This year, TU/ecomotive’s team presents Eterna: the car that lasts a lifetime. The vision of the TU/ecomotive team was to create a car with a significantly longer lifespan compared to current models. Typically, cars are decommissioned after approximately 20 years. However, after two decades, not all materials in the car have reached the end of their life cycle. To address this, we designed the car with two distinct lifecycles: a swappable top and a durable bottom. The durable bottom is composed of components with long lifetimes, such as the ladder frame and motor. By treating the car as having two lifecycles, the durable bottom can be separated from the top, which people tend to upgrade more frequently. This approach enables the owner to replace only the top after 20 years, significantly reducing material usage and expenses, as opposed to buying an entirely new car.

Eterna promotes environmental consciousness while ensuring long-lasting performance. With its innovative design, Eterna sets the stage for a new era in automotive engineering.