VENTRA Electric Concept Car Captures Tire Dust by TU/ecomotive
VENTRA student electric car concept from TU/ecomotive Netherlands features T.R.A.C.E. system capturing up to 42% of tire and brake particles.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- VENTRA is an electric vehicle concept built by students at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.
- It features the T.R.A.C.E. electrostatic system around each wheel to capture tire and brake wear particles while driving.
- Simulations show the system captures around 24% of particles at 50-80 km/h and up to 42% during city driving.
- The carbon-fiber composite chassis weighs about 135 kilograms, contributing to a total vehicle weight of 790 kilograms.
Electric vehicles have eliminated exhaust pipe emissions, but they still leave behind an invisible trail of pollution on the road surface. Every rotation of a wheel wears down rubber, while braking releases another stream of fine particulate matter into the air. VENTRA, a student-built EV concept from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, is engineered specifically with this overlooked mess in mind.
The vehicle's most prominent exterior feature is a set of bright orange covers wrapped around each of its four wheels. Encased inside these housings is T.R.A.C.E., an electrostatic collection system designed to pull tire and brake particles out of the air as the car moves forward. It serves as a surprisingly tangible solution to a type of pollution that typically vanishes into the background environment.
At higher speeds, the momentum of the car channels particle-filled airflow directly through the collection mechanism, while small auxiliary fans assist in drawing air inward during slower city driving. According to computer simulations conducted by the TU/ecomotive team, VENTRA can capture approximately 24 percent of tire particles between 31 and 50 mph (50 and 80 km/h), with that figure climbing to 42 percent during urban driving conditions. Real-world street testing will serve as the next crucial validation phase for these simulated metrics.
Once gathered, the trapped material can be extracted from the collection surfaces using water or a vacuum. The TU/ecomotive team has already put some of this captured matter to use by incorporating portions of the dark particulate powder into an interior enamel cabin coating, sealing the byproduct permanently and making an otherwise invisible pollutant physically present inside the vehicle.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
VENTRA also tackles the broader issue of vehicle weight. Heavy battery packs in modern EVs place an increased load on tires, prompting the student team to construct a large portion of the chassis using carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite sandwich panels. The finished chassis weighs about 135 kilograms compared to roughly 230 kilograms for conventional designs, bringing the total car weight to 790 kilograms with an estimated WLTP range of 290 kilometers (about 180 miles).
Addressing tire abrasion and brake emissions aligns closely with regulatory frameworks such as the European Euro 7 standards, which officially incorporate non-exhaust automotive emissions into regulatory oversight. By giving physical form to an elusive pollutant, experimental student prototypes like VENTRA highlight innovative pathways for future vehicle engineering.
The innovation extends to the dashboard through a system called Clean Drive, which reads steering, braking, and acceleration telemetry to provide real-time driver feedback aimed at minimizing tire and brake degradation. Ultimately, VENTRA stands as an exploratory study into what happens when automotive emissions shift away from the exhaust pipe toward vehicle components that have been generating particulate matter all along.
Source: designboom
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