable materials: carrot steering wheel, soy foam seats… There is already a waiting list for the Geko model.
It is not enough to replace the combustion engine. Sustainability has become the focus of the industry, which is testing new materials and fuels. We have entered the era of the biodegradable car. The cars of the future will be manufactured sustainably, minimizing their environmental footprint throughout their entire life cycle. And Spain, which is the second largest European manufacturer, is at the forefront.
One example is Liux, a young Spanish company run by Antonio Espinosa, which is already being compared to Elon Musk and Tesla for its vision of the future. Liux designs cars made from surprising materials: carrot steering wheels, soy foam seats, biofuels based on composted chocolate waste and vegetable oils… Every spare part is eco-friendly. And the manufacturing: with 3D printers.
“Cities need light, efficient cars that consume little energy, are easy to park and are well designed for carsharing,” explains David Sancho, co-founder of Liux. Traditional brands have joined the materials revolution. Vegan leather upholstery to eliminate animal skin in interiors, sawdust dashboards, organic paints… The aim is to minimise the carbon footprint.
And new players are entering the market, such as the telecommunications giant Xiaomi, which has just launched the SU7, an electric vehicle with immersive technology that aims to bring home automation to the vehicle. A progressive symbiosis between man and machine is also envisaged.
There is still a way to go before we become cyborgs, but proposals are already on the table, such as that of the Burgos multinational Antolin, which has designed a night vision system that not only adjusts the beam of light from the headlights, but even the size of the pupils. of the driver.
The latest big news is that the European Union is going to allow manufacturers to continue selling models with internal combustion engines beyond the year 2035 as long as they run on climate-neutral synthetic fuels, which has unleashed a new fever in research into the ecological fuels for the hybrid engine, which seemed doomed to disappear. Today it is emerging as a European asset in the face of the imminent invasion of the Chinese electric car.
