VTE December 2021

VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEER

Electric Start-Up Savic Motorcycles: Australia’s own EV motorcycle company Embracing EVs: What’s on the road to EV adoption Aero Dynamics: Racing for the best downforce Auto Aftermarket: Not an afterthought for engineers

December 2021 Issue 30 Representing mobility engineers since 1927 www.saea.com.au

VTE | Contents

Contents December 2021

Formula SAE galvanises 2022

5

APAC papers start the journey to Melbourne

6

The road to embracing EVs in Australia

16

An F1 view on aerodynamics for race cars

20

Electric Start-Up

22

Special Features 16

EV space – The road to embracing EVs in Australia

18

Transport NSW – Leading emerging technologies

19

Dale Brittain – Auto Aftermarket, not afterthought

20

Aero Dynamics – An F1 view on aerodynamics for race cars

22

Savic Motorcycles – Electric Start-Up

VTE News 8

Automotive News

11

Defence & Aero News

12

Truck & Bus News

14

Overseas News

15

General News

Society News 4

Notes from the Chair - Welcome from Adrian Feeney

5

SAE-A News

Technical Feature 26

Technical – Design and Optimization of an Electric Car Chassis and Body using Structural Analysis and CFD

Electric Start-Up Australian engineer Dennis Savic designs and builds an EV motorcycle company

About the SAE-A SAE-A was founded in 1927 to address the need for further education for all facets surrounding Automotive Engineering, and now encompasses all mobility engineering industries in the Australasian region. The SAE-A is a non-profit organisation that works to serve the needs of its members and to promote the relevance of mobility related technologies to governments, industry and the community in general.

The editor, publisher, printer, the Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia (SAE-A) and their employees, directors, servants, agents and associated or related entities (Publishing Entities) are not responsible for the accuracy or correctness of the text, pictures or other material comprising the contributions and advertisements contained in this publication or for the consequences of any use made of the products, services and other information referred to in this publication. The Publishing Entities expressly disclaim all liability of whatsoever nature for any consequences arising from the use or reliance on material contained in this publication whether caused to a reader of this publication or otherwise. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Publishing Entities. The responsibility for the accuracy or correctness of information and other material is that of the individual contributors and the Publishing Entities do not accept responsibility for the accuracy or correctness of information or other material supplied by others. To the extent permissible by law, the Publishing Entities exclude all liability pursuant to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or other applicable laws arising from statute or common law.

Readers should make their own inquiries prior to the use of, or reliance on, any information or other material contained in this publication, and where necessary seek professional advice. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without the written permission of SAE-A is strictly prohibited.

www.saea.com.au

VTE | 3

Introduction | Secretary, CEO and Chairman Society of Automotive Engineers

VTE Published By: Society of Automotive Engineers - Australasia ABN:

95 004 248 604

Address: PO Box 103, Werribee Vic 3030 Phone: 0403 267 166 Email: info@sae-a.com.au Web: www.saea.com.au

Adrian Feeney

Membership & Subscriptions Rose De Amicis Email: rose@sae-a.com.au

Secretary, Chair and CEO Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia

Events Melanie Webster Email: events@sae-a.com.au

Board of Directors: Chairman & CEO Adrian Feeney Board Greg Shoemark Michael Waghorne Noelle Parlier Bernard Rolfe David Young Luke Callaway Samsone Lagozzino (Sam)

Magazine Production: Editor Mandy Parry-Jones Trading Terms Media Email: mandypj@optusnet.com.au Mobile: 0409 806 986 Design Brigid Fraser Email: fraseram@optusnet.com.au Mobile: 0413 009 122 Advertising Jill Johnson Jill Johnson Media Email: jj@jilljohnsonmedia.com.au Mobile: 0409 217 624

VTE Industry Partner: Excellerate Australia

4 | December 2021

As we prepare to put a full stop on 2021, its worth reflecting on what we have all gone through. We have gone through varying degrees of lockdown, had limited opportunity to see each other face to face and longed for life to be normal. It seems we are now very much through the worst and Omicron variant aside; we can look forward to even more freedoms in 2022.

In fact, within SAE a very big 2022 is planned, with two Formula SAE events and an APAC 21 conference already locked in. In February we will be running the 2021 Formula event and then in December we are back to our normal scheduled event, again returning to Winton for what promises to be a huge event by recent standards.

Our board members responsible for event planning, Luke Callaway and Sam Lagozzino are now putting the finishing touches to the other events, all of which will be announced in early 2022.

Mohammad Fard, the Technical Chair of APAC has been working hard to attract excellent papers from Australian and international experts and this conference promises to be of the highest standard and will certainly attract a lot of attention for our society.

I am sure we are all looking forward to the festive season and a chance to spend quality time with family and friends and of course some quiet time to reflect, especially if travel is involved. This is certainly the case for our hardworking staff and board as it has been a year full of challenges, consolidation and growth but we have done well to get through perhaps the biggest challenge of our lives, Covid.

A big thank you for our staff and contractors for their tireless efforts throughout the year, specifically; • Rose DeAmicis – Administration & Membership Officer • Cara Coughey – Events Manager • Mandy Parry Jones and her staff - Magazine and E-news editor • Jill Johnson – Sponsorship and Advertising • Chris Engler & Joan Drew – Finances • Georgia Perillo & Nadia Kentera – APAC 21 conference organisers I now ask you to continue to support the Society, in particular we need you to renew your memberships as without that support, we don’t exist. I would also take this opportunity to encourage you to volunteer for the Formula SAE event in February, we need your help to make it the success it has been for many years. There is a page dedicated to volunteering in this edition, please take the time to have a read and consider how you can help.

Finally, I mentioned that the APAC conference preparations are going well but we know how talented Australian engineers are and I ask that you consider being involved, there are so many options, including as a delegate, a sponsor or a presenter. Go to our website or use the link and you will see how to register https://kecreative.eventsair.com/autonomousvehicle-technology-conference-2022 Again, thanks to each one of you for your support, have an amazing time over Christmas and New Year and I look forward to more engagement with you in the coming months

SAE | News

Formula SAE galvanises 2022 SAE-A’s events for 2022 will be headed by the running of the first Formula SAE face-to-face event since the start of the Covid pandemic and Winton will come alive with the sound of teams competing.

Eighteen universities will take to the track, which just shows how important and valuable they consider this event.

From 10-13 February teams will face off in the two major classes of competition – IC (internal combustion engine) and EV (electric vehicle) but on top of that other universities will be showing their autonomous vehicle skills.

of Melbourne,

Electric vehicles will dominate the first “Covid normal” Formula SAE-A for 2021, with 12 of the 18 teams bringing EVs to Winton and three bringing autonomous vehicles.

The University of Sydney, RMIT University and Victoria University are all bringing internal combustion engined vehicles with only RMIT also entering an EV.

Reinforcing the future-focussed field will be three autonomous cars to be demonstrated

by Monash Motorsport, the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Queensland in addition to their “conventional” electric car entries.

