Ecovity - The digital ecosystem for customised vehicles

The IntWertL research project, funded by the BMWK and the EU, was launched over a year and a half ago with the aim of "Faster to customized vehicles". KIT is participating with its IMI and IIP institutes. Together with 18 other partners from science and industry, they are working on a digital value creation network. Small and medium-sized companies are being enabled to bring customized vehicles onto the market in small quantities, more cost-effectively and faster than before.

Whether lightweight vehicles for inner-city deliveries or special utility vehicles for the municipal building yard: anyone who needs customized solutions in small quantities (batch sizes of 1 to 10,000 units) for a very specific purpose has had to dig deep into their pockets and expect long delivery times. A high degree of individualization and increasing sustainability requirements are forcing many vehicle manufacturers to look for missing skills and additional capacities outside their supply chains.

In order to meet these challenges, representatives from science and industry began setting up a digital development and production platform for small and medium-sized companies in the research project "Intelligent value creation networks for low-volume lightweight vehicles" (IntWertL) a year and a half ago. In addition to increasing efficiency in the product development process, the research project aims to enable greater innovative strength and speed for the entire ecosystem. Reduced entry barriers and easier access to resources will also enable smaller companies from the vehicle manufacturing or automotive supplier industry to initiate larger development projects and become OEMs themselves.

The platform will be launched on the market with its basic functionality under the name Ecovity at the end of the funding phase in spring 2026. Until then, all interested parties can find out more about the background and composition of the research project as well as the development status of the Ecovity platform at https://ecovity.de/.