ZEM, the electric car which would be the world's first carbon-neutral vehicle

• News
• green tech

ZEM (Zero Emission Mobility) is a vehicle prototype designed and built by 35 students of the Eindhoven University of Technology. The result would have been achieved thanks to a pair of carbon capture devices behind the front grille.

ZEM absorbs C02 while driving and appears to be able to collect about 4.5 pounds of carbon for every 20,000 miles driven. A group of university students from the Netherlands built an electric car which would be the world's first carbon-neutral vehicle.

Solar panels on the roof and hood provide eight lithium batteries with approximately 15% of ZEM's power. There is also a traditional plug-in connection behind the rear license plate. ZEM's carbon filters can offset its carbon footprint: "When these filters can be made in a modular way, they can be implemented in any type of vehicle, any type of transport," said Eindhoven student Lars Holster.

The body is 3D printed from recycled plastic, which can be shredded and reused at the end of the car's life cycle. The interior is made with pineapple, while the dashboard comes from recycled cooking oils. Cars contribute significantly to environmental pollution both during use and once scrapped, having to take into account the entire life cycle analysis.

More than 80% of the material that makes up a car is fully recyclable, such as lubricating oil, batteries, tires, WEEE components, light bulbs, glass, plastic and much more. There are factories where cars are produced with energy obtained from solar panels.

The EU, for example, in 2015 established that 95% of the weight of a car must be recycled. In 2018 it published a report according to which every year 4 million vehicles escape scrapping, heavily affecting the environmental impact.

Some people with creative recycling by reusing most of the car wrecks to create various items. Magnetic induction charging is one of the main objects of study to recharge electric cars in a fast and low-polluting way, a technology that allows you to recharge the battery with wireless technology by charging the car from the floors of a garage or even when the vehicle it is in motion, thanks to special systems positioned on the motorways.