Over the course of the last decade, SAE-A has embraced emerging technologies with the establishment of the EV category and is now working towards launching a third competition category for autonomous vehicles (AV).

EV teams this year are from: Griffith University, Monash University, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, University of Queensland, University of Adelaide, University of Tasmania, University of Technology Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Wollongong, University of SA and the University

For the 2021 FSAE-A competition (February 2022), the SAE-A will be running non-scored dynamic events for teams wishing to showcase their AV capabilities.

The rules will be based on Formula Student Germany (FSG 2020_V1.) with the local AV draft amendments to be published.

Teams wishing to participate in the AV category should note that all vehicles will need to comply with FSAE-A general rules and amendments.

Please direct further questions on the AV category to the AV sub-committee via email to formulasae@sae-a.com.au These are the teams entered into Formula SAE-A competition for February 2022.

In December 2022 Formula SAE be at Winton again returning to its original time slot in the year.

1.

Griffith University (EV)

2.

Monash University (EV)

3.

Queensland University of Technology (EV)

4.

RMIT University (EV)

5.

University of Queensland (EV)

6.

The University of Adelaide (EV)

7.

University of Tasmania (EV)

8.

University of Technology Sydney (EV)

9.

RMIT University (E85)

10. University of Sydney (98RON) 11. Swinburne University of Technology (EV) 12. University of Wollongong (EV) 13. University of SA (EV) 14. The University of Melbourne (EV) 15. University of Queensland (AV) 16. Monash University (AV) 17. University of Technology Sydney (AV) 18. Victoria University (98RON)

FORMULA SAE Event Sponsors

Partners

Supporters

VTE | 5

News | SAE

APAC papers start the journey to Melbourne South Korea and Australia are leading the early count in a global field of papers for APAC21, the 21st biennial Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference.

To be staged in Melbourne 3-5 October 2022, APAC21 is hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia (SAE-A), the Asia Pacific professional body for automotive and mobility engineering.

CEO and President Adrian Feeney said the strongest contributor so far had been Hyundai Motor Company, closely followed by Australian academic and industry researchers.

Hyundai has submitted abstracts on such topics as highly heat conductive aluminium die-casting alloys and high-strength structures without B pillars for autonomous cars.

Mr Feeney said the diversity of topics highlighted how engineers saw autonomous cars evolving far beyond the simple concept of drivers taking their hands off the wheel.

“Creating strong, safe structures without B pillars is a classic illustration of how engineers are making it possible for lifestyle dreams to come true,” he said.

“Just last week, Hyundai showed us how these structures can give wide open access to a club lounge interior in the SEVEN concept shown at Automobility LA. “With its Pillarless Coach Doors and spacious interior, it is the fantasy that engineers will soon turn into reality – and at APAC21 we will learn more about this breakthrough technology.

“To highlight how diverse future mobility can be, we will also see Australia’s WayM8 leaning car, designed to reduce emissions through compact size, aerodynamics and light weight.”

APAC21 technical chair, Prof Mohammad Fard of RMIT University, said industry and academia had shown strong interest in contributing to the conference theme of Harmonising the Future of Mobility.

“We will have papers from Germany, Japan and China, among other countries, and they cover a wide spectrum of topics in both technical and regulatory areas,” he said.

“Registrations are also growing steadily as people become confident that this will be one of the first major international conferences to be staged face-to-face in the post-Covid era.”

Following are the topics for which papers are being considered. To submit an abstract visit https://www.orangeanalytics.com.au/content/ apac21-abstract-submission For more information contact Georgia Perillo, conference secretariat at Georgia@kecreative.com.au or call +61 466 747 910 6 | December 2021

1

Digital Transformation

1.1 Intelligent and smart mobility solutions 1.2 Digitalization of Vehicle Design, Development, and Testing 1.3 Mobility Solutions 1.4 Shared Mobility, Multimodal Mobility, Micromobility 1.5 Internet of Things (loT) for Transport Industry 1.6 Artificial Intelligence for Future Mobility Concepts 1.7 Cybersecurity 1.8 Digital Services for Transport Industry 1.9 Data Storing and Processing

2.

Electric, Hydrogen, Fuel Cell Technology

2.1 Electric and Hybrid Drivelines 2.2 Hydrogen as a Fuel 2.3 Driveline Design and Simulation Based Optimization and Control 2.4 Renewable and Synthetic Fuel Combustion and Mixture Formation 2.5 Engines for Electrified Vehicle Powertrains 2.6 Battery System Technologies 2.7 New Concepts and Control of Electric Motors and Power Electronics 2.8 Fuel Cells and Fuel Cell Systems, Hydrogen Technologies 2.9 Charging Solutions

3.

Emissions and Pollutants Caused by Vehicles

3.1 Environmental impact through complete lifecycle 3.2 After Treatment and Emission Control 3.3 Clean and Efficient Engine Technologies

3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

Testing Procedures and Cycles Alternative Fuels and Propulsion Technology Regulations and Future Prospects Simulation Approach to Emission Control On-Board and Remote Diagnostics of Emission Systems 3.9 New Synthetic Fuels 3.10 Non-Combustion Related Emissions

4.

Ergonomics and Human Factors

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7

Driver State Control Driver Takeover Performance Driver Assistance Systems Human Factors and HMI Motion Sickness Driver Interaction and Road Safety Biomechanics and Human Models

5

Mobility Comfort

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 58 5.9 5.10

New Concept for Vehicle Seat and Cabin Aero-Acoustic Wind Noise Intake & Exhaust Noise Tire and Road Noise Vehicle NVH Testing and Simulation Thermal Comfort and HVAC Systems In-Vehicle Experience Active Control of NVH Problem Vehicle Powertrain Noise Human Factors and HMI

6

Automated and Connected Mobility

6.1 Automated Driving/Autonomous Driving/ Driverless Vehicles 6.2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) 6.3 Autonomous and Connected Vehicles Simulation Software 6.4. Sensor Fusion, Object Tracking, and Path Planning 6.5. Voice and Motion Recognition

SAE | News

6.6.

6.7.

6.8.

6.9

Autonomous Vehicle Control Urban Air Mobility and Traffic Management V2V and V2X Communication Cloud-Connected and Teleoperated Vehicles

7

Vehicle Dynamics and Controls

7.1.

7.2.

7.3.

7.4.

Vehicle Dynamics, Modelling and Simulation Integrated Chassis Control Human Machine Interface (HMI) Heavy Duty Vehicle Control Sensors and Actuators 7.6. Ride Comfort & Handling 7.7. Suspension, Steering & Brakes

8.

Vehicle Crash Safety

8.1 Accident Statistics, Analysis and Reconstruction Technologies 8.2 Human Errors and Road Safety 8.3 Occupant, Child and Elderly Safety Protection 8.4 Protection of Vulnerable Road Users 8.5 Vehicle Structure Crashworthiness 8.6 Vehicle Crash Liability 8.7 Crash Avoidance or Mitigation Systems 8.8 Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems 8.9 Regulations and Crash Safety Standards 8.10 Collision Avoidance System

9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10

9

10 Materials and Manufacturing

11. Emerging Transport Technology

10.1 Industry 4.0 in Vehicle Manufacturing and Maintenance 10.2 Intelligent and Novel Manufacturing Technologies 10.3 Weight Reduction Technology & Materials in Automotive Industry

11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4

Vehicle Software and Electronics

9.1 E/E Architecture for Future Vehicles 9.2 Software Development for Design, Test, Quality Management 9.3 Software/Hardware Reliability and Safety 9.4 Model-Based Design, Analysis and Verification 9.5 In-Vehicle Networks

ECU Consolidation and Multicore ECUs Automotive Operating Systems AUTOSAR and Software Architecture Vehicle HMI Software Telematics and Infotainment Systems

Engineering Consultants VIC

VIC

Eddie van den Berg

Darren Ludecke

BTT Engineering Consulting Pty Ltd

Commercial Vehicle Compliance

Phone: 03 9088 7575 / 0407930542 Email: eddie@bttengineering.com.au Web: www.bttengineering.com.au

Phone: 03 9005 6256 Email: info@cvc.net.au Web: www.vehiclecompliance.net

Private & Commercial: LV, HV, Imports, Expert Witness, Legal & Compliance Reports

Private & Commercial: LV, HV, Imports

10.4 Forming Processes 10.5 Fatigue, Fracture and Failure of Traditional and Lightweight 10.6 Vehicle Manufacturing Technology 10.7 3D and 4D Printing in Automotive Industry Unmanned Aircraft and Drone UAS Traffic Management (UTM) VTOL Urban Air Mobility

New Members The SAE-A would like to welcome the following new members: Individual members Paul Jones Morry Akbarian Rick Stockley Paul Maieron Greg McGarvie Paul Scaysbrook Navdeep Sidhu David Perks

KEY: LV - Light Vehicles with GVM up to 4.5 tonnes HV - Heavy Vehicle with GVM over 4.5 tonnes MC - Motorcycles Imports - Imported Vehicles ICV - Individually Constructed Vehicles SR1 & SR2 - Street rod inspection certificate applicable to the Street Rod Club Permit Scheme (CPS) only www.saea.com.au

Interested in advertising your Engineering Signatory or Expert Witness business?

Contact the SAE-A for more information.

Phone: info@sae-a.com.au Email: (03) 9676 9568

The SAE-A is where members enjoy many benefits and become a part of the advancement of the mobility and engineering profession across Australasia through the transfer of technical knowledge and skills, and an increased industry network. Individual and corporate memberships are available.

More information at www.saea.com.au/membership VTE | 7

News | Auto

Toyota wins the hybrid race in Australia According to new research conducted

by Carloop.com.au that analysed 50,000 hybrid car sales in Australia from 2019 to 2021, sales of the Toyota RAV4 hybrid electric/petrol vehicle increased by 39 percent year on year in 2021 compared with 2019 despite the global pandemic and semi-conductor shortage.

Toyota hybrids accounted for 92 percent of all analysed hybrid sales in Australia in 2021.

This eclipsed the sales figures of the petrol variant – 4,626 petrol models vs. 8,211 hybrid models in 2020, followed by 3492 petrol vs 6791 hybrid models in 2021.

While sales dipped in 2021, hybrid RAV4s as a percentage increased to 66%.

The far and away leader in hybrid sales is Toyota, claiming 92 percent of the market, followed by Mitsubishi on 3 percent, Hyundai on 2 percent, and Subaru on 1 percent.

Of the 46,282 vehicles sold by Toyota, Toyota Corolla hybrid sales totalled 28,220 (61%), RAV4s 17,094 (37%), while the Kluger hybrid sold 968 (2%).

Not only has the RAV4 become the most popular SUV sold in Australia, but the Hybrid version became the most popular type of Rav4 sold in 2020 with the trend continuing into 2021 and projected to continue into 2022.

Current Australian new car sales buck world trends. There is a current global new car

sales slump of 14 percent, a US sales dip of 15.83 percent (2019 vs 2020) and UK sales contraction of 27 percent (2019 vs 2020.) By contrast, Australian car sales have surged 33 percent year on year (October 2020 to 2021) according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Chrysler leaves Australia, again

litre V8 configuration it delivers 350kW and 637Nm of torque in the Chrysler 300 SRT.

FCA Australia, a subsidiary of Stellantis, confirmed the departure of the Chrysler brand from Australia; this was the sole right-hand-drive market selling Chrysler vehicles.

It’s a fitting way for the high-performance hero to bow out as Australia’s last affordable V8powered rear-wheel-drive sedan.The 300 SRT is offered alongside the Chrysler 300C Luxury.

The global push towards electrification and focus on SUVs has resulted in a consolidation of the overall product lineup in Australia.

Rootes Group, it later became the Mitsubishi manufacturing plant in 1980.

“Chrysler has held a special place in the heart of many Australians and we are proud of its history here,” Kevin Flynn, FCA Australia Managing Director, said.

The 1970s saw the arrival of the highly respected Valiant Charger, which became Chrysler Australia’s “muscle car,” and is still considered one of the brand’s most collectable automobiles.

Chrysler Australia took over the Tonsley Park Assembly Plant in Adelaide in 1964 from the

Some 50 years later, the legendary HEMI has continuously upped the ante in its latest 6.4-

8 | December 2021

“We have a hugely positive year ahead of us, focusing on electrification and moving into a very premium offering with our all-new, two and three-row Jeep Grand Cherokee as well as the PHEV Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe.

These models represent real advancements in terms of technology, luxury, efficiency and capability,” Mr Flynn said.

Auto | News

Australian AppliedEV partners-up overseas Melbourne based AppliedEV (AEV) and Germany’s IBEO a specialist in LiDAR sensors and related systems are collaborating on work with AEV’s Blanc Robot platform. AEV is also partnering with the UK’s Oxbotica.

IBEO The platform provides all the functions for fully bi-directional operation as it is a modular platform that uses variable superstructures known as pods to allow for a wide range of applications such as an automated goods transporter in parcel delivery.

“As part of our cooperation with AppliedEV, we will be able to demonstrate the universal suitability of our completely new solid state LiDAR sensor ibeoNEXT and the autonomous driving system based on it outside the passenger car sector,” Dr Ulrich Lages, CEO of Ibeo said.

“There is huge potential here in the market for on demand, door-to-door and last-mile transportation solutions, which are an equally important part of the new mobility alongside passenger transportation. So, we are tapping into a new market for us through this collaboration. The joint development process will also provide both partners with important insights and possible solutions for the mobility of the future,” The cooperation initially focuses on the integration of Ibeo’s autonomous driving system with the Applied EV Blanc Robot platform.

“In order to create added value for joint customers at an early stage, we have been working closely together for around a year to further develop our technologies,” Dr Lages said.

The primary goal is to prepare products for the market that can be operated without monitoring for applications in intralogistics that can be implemented comparatively quickly.

After that, the technology is to be further developed for other, more complex

applications such as individual mobility in smart cities.

of environments, for a variety of commercial applications.

Ibeo will supply the complete technology based on the ibeoNEXT LiDAR sensors, including perception system and driving system. The sensors used are based on new photon laser measurement technology. As so-called real solid-state sensors, they manage completely without moving parts.

The project will see Oxbotica integrate its autonomous vehicle software with AppliedEV’s programmable and configurable EV platform. The vehicle will be driverless, marking a giant step on the journey towards commercial autonomy.

The ibeoNEXT LiDAR sensors are suitable for automotive series production of driver assistance systems, active safety systems and also for automated driving functions. Although the platform is initially to be used in a controlled environment – for example, in industrial logistics – a later use in road traffic is also planned. The first practical tests with selected application partners will commence in early 2022.

Industrial logistics and goods delivery will be the first industries targeted for deployment, with continued growth expected in further industries as the number of vehicles rises.

“Oxbotica and AEV both see an opportunity in the market to come together with a unique offering of strong commercial outcomes as early as 12 months,” Julian Broadbent, Founder and CEO of AppliedEV, said.

Oxbotica

Paul Newman, Founder & CTO of Oxbotica, said that in collaboration with AppliedEV they will provide the market with an autonomy solution comprising both hardware and software.

AppliedEV also announced a collaboration with Oxbotica in the development of a fully autonomous, multi-purpose vehicle capable of being deployed in a wide range

AEV offers the Blanc Robot all-wheel-drive in either an off-road or on-road spec. Battery size is matched to the duty and charge cycles, total efficiency is up to 10 kWh/100mi..

High power EV charger testing facility Queensland Tritium, an electrical and electronic manufacturer, has opened a new EV charger testing facility in Brisbane, containing one of the world’s largest and highest-powered electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing chambers.

The facility features one of the highestpower commercially accessible EMC testing chambers in the world. The facility is designed to deliver up to 720kW of regenerative power from its integrated system with fully integrated AC and DC power feeds, ensuring Tritium can test devices that demand very high-power levels to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and www.saea.com.au

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) certification requirements.

The custom-designed chamber features a five-metre turntable with highpower connections, enabling Tritium to test a full high-powered charging system, consisting of the charger itself and an accompanying power cabinet.

VTE | 9

News | Auto

The Grattan car plan Late this year Australian research company The Grattan Institute released a document titled The Grattan Car Plan: practical policies for cleaner transport and better cities which is available for download.

The focus of the document is a discussion on working towards lower or even zero emissions.

The institute says that political parties are split between those wanting everyone in electric vehicles, preferably yesterday, and those worrying that pushing drivers into electric vehicles is a recipe for more expensive cars, charging anxiety, and – worst of all – tradies losing their utes.

According to this document there is a proven way to reduce carbon emissions and unhealthy pollutants, without dictating to anybody what car they can drive.

How Australians feel about moving to EVs A survey of 1001 Australians by Savvy has revealed that 73 percent agree that moving to Electric Vehicles (EV) is an important move to reduce CO2 emissions and keep global temperature rises to 1.5°C with 79 percent of 18–24-year-olds, 78 percent of 25-34 year-olds, and 82 percent of 35-44 year-olds agreeing with the statement.

As for putting their money towards the cause, 40 percent stated that they may purchase EVs in the future, with 7 percent of respondents saying they intend to buy one within the next 12 months. Two percent said they already own an EV; however, 30 percent say they can’t afford one, with 37 percent of women saying they can’t afford an EV. Older Australians (33 percent for 55-64s and 36 percent for 65+) also say they are unable to afford one, with 19 percent of 65+s saying they’d rather buy a petrol-driven car.

The biggest obstacle to going electric is price, according to the survey and 79 percent say that affordability would need to improve before considering an EV as their next vehicle.

Improved government subsidies (41 percent), improved infrastructure (51 percent) and improved driving range (39 percent) would also influence their decisions, when asked their top three barriers to buying EVs. The biggest concern about buying is price – 43 percent say the price is too high; while 17 percent are most concerned about charging station availability and 16 percent worry about limited travel range.

Australia should adopt an emissions standard, or ceiling, for new light vehicles, applied across the offering of each manufacturer, just like 80 percent of the rest of the world does. The ceiling should be gradually lowered to zero emissions by 2035.

The document states that we would get a better range of low-emissions cars to choose from – even more so if we also insisted on cleaner petrol for cars with internal combustion engines.

The document offers a number of valuable insights and options to start discussions on how Australia and its vehicle cohort may be influenced towards more environmentally friendly solutions.

It also covers adoption of overseas developments and how they can be applied here, charging infrastructure not only on road but in-house or in-garage charging and what the Federal Government could do to assist.

To download visit https://grattan.edu.au/ report/grattan-car-plan/

10 | December 2021

As for brands, 24 percent said they’d rather a Hyundai, followed by Tesla (20 percent) and Mazda (12 percent).

With 37 percent of respondents saying they’d spend $25,000-$40,000 on their next car, most models would be well out of their price range.

But 53 percent said they’d buy an EV over a petrol car to reduce emissions, even if they cost more than a petrol equivalent.

“There is a taste for EVs in Australia, but I wouldn’t say that it’s what everyone is clamouring for just yet,” said Savvy Managing Director Bill Tsouvalas.

“We need an economy of scale and infrastructure before we hit anything nearing critical mass.

But there are shoots rising out of the ground, and that’s a good start.”

Of those surveyed 59 percent said they felt strongly that Australia should go “all in” on electric uptake – that means aggressively pursuing subsidies, stronger emissions standards, and buyer incentives. However, only 8 percent said that the Federal Government’s $250 million Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy, which is targeted at increasing EV home charging stations to 50,000 around the country, will “get the job done.”

Defence & Aero | News

Helimods closes the loop with Siemens Australian aerospace technology manufacturer HeliMods, with assistance from the Federal Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC), has partnered with Siemens to leverage its Xcelerator software portfolio to fully digitalise its entire product design and manufacturing process, making it the first company of its size in the Australian aerospace sector to do so.

The implementation of Closed-Loop Manufacturing (CLM) across its manufacturing capability using Siemens’ Manufacturing Execution System (MES) will enable HeliMods to achieve development and production of high complexity, high value, scalable solutions using a single digital thread across the entire product lifecycle.

The implementation of the software was enabled by a $350,000 co-investment grant from the Federal Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) and will support HeliMods’ global and local growth trajectory in aerospace, defence, air ambulance and other key industries.

Briefs Businesses selected to support frigate program

In total, the project will see an investment of $808,543 from combined AMGC, industry and in-kind contributions.

The MES solution will also help HeliMods reduce development timeframe and cost and increase efficiency while also allowing increased levels of product innovation. HeliMods was recently approved by the Australian Defence Aviation Safety Authority (DASA) as one of only two active organisations in Australia to receive DASR 21, Section A, Subpart G – Military Production Organisation Approval (MPOA) status, establishing HeliMods as the only Australian business with Defence Production Approval that is leveraging this unique combination of digital technologies.

Dr. Jens Goennemann, Managing Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre, acknowledged that an increasing number of Australian manufacturers are looking for new ways to drive innovation, productivity, and competitiveness and that funding plays a key role in supporting this intention.

For further information regarding Helimods Closed-Loop Manufacturing project, visit https://www.amgc.org.au/project/ closed-loop-manufacturing/

BAE Systems Maritime Australia has announced businesses in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia will deliver and supply products into the prototyping phase of the Hunter Class Frigate Program, the nation’s largest surface shipbuilding project. The three companies selected will supply a range of manufactured parts for prototyping blocks which are now under construction at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide. The Hunter frigate program will deliver nine warships to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Punks introduced into space Lockheed Martin will partner with STEM Punks the Australian Science Technology Engineering and Math Education provider to develop and implement a 10-year space focused curriculum that ranges from high school to career through workshops, classes and activities. It will be rolled out to 80 schools in Australia. At the tertiary level, Lockheed Martin Australia is working with STEM Punks to define requirements for a national Space Industry STEM program that enables university students to advance into areas of critical need for the Australian space industry.

ODIS replaces Centre for Defence Industry Capability Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price has launched a new organisation that will operate as the ‘one-stop shop’ for SMEs doing business with Defence. The Office of Defence Industry Support (ODIS) replaces the Centre for Defence Industry Capability and will be used by Defence and major contractors to find Australian solutions to capability challenges. ODIS will have a dedicated regional support team that will seek out regional SMEs with the capability to enter the Defence market.

CSIRO opens space to SMEs CSIRO’s ‘Innovate to Grow: Space’ program will support 20-25 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with mentoring from some of Australia’s leading space experts, including from CSIRO and the Space Agency, access to world-class research facilities and infrastructure, and support to navigate grant application processes.

Innovate to Grow is a free 10-week training program designed to boost the innovation and take-up of research and development (R&D)

by Australian small businesses in industries with high innovation potential, like space.

manufacturing and communications, the sky is no limit to what we can achieve together.”

CSIRO Space Research Program Director Dr Kimberley Clayfield said collaboration was key to growing Australia’s space industry.

“Innovate to Grow: Space is another example of how we’re working to develop innovative technologies and capabilities and support the growth of the Australian space industry,” Dr Feast said.

“CSIRO works with leading global companies, international space agencies and small-tomedium businesses on a variety of spacerelated activities,” Dr Clayfield said.

“SMEs have a lot to contribute and when combined with our strong capabilities in Earth observation, robotics, advanced www.saea.com.au

Dr George Feast, CSIRO SME Collaboration Lead said the program built on rich foundations.

“With so many incredible opportunities on offer here and globally, we’re committed to helping SMEs understand how to best engage with a R&D partner and understand how to get the most benefit for their needs.”

CSIRO has more than 75 years of spacerelated experience and operates a range of facilities, research programs and industry development activities contributing to the Australian space sector.

The Australian Space Agency aims to support Australia to significantly grow its domestic sector from around 10,000 jobs and a market size of $3.9 billion to up to another 20,000 jobs and $12 billion by 2030, with further jobs and economy growth from spill over effects.

VTE | 11

News | Truck & Bus

IVECO to fully import heavy duty range plus others As part of a global transformation process, IVECO announced the development of the Customisation & Innovation Centre (CIC) and related changes that will impact its Australian manufacturing arm.

The CIC is a business unit that will leverage IVECO’s local engineering and manufacturing expertise, transforming the company’s focus towards the customisation and innovation of its vehicles for local markets.

The CIC is being developed to better assist IVECO customers and body-builders – particularly those with complex body types – to achieve a more streamlined design and body fitment process for their vehicles.

Promoting innovation will be another key aspect of the CIC, with IVECO placed to work more closely with Europe and local partners to explore areas such as alternative propulsion solutions, digitisation, connectivity and autonomous driving.

Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, Michael May, said that by focusing on the CIC, IVECO would strengthen one of its key selling points in the Australian and NZ market.

In announcing the development of the CIC, the company also advised it would move to fully import its Heavy Duty range from IVECO’s advanced manufacturing facility in Madrid, Spain. This transition is anticipated to take place from the end of June 2022.

IVECO currently fully imports its Light Duty, Medium Duty, selected Heavy Duty, Minibus and Off-Road models.

This will include a further iteration of the highly regarded dual control ACCO model for the local waste market.

The decision to fully import its Heavy Duty range will allow IVECO Trucks Australia to more closely align model year introduction timings with that of its parent company in Europe. As an example, IVECO will be launching the new S-WAY model in Australia according to the global launch plan.

Mr May said the decision to move to local customisation of fully imported vehicles was a natural progression of IVECO’s ANZ transformation.

The new S-WAY model for the Australian and New Zealand market will have undergone thousands of hours and kilometres of validation testing on local roads and highways and had input and development from IVECO’s local engineers and specifically selected customer partners, ensuring it is designed and then tested to meet the needs of our local ANZ market.

Over the coming months IVECO will continue to engage with its employees who may be impacted by today’s announcement and will provide appropriate support to the involved workforce.

According to a report in Australasian Bus & Coach a company spokesperson said that the company was not building Iveco’s full bus chassis in Australia at the moment and that the change would not affect the Heavy Bus range.

Volgren to add 50 more jobs Australia’s largest bus body builder, Volgren, will create 50 new jobs following the Victorian Department of Transport’s decision to award Melbourne’s franchise bus fleet to operator Kinetic.

Kinetic will introduce five Volgren battery electric buses (BEBs) into the city’s network

by June next year and by mid-2025 will have introduced 36 BEBs, plus more than 100 Volgren-bodied hybrid buses.

“Every manufacturer strives to plan and structure their business based on long-term demand. The Metropolitan Bus Franchise helps us to do exactly that. Our expectation is that our direct labour resources will increase by 45 to 50 percent, or by around 50 direct 12 | December 2021

new jobs,” Thiago Deiro, CEO of Volgren, said.

“Over the past four decades, Volgren has become part of an extensive and thriving south-east Melbourne manufacturing ecosystem. And we plan on building on it by investing in programs to enhance apprentice

and traineeships at our Dandenong facility during the life of the contract.”

“All our factories are geared-up to start building BEBs at the scale required to meet the needs Australia’s shift to zero-emission technology.”

Truck & Bus | News

Volta wins Dezeen design award & production starts Volta Trucks and its strategic design partner, Astheimer Design of Warwick, UK, have won the Dezeen Product Design award 2021.

Historic trucks back on the road Due to the split of Daimler into two independent companies on 1 December, Daimler Truck transferred the first batch of historical Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles and parts of its truck and bus archive to the location in Wörth at the end of November.

For this purpose a convoy of low-loaders and historical trucks and buses travelled from the Stuttgart area to the Application Information Centre (BIC) of the MercedesBenz truck plant in Wörth am Rhein.

The historical trucks included a Mercedes-Benz LP 333 from 1960 (known as a “millipede” due to its two steerable front axles) and a Mercedes-Benz LP 608 which was the first truck produced at the recently opened Wörth plant in 1965.

The Volta Zero is a purpose-built full-electric commercial vehicle designed specifically for urban logistics and was created by Astheimer Design.

The modern and innovative vehicle design and packaging features a revolutionary glasshouse-style cab with a low, central seating position to improve driver visibility and the safety of vulnerable road users around the vehicle.

“It is a rare occurrence for a designer to be given the opportunity to rethink and reinvent a category of vehicle,” Carsten Astheimer, Founder and Managing Director of Astheimer Design, said. “This was the responsibility given to us by Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Waloen, the founders of Volta Trucks.”

The first road-going Volta Zero prototype vehicles have started production and will commence a rigorous testing regime in early 2022, ahead of customer evaluation in mid2022, and the start of manufacturing of the first production-specification vehicles by the end of next year.

The DV prototypes are the first full-electric Volta Zero vehicles to be built, a total of 25 vehicles will be manufactured and once completed in January, the fleet will embark on a rigorous testing regime.

This will involve Volta Trucks’ engineers replicating a wide range of customer usage and delivery cycles, as well as taking the Volta Zero to the extremes of cold weather environments in the Arctic, hot weathers in equatorial conditions, and crash testing, all to validate the safety, durability, and reliability of the vehicle.

In future, Daimler Truck will mainly house its collection of historical exhibits near its truck and bus locations.

Additional archival material and exhibits will be relocated in the weeks ahead.

The results of the comprehensive DV testing program will be fed into the final prototype stage – ‘Production Verification’ (PV).

The PV prototype vehicles will be built at the company’s new manufacturing plant in Steyr, Austria, in mid-2022. Many of these production-specification prototypes will be lent to selected customers for extended periods to be tested in their real-world logistics conditions, undertaking millions of delivery kilometres, alongside Volta Trucks’ own engineers.

Daimler Truck’s collection encompasses around 130 vehicles, of which about 30 were previously located in Stuttgart and the surrounding area.

This collection also includes powertrains, parts and accessories from the company’s 125-year truck history.

The archives of Daimler Truck were previously distributed on more than 160 square metres of storage space. The documents filled more than 2,000 metres of shelves on several levels.

The archival material includes 2,600 rolls of film and 600 magnetic tapes that contain over 1,000 hours of historical moving images.

Mercedes-Benz Museum to remain the venue for the company’s shared history.

www.saea.com.au

VTE | 13

News | Overseas

Germans enter our ARENA The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced that it will play a key role in the development and delivery of the German-Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator known as HyGATE. ARENA will team up with Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), to administer HyGATE which will support realworld pilot, trial, demonstration and research projects along the hydrogen supply chain.

The Australia-Germany Hydrogen Accord, executed by the two countries, builds on respective strengths, with Australia looking to be a major hydrogen exporter and Germany holding expertise in hydrogen technology and planning to import significant quantities of hydrogen in the future.

Australia and Germany have committed up to AU$50 million and €50 million, respectively, to invest in new renewable hydrogen projects. The objective of HyGATE is to strengthen the Australian-German cooperation regarding the implementation of a value chain for hydrogen produced from renewables and stimulate the innovation process in both countries.

All projects funded under the HyGATE initiative are required to be linked to hydrogen from renewables, have a forwardlooking approach and advance novel solutions on a pilot-scale under real-world conditions, and to progress renewable hydrogen towards commercialisation. A key element of the initiative will be bringing together Australian and German industry and research partners to deliver the projects.

LA shows off with plenty of electricity At the LA Auto Show Hyundai and Kia unveiled their all-electric concept cars and plug-in hybrids.

While there were plenty of ICEpowered vehicles the big news came in the form of battery power.

Everything was there from the all-electric Nissan Ariya SUV, the Toyota bz4x and its twin the Subaru Solterra to the all-electric Porsche Sport Turismo sedan and wagon.

Hyundai unveiled the SEVEN SUV concept with vertical airflow, antibacterial copper and even a UVC sterilizer.

Fisker’s Ocean was revealed with prices ranging from US$37,499 to US$68,999 in four spec grades.

Hyundai’s SEVEN large crossover concept will eventually make its way into production as the Ioniq 7 in 2024, joining the recently launched Ioniq 5 and yet-to-bereleased Ioniq 6.

Hyundai says the SEVEN can offer more than 480 kilometres of driving on a single charge and can be topped up from 10 to 80 percent in as little as 20 minutes using a 350kW unit.

Its 3200mm-long wheelbase would allow the Ioniq 7 to accommodate three rows of seating when it reaches production.

The Kia Concept EV9 provides a look at what we can expect when the production version arrives next year which will have the E-GMP electric architecture, shared with the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and forthcoming Ioniq 7 large SUV. Vietnamese carmaker VinFast debuted two new electric vehicles the VF e35 medium and VF e36 large SUV no prices yet.

Third gen LiDAR offers level 2 automation Valeo presented its third generation scanning LiDAR set to make its market debut in 2024.

This new technology offers significantly enhanced performance, makes autonomous mobility a reality and provides previously unseen levels of road safety.

Valeo’s third generation LiDAR delivers unrivaled performance in terms of range, resolution and frame rate. It reconstructs a 3D real-time image of the vehicle’s surroundings at a rate of 4.5 million pixels and 25 frames per second.

Compared with the previous generation, the resolution has been increased 12-fold, the range 3-fold and the viewing angle 2.5-fold.

This new LiDAR can see things that humans, cameras and radars cannot. This means that driving can be delegated to the vehicle in many situations (level 2 automation and 14 | December 2021

above), including on the highway at speeds of up to 130km/h.

Even in such situations, a vehicle fitted with the third-generation scanning LiDAR can manage emergency situations autonomously.

Valeo’s scanning LiDAR detects, recognizes and classifies all objects located around the car. If the objects are moving, it measures their speed and direction. The scanning LiDAR can adapt to all light conditions,

whether it’s dazzlingly bright or pitch black.

It even measures the density of raindrops to calculate the right braking distance. It tracks nearby vehicles, even when they are no longer in the driver’s line of sight and uses algorithms to anticipate their trajectories and trigger the necessary safety manoeuvres.

Up to 30% of premium new vehicles are set to reach level 3 automation by 2030, and to do so will need to be equipped with LiDAR technology.

General | News

LAVO to establish hydrogen fuel cell facility in Queensland Australian energy technology company LAVO Hydrogen Technology Limited will establish the $15 million facility, backed by the Palaszczuk Government’s Invested in Queensland program, part of the $3.34 billion Queensland Jobs Fund.

“This is one of the first projects to receive support through our Invested in Queensland program, and the jobs to come from this are significant,” Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick said.

“Up to 200 construction jobs will be created over the next 12 months, and once fuel cell production ramps up there will be almost 170 operational jobs supported here by 2026.

“The fuel cells will be used in the world’s first hydrogen energy storage system for homes and businesses, developed in Australia by LAVO and the University of New South Wales.

“LAVO’s hydrogen technology has generated considerable customer interest here in Australia and overseas, and this new facility will allow the company to export Queenslandmade products to the world.”

The LAVO HESS (Hydrogen Energy Storage System) is an integrated hybrid hydrogen

battery that can be combined with rooftop solar to store 40kWh of electricity – enough energy to power a typical household for two days.

Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Mick de Brenni said the announcement is a major step towards the development of an economically sustainable and competitive hydrogen industry in Queensland.

CEO and Executive Director of LAVO Alan Yu said the company is excited to be manufacturing the fuel cells here in Australia under a joint venture agreement with Netherlands-based Nedstack, developer of the fuel cells.

“We will be working to maximise the use of local suppliers in the manufacturing process and will be supplying both domestic and international markets across the residential, off-grid, telecommunications and commercial sectors,” Mr Yu said.

From left to right: Maha Sinnathamby, The Honourable Mick de Brenni, The Honourable Cameron Dick, Mrs Charis Mullen MP, Joseph Phelan and Bob Sharpless.

$1b technology fund for low emissions The Federal Government will establish a new $1 billion technology fund to turbocharge investment in Australian companies to develop new low emissions technology.

The Low Emissions Technology Commercialisation Fund (the Fund) will combine $500 million of new capital for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) with $500 million from private sector investors.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Fund would back Australian early-stage companies to develop new technology.

Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said the Fund demonstrates the Government’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions through investments in technology.

“The Fund will support Australian innovators to develop their intellectual property and grow their businesses in Australia,” Minister Taylor said. www.saea.com.au

“It will address a gap in the Australian market, where currently small, complex, technologyfocused start-ups can be considered to be too risky to finance.

“Together with other new initiatives, like the increased investment in establishing seven Clean Hydrogen Industrial Hubs around Australia, today’s announcement brings our commitment to more than $21 billion of public investment in low emissions technologies by 2030.

“Our investment will leverage 3-5x that amount in co-investment from the private sector and other levels of government, or between $84 billion and $126 billion in total investment by 2030.”

New pultrusion technology Engineering is the science of making things easier, accessible, innovative, and cost-effective.

This concept is key to the partnership between the University of Southern Queensland, Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies (CFT) and Allnex Composites, which started in 2019 through a $10 million Cooperative Research Centres program, to produce cutting-edge innovation in composite manufacturing.

Their newest innovation has reimagined a fundamental production process from concept design and now mass production.

Historically Wagners bonded two square profiles to produce rectangular sections for use as joists in structures. However, sanding and bonding was an expensive and time consuming process.

After years of research and development Wagners CFT is now able to produce high-performing large, hollow rectangular composite profiles through a novel pull-winding process at its composite manufacturing facility in Toowoomba.

These composite profiles are an alternative to steel, aluminium and timber due to their non-corrosive, resilient, lightweight, high strength and neutral electromagnetic nature.

Wagners New Generation Building Materials Executive General Manager Michael Kemp said through Research and Development, the partnership with University of Southern Queensland and Allnex had produced a cost-effective and efficient solution.

“This is an innovation that took our pultrusion technology to the next level, ensuring we are at the forefront of global composite manufacturing,” he said.

“The new process not only saves time, money and environmental waste but also, by optimising the joist and shape, improves flexural performance by approximately 35 percent.

VTE | 15

Feature | EV Space

‘When’ not ‘if’ The road to embracing EVs in Australia

By David Young

A strong undercurrent of change present in the automotive industry has gained in momentum over the past decade. Indeed, recently this current has grown to a raging torrent with landmark global events like COP26 guiding sectors like the automotive industry to put sustainability, and particularly sustainable and zero emission fuel sources, at the top of their list for investment.

This is not new news. For a long time, the writing has been on the wall with countries like those in Europe embracing the change.

Most recently this has been emphasised since Electric Vehicles or ‘EVs’ account for 75 percent of new vehicle sales in Norway. With other countries like Sweden, Iceland and the Netherlands also closing in on an EV majority share of the new car market.To many the future of a majority share of electric vehicles globally is inevitable, and all for the better.

Despite this, Australia lags in the EV space.

But what could the industry do to address this shortfall?

Well to find out we’ve sat down with an expert in the area of EV policy and the EV market in Australia, Dr Jonathan Spear the acting CEO at Infrastructure Victoria.

Being at Infrastructure Victoria since its inception Dr Spear has had a front seat to a lot of the important issues that the independent think tank has tackled. One that has been noticeably ever present is this shift to an EV market.

Most recently Infrastructure Victoria has been at the forefront by mapping out the path which would take us, as a State, and perhaps indeed a country forward to this future. This includes the delivery of their latest 30-year infrastructure strategy, tabled in the Victorian State Parliament in August of this year, and also the wide ranging publications on the impact of automated and zero emission vehicles which were published in 2018.

When it comes to EVs Dr Spear and his team believe they have identified the four barriers we need to burst through. He describes these as: 1. The need for better consumer information on levels of electric vehicle performance.

2. The requirement for charging infrastructure.

3. Communication that indicates to customers that the sticker price is only one small element of cost for EVs and that lower maintenance and running costs will be of more benefit; and 4. The need for certainty around the date that traditional internal combustion engine vehicles will stop being sold from new car showrooms.

But even with all these barriers Dr Spear believes that it’s not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’ question that Australia must consider when it looks at the electrification of the personal, commercial and freight transport sectors.

“Each of these are important enablers of a shift to an Australia which embraces, rather than resists, the inevitability of EVs,” he says.

Governments both federal and state will have key roles in addressing these barriers. But the good news for Australia’s automotive industry is that we can be right in the thick of it when it comes to navigating this path to EV adoption.

16 | December 2021

EV Space | Feature

Dr Spear believes that one of the key roles the industry and automotive engineers particularly need to play is to assist in educating the public on what performance levels current day EVs achieve. He believes that such discussion will help enable Australians to be early adopters of the technology rather than bobbing in the wake of other countries’ transitions. The industry can achieve this through providing real evidence into the public conversation on EVs, which can address customer concerns relating to topics like ‘range anxiety’ and vehicle maintenance and battery life.

The Australian automotive sector and automotive engineers can be the busters of the myths and legends in the EV space with industry groups like the SAE-A keen to be a leading light in this area.

SAE-A board member and chief engineer at PACCAR Australia Noelle Parlier echoes this sentiment: “The heavy vehicle industry has so much to contribute to the future of vehicles here in Australia with PACCAR and SAE-A being at the forefront of some great innovations and ideas in the EV space.”

But if we’re to crack the EV code there is perhaps one area where Dr Spear believes the discussion needs to start.

That is the discussion relating to cost. And particularly shifting this discussion away from the vehicle’s sticker price and on to an understanding of the lifetime cost of a vehicle and how EVs perform when these elements are considered.

“Our membership has the ability to lead this next step in the EV journey, with the SAE-A’s role as a key educator to drive demand,” SAE-A chair and CEO Adrian Feeney said.

“When I think about price, I’m always considering total cost of ownership. And even right now total cost for ownership of an EV is lower when you include running costs,” he said.

“Bold initiatives like the SAE-A ZEV project show that Australia can use its unique position in the automotive market to ensure we’re at the crest of the wave of EV adoption rather than just paddling around in the shallows.”

One final thought starter with which Dr Spear wants to leave the Australian automotive sector is how the transition to EVs could have wider benefits outside of the shift to sustainable fuel sources.

According to Dr Spear electric passenger vehicles aren’t the only game in town though.

Electric vehicles will have an impact in so many areas of the transport sector including heavy vehicles, medium and light commercial vehicles, motorcycles and personal mobility devices.

“There is a really strong synergy between battery electric and automated vehicle systems,” he said.

“There are some pretty strong use cases for heavy vehicles to go to zero emissions,” Dr Spear said. And he then goes on to point out that operators of heavy vehicle and commercial vehicle fleets particularly could benefit from the reduction in ongoing maintenance and running costs.

www.saea.com.au

Dr Jonathan Spear

So perhaps it is through these synergies and an industry wide push for EV education and adoption that we can supercharge cost, environmental, and health benefits for all Australians.

Dr Spear will be talking as a part of a public policy panel session at the upcoming APAC21 conference on vehicle automation and technology. APAC21 is scheduled for the 3-5 October 2022 in Melbourne.

This article was written by Dr David Young who is an SAE-A board member. Dr Young’s industry role is as the Manager of Vehicle Safety, Innovation and Technology at the TAC and the view expressed in this article are his own and not those of the TAC.

VTE | 17

Feature | Transport NSW

Transport for NSW leading the development and deployment of emerging technology Globally, transport services and the way we move are being transformed by data and technology.

We are seeing a significant advancement in mobility technologies such as automated vehicles (AVs) and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). Transport for NSW recognise the need to understand how these technologies can operate safely and efficiently on our mass transit network.

That’s why we are developing long-term strategies and making record investments in transport infrastructure, services, and technology. We are leading the development and exploration of customer mobility products and services, and our work on CAV use and enablement form part of this journey.

Who are we?

In the final stage of the trial the Coffs Harbour BusBot travelled through the North Coast Botanic Gardens without an on-board driver.

The Transport for NSW Future Mobility team work to demonstrate the feasibility of new and emerging technology by executing research, developing strategies, and conducting trials. We work collaboratively with industry and academia to demonstrate future mobility technology and provide the space for partners to test and develop this technology.

Our mission is to introduce new products and services that improve our transport ecosystem and provide safer, sustainable, and reliable outcomes for customers. One of our most recent CAV projects is the Dubbo Smart Ute project – A partnership between Transport for NSW, Conigital, Liftango, NRMA, QBE, BusLines, and Dubbo Regional Council. In the project a Ford Ranger has been converted by Conigital into a level 3 automated vehicle. The project will focus on customer mobility use cases and further investigate the benefits and challenges involved in introducing emerging CAV technology to regional and rural NSW. Learnings derived from the project will build on our existing research from automated shuttle trials at Armidale, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle.

Our involvement with Formula SAE-A

We own Australia’s next world-class testing and research facility at Cudal, NSW and it’s our on-site team and resources that are helping make regional NSW a focal point for future mobility technology. The Future Mobility Testing and Research Centre offers a 1.6km open road runway, warehouse facilities, CAV testing equipment, and additional transport infrastructure. Our on-site engineers regularly

More information and working with us

The Dubbo Smart Ute is a Ford Ranger vehicle being retrofitted to a level 3 automated vehicle.Botanic Gardens without an on-board driver.

18 | December 2021

perform safety and assurance testing of automated vehicle technology including automated emergency braking, lane keep assist, and speed assist systems. Future plans for the facility including 5G integration will allow technicians to test and refine emerging technologies such as vehicle-to-traffic signal communications and complex vehicle-to-vehicle systems.

Transport for NSW is proudly sponsoring Formula SAE-A February 2022 competition. At Transport for NSW we are committed to supporting the growth of the future mobility sector and fostering industry and community engagement.

Through our involvement with Formula SAE-A we are helping create the next innovators and leaders for future transport.

During the event we invite all event attendees including students, teachers, and other technology SMEs to visit us at our booth. The Transport for NSW Future Mobility booth will be open during the event careers expo. Formula SAE-A will release a full event schedule and more information on the careers expo leading up to the event.

We want to partner with industry, communities, and researchers to deliver successful outcomes and reinforce NSW as a global leader in transport technology. If you want to learn more about our facility or you are interested in working with us, please visit our website and/or email us: future.mobility@transport.nsw.gov.au

The Transport for NSW Future Mobility Testing and Research Centre offers 1.6km of test track for new and emerging technology.

Dale Brittain | Feature

Aftermarket, not afterthought for automotive engineers Australia’s auto aftermarket and the mainstream automotive industry have a lot more in common than is first apparent and the links have always been there but not necessarily well recognised.

manufacturing industry has been to some extent a fillip for the automotive aftermarket industry.

“The demise of car manufacturing in Australia has taken the focal point, particularly of the State Government and Federal Government away from car factories into having more focus on the aftermarket,” Mr Brittain said. “So, I think we’re a much more recognised industry now than what we’ve ever been in the history of the industry.

“And there’s also been considerable consolidation within the aftermarket with some large groups being formed.”

Without doubt when the car industry was effectively shut down in Australia by its major players many engineers sought new positions in related industries, as we’ve seen many moved into truck manufacturing or the aftermarket.

One person who has straddled the divide is Dale Brittain managing director of DBC2 a full-service marketing agency that has been the mainstay of many aftermarket businesses over its 22-year history.

“All we do is marketing for the aftermarket. We’ve never been in anything other than the automotive aftermarket. And, you know, our philosophy is that we employ car people and turn them into marketers, rather than employing marketers and turning them into car people. So, we’ve got a very experienced car team. We probably command about 70% of the major brands in Australia.”

Mr Brittain was also a board member of the SAE-A several years ago.

“Initially, I joined as a board member. And then I was given the role as vice president after a very short period of time, which is quite an honour,” he explained. “I think I was bought in at the time to potentially get a bit of a breath of fresh air into it.”

With his in-depth knowledge of both industries, it was appropriate to hear his views on the SAE and its links to the Australian aftermarket.

Another not so obvious link that newer members of the SAE-A may not be aware of is that the current Executive Director of the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA), Stuart