Electric car made from recycled waste

Dutch scientists have presented an unusual concept for an electric car made from recycled plastic.


A team of scientists from the Eindhoven University of Technology has developed Luca, a sports EV model that would be built using recycled ocean plastic. According to the team, the project is designed not only to reuse materials that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill or incinerator, but also to show that waste can be a valuable resource.

Luca may hit the road as soon as summer 2020.

The idea is to use as many different types of waste as possible when building Luca. For example, the chassis of the car will be made of a unique sandwich panel using composite material consisting of recycled PET, and the outer “skins” of the panel will contain flax fibres. The car body will be made from a new material developed in collaboration with Israeli startup UBQ, which combines additives from household waste with recycled PP. Recycled aluminium will be used to create the car’s frame.

Luca car model Photo: tuecomotive.nl.

Luca will be equipped with two wheeled engines and six battery packs, which due to their modular design can be replaced with more efficient batteries when better technology is available.

As for the interior, there will be no huge infotainment displays inside Luca, as the developers consider this as a waste of resources. Instead, the car will sync with your smartphone or tablet for information and entertainment needs. This will make Luca EV sustainable and affordable for a wide range of audiences – if it ends up going into mass production.


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