Title: Global green car learning clusters

Authors: Aleksandar Subic, Lucien Koopmans

Addresses: School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3083, Australia. ' School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3083, Australia

Abstract: As the global automotive industry sector is attempting to embrace the new green car technology paradigm, there is an urgent need to build the intellectual capacity of its workforce to achieve this objective. The challenge is to rapidly consolidate the relevant enabling knowledge as a strategic resource and make this available to relevant stakeholders, including students, engineers, researchers, managers and others. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of research that aims to build industry-aligned automotive research and education capability in green car technologies, address government policy objectives to build a domestic green car industry and create new labour market opportunities. The paper describes the global learning clusters concept and the key technological challenges and opportunities considered by the established clusters.

Keywords: green car technologies; global automobile industry; automotive education; automotive research; intellectual capacity; knowledge; global learning clusters; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2010.032982

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2010 Vol.53 No.1/2, pp.36 - 53

Published online: 06 May 2010 *

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