The 10th concept car from the Eindhoven University of Technology student team is fully centred around one theme that is becoming increasingly vital for our future: repairability.
Alderman Rik Thijs opened the event by calling Aria “a wonderful example of how tackling climate change is possible,” and the team showed exactly how design can drive circularity. Aria is an electric car that you can repair yourself, or even have repaired at a local Repair Café. With the Netherlands aiming for a circular economy by 2050, repairability is the next essential step after refusing, reducing, and reusing. It requires products that can be opened, understood, diagnosed and maintained; an approach strongly supported by the growing EU “Right to Repair” movement.
Throughout the presentation, the students demonstrated how they redesigned the car from the ground up to make this possible: easier access to components, drastically reduced use of adhesives, simplified electronics, and smart modularity. Even the 3D-printed body panels, created together with Summa students, can be attached and replaced with minimal effort. For example, the modular batteries only weigh 12 kilos per pack. It can be replaced by anyone, so no need to go to a service point.
It’s a powerful reminder that circular design doesn’t have to be a vision of the distant future—it can be built today.
Sascha Bloemhoff, Managing Director of Automotive Campus, was present at the launch and emphasized how encouraging this development is: “These students are proving that circular design is within reach today—smart, accessible, and empowering for both industry and consumers. Seeing initiatives like Aria come to life is genuinely exciting. Projects like these play an important role in accelerating the transition toward sustainable and circular mobility. Congratulations to the entire TU/ecomotive team for once again pushing the boundaries of what sustainable mobility can look like!"
