Structural weight is one of the most critical variables in the design of electric vehicles, due to its strong influence on the vehicle’s autonomy and range. Fibre composites are an attractive option for producing lightweight chassis structures, as they provide excellent stiffness/weight and strength/weight ratios, easy formability, good fatigue properties and exceptional corrosion resistance. The use of composite materials may contribute to a reduction of 30% to 50% in chassis weight. This project will focus on the design and optimisation of the chassis of a three-wheeled lightweight utility vehicle. This will include a preliminary design stage taking into account specific requirements such as a load capacity vs. maximum incline, range in a single charge, manoeuvrability etc. This will be followed by the detailed design stage which will consider among others (i) topology and layup optimisation, (ii) damage tolerance / fatigue life, and (iii) the use of new materials and manufacturing techniques such as hybrid fibres and mixed fibre architectures. These will require the use of advanced Finite Element (FE) modelling tools including bespoke algorithms for model generation and analysis.