Novel Concepts for Safer, Lighter, Circular and Smarter Vehicle Structure Design for Enhanced Crashworthiness and Higher Compatibility

Automotive safety is one of the most crucial factors in vehicle development and future vehicles need novel, lightweight structures that are safer and sustainable throughout their life-cycle. Hence, the long-term aim for SALIENT is to make our roads safer and reduce serious injuries and fatalities. To reach this ambition, SALIENT will present novel structural and vehicle concepts that are safer, lighter, circular, and smarter, which can be adapted to accommodate different crash scenarios. SALIENT will focus on innovating new technologies and will develop, demonstrate, and validate the effectiveness of light front-end structure (FES), considering eco-design and circular economy principles, to enhance vehicle safety. SALIENT will adapt advanced light materials, improved manufacturing and joining techniques, innovative circular design, and emerging active safety technologies to develop a smart FES with high energy absorption capability and to be adapted (prior crash events) with future mixed traffic scenarios to meet or exceed future vehicle demands in terms of safety, structural integrity, crashworthiness, and compatibility. SALIENT will build a pathway for the newly accumulated strategic knowledge to impact EU industries and society. Its ambition is to create global impacts and to play a key role to support EU strategic needs, and economic and societal challenges. The consortium consists of twelve partners from seven countries, representing the full automotive value chain, with leading European car manufacturer working alongside world-class research and education organisations, plus innovative SMEs. The project has been engineered to ensure maximum impact for the automotive industry in particular and society as a whole, significantly contributing to the evolving field of automotive safety.