Demonstration of the RUF electric vehicle concept

The range of the cars is not limited by the capacity of the batteries when the cars are driving on the rails. By coupling the vehicles together to form trains on the rails, the air drag and thereby the energy consumption is reduced by 2/3 when compared to road driving. At the same time the capacity of one rail equals the capacity of four highway lanes. The goal of the project is to demonstrate the fundamental parts of the RUF concept in order to show that the RUF system is technically feasible. An individual vehicle, RUF, and a public transport vehicle, MAXI-RUF, will be built. The dual-mode principle and train formation will be demenstrated on a short rail. This proposal covers the first phase: The specification of the RUF system and the building of a RUF. Ten meters of rail, one RUF and a control system will be built to demonstrate the feasibility of automatic driving as well as the transition from driving on a driving on a rail. A MAXI-RUF, another RUF and a longer rail will be built in the second phase of the project. In the third phase train formation and train driving will be demonstrated