Alligator by Jose Luis Sanz, Spain

2006: California.

Drawings on Display at Michelin Challenge Design™

Biography:

Jose Luis Sanz Octavio currently resides in Barcelona, Spain. He received a technical engineering degree in industrial design at the Universitat Jaume in Castellon, Spain and a master’s degree in design at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona.

In November 2003, he began working at Praesentis, a company that develops underwater tele-presence. At the same time, he completed the “nao” project which was his final project at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. Currently, he is in charge of the design and evolution of the product, usage of new materials and the application and management of the corporate image at Praesentis.

In 2003 he was the winner of one of the ten grants “Carta Blanca” for the B-Taxi project in commemoration of the centennial FAD (Foment de les Arts Decoratives). The B-Taxi project was developed during a three month internship at the Renault Design Center Barcelona.

Description:

The concept is a mix between a Super-Sport-Bike and a SUV, a concept that could go beyond a “Quad”. Thanks to four electric engines placed into the four wheels, it will give to the vehicle an absolute independent traction, a better distribution of the weight as well as the possibility of using the space in another way.

Using fuel-cell as a powertrain and Brushless DC motors as electric engines, the driver could control the driving system electronically. The application of “electro active polymers” technology to the tires could give an absolute new vision in the tire field. You could control electronically the thickness, the weave and the height of the tires as well as using the system inversely, the tire could work as a multi-sensorial skin. Giving information about the ground or the roads quality and will be sending the information to the internal computer which will process the data in order to inform the driver and control the traction.