EV producers have been addressing vary nervousness with bigger battery packs, and constructing shopper confidence by means of superior expertise and options, steadily enhancing automobile capabilities. Whereas this evolution has made EVs extra highly effective and bigger, it has additionally made them heavier—introducing a “weight penalty” that poses a novel engineering problem. Producers are actually tasked with balancing efficiency, effectivity, and sustainability—assembly these calls for with out compromising environmental targets, automobile agility, security, or high quality. This requires a holistic, clever strategy combining frugal engineering and lightweighting, with a give attention to optimising automobile structure, topology, materials choice, design, manufacturing, and electrical techniques.
“At the moment, EVs can provide over 850km of vary, assuaging vary nervousness and boosting shopper confidence. Nonetheless, this has posed a big problem for OEMs in optimising automobile weight, because the batteries are the only largest part contributor to an EV’s mass,” explains Steve Brown, World Head – Physique Engineering CoE, Tata Applied sciences. He provides that leveraging frugal engineering and lightweighting rules can provide multi-dimensional benefits throughout design, supplies, elements, and manufacturing, impacting not solely automobile efficiency but in addition operational prices and environmental footprint.
“Lightweighting considerably reduces the environmental carbon footprint by minimising power consumption all through the automobile’s lifecycle, from materials extraction to disposal. We achieved a 15% enchancment in power effectivity for an EV shopper, leading to a discount of approx. 8 tons of CO₂ emissions per automobile over its lifecycle,” shares Brown, including that by optimizing designs and integrating elements, the corporate has helped many OEMs scale back their uncooked materials prices by approx 15-20%.”
Emphasising on the substantial R&D efforts in lightweighting with a give attention to sustainability, Deepak NG, MD of Dassault Systèmes India, remarks, “To attain significant weight reductions in EVs, a multi-faceted strategy—incorporating alternate materials discovery, superior simulation research, part reuse throughout automobile packages, topology-based lightweighting, and additive supplies and manufacturing strategies—must be leveraged.”
He provides that optimising battery pack design for strength-to-weight effectivity will additional enhance EV efficiency and vary. “When these methods are applied in tandem, EVs can change into not solely lighter but in addition extra environment friendly, sustainable, and cost-effective for the longer term.”
Giving instance of Tesla’s battery case construction that eliminates the necessity for a separate essential ground meeting, leading to important weight financial savings, Brown shares, “Optimising materials grade and thickness is essential in EV design to make sure the precise materials is utilized in the precise place.” Conventional steel-rich architectures have shifted to mixed-metal mixtures, utilizing high-strength metal, aluminium castings, carbon fibre, and magnesium to cut back weight whereas sustaining security and sturdiness. “Sensible use of those supplies has enabled as much as a 30% weight discount, as demonstrated in our previous expertise with European OEMs. As at all times collection of supplies has to steadiness price and the capabilities of the native manufacturing infrastructure.”
VG Ramakrishnan, Managing Companion at Avanteum Advisors LLP, emphasises the inherent limitations of lightweighting in EV physique and design, stating, “There’s a restrict to lightweighting—you can not proceed lowering weight solely to reinforce effectivity or lengthen vary. You could additionally think about centre of gravity, stability, security, and total product efficiency.” He notes that battery weight stays the first problem in EVs, suggesting that even a 10-12% discount in battery mass might considerably enhance vary. Based on consultants, battery elements make as much as 60% of the EV’s weight adopted by motor at round 15%. Furthermore, a ten% discount in automobile weight can enhance battery vary by approx. 6-7%.
“Moreover, the wiring harness is a vital part that contributes to total weight. By both utilizing various supplies or enhancing materials conductivity, lightweighting efforts on this space might additional enhance effectivity,” Ramakrishnan provides. Agreeing on the identical, Brown notes that by adopting {an electrical} structure that makes use of much less copper in wiring harnesses, consolidates modules, and incorporates extra energy-efficient processors and elements like lighting, producers can obtain notable good points in weight discount and effectivity.
Deepak NG emphasises that integrating Mechanical, Electrical, Fluidics, and Software program disciplines throughout the context of system necessities and structure permits for a holistic view of system design. “This cohesive, multidisciplinary framework ensures alignment and convergence in the direction of product efficiency and market calls for,” he explains. “It allows organisations to effectively consider change requests or develop new merchandise and system variants, all whereas leveraging a unified, performance-based techniques engineering strategy that in the end reduces the price of system and product growth.”
Brown notes {that a} tech-centred focus in EV design has pushed important enhancements in consumer expertise and automobile security and can be utilised to reinforce effectivity. “The SDV (Software program Outlined Automobile) structure represents a frugal strategy,” he explains, “permitting efficiency upgrades or new characteristic integrations with out the necessity to change bodily elements, thereby lowering each automobile weight and downtime.”
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