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As a critical part of auto-body, the design of tailgate not only affects the beauty, usability and safety of automobile, but also involves more and more issues about environmental protection and energy saving. Hence, it is of vital importance to investigate lightweight of tailgate. This paper mainly focuses on lightweight design of CFRP tailgate based on conventional SUV metal tailgate, which can be realized under the condition of meeting requirements of stiffness, modal and manufacturing with the adoption of multi-step optimization method. To start with, finite element (FE) model of metal tailgate is established. Meanwhile, the stiffness and modal analyses, including bending stiffness, torsional stiffness, lateral stiffness, vertical stiffness and free modal are set up. Then, the structural performances of metal tailgate are analyzed, and the topology optimization of CFRP tailgate is performed.

The concept of “bionic design” has driven the developments of automotive design. In this paper, a novel beak-shaped automotive tail fin with honeycomb cellular structure is proposed based on the idea of “bionic design”. Beak-shaped appearance is utilized to meet the requirement of aerodynamics performance, inner honeycomb cellular structure is filled to achieve more lightweight space. This paper starts from the establishment of three dimensional (3D) model based on the real characteristics of sparrow’s beak. On this basis, aerodynamic performances of novel beak-shaped tail fin and conventional shark tail fin are analyzed by experiment. Finally, the stiffness and modal analyses of solid beak-shaped tail fin and honeycomb beak-shaped tail fin are carried out respectively. The results indicate that the deformation of solid beak-shaped tail fin and honeycomb beak-shaped tail fin satisfy the basic requirements.

Nowadays, SC is recognized as a key element of hybrid energy storage system in modern energy supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs). Co9S8 as a promising electrode material attracts much attention for supercapacitor owing to its superior electrochemical capacity. However, its poor stability and electronic conductivity, which result in inferior cycling performance and rate capability, have seriously limited the practical application of Co9O8 in supercapacitors. In this article, Co9S8 nanoparticles were embedded in reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via a simple anneal approach as high efficient and stable electrodes for SCs. The Co9S8/rGO composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The Co9S8 nanoparticles were inserted tightly between the rGO layers due to strong intermolecular forces, preventing the cluster in reduction process of rGO from graphene oxide (GO).

As one of the key technologies for EVs and HEVs, the design of their motors has been researched extensively, and some novel rotors of permanent magnet motor were proposed in order to improve torque capability, including average torque and torque ripple. Rotor structure selection of drive motor for various electric vehicles has been one of the key issues in matching of electric vehicle power system. Three motors are analyzed for providing visible insights to the contribution of different rotor structures to the torque characteristics, efficiency and extended speed range. First, an iterative comparative analysis of torque-speed characteristics with different flux linkage, d-axis inductance and rotor saliency ratio is performed for demonstrating the design principle. Then, the three motors are optimized by a genetic algorithm (GA) for further improving the torque characteristics.