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The department of Vehicle Systems and Technology Assessment identifies, analyses, and motivates future vehicle concepts for road and rail traffic from the perspective of engineering, commerce, society, and environment. Technology assessment is aligned quantitatively, prospectively, and systematically in order to enable assessment of novel vehicle technologies with respect to the criteria of energy, emissions, costs, and utilities in the context of society. Changing parameters and requirements are being continually identified and reflected back on, or projected into the design of future vehicle concepts.

Essential constituents of the research here are:

• the continual, systematic analysis of future requirements for road and rail vehicles from the market, society, and politics;
• the future-oriented, potential-based identification and assessment of vehicle and fuel technologies with respect to energy, emissions, costs, and mass flows as well as their potential and restrictions;
• the synthesis from requirements and vehicle concept screening to vehicle engineering scenarios that map the relevant parameters onto the technologies' prospects; and finally
• the integration of acquired insights from the steps mentioned above into new vehicle systems/concepts in co-operation with other fields of research at the Institute as well as the balancing of vehicle concept-determining technical features with the solution bundles and development strategies in the DLR network.

Vehicle Systems and Technology Assessment

Mapping of the competitive situation of vehicle and fuel technologies as well as the identification of possible development and diffusion paths in the future are central goals within the vehicle engineering scenarios. We understand this competition for customer and environmental benefits in a systematic, interdisciplinary, and global connection of engineering, science, economy, ecology, and society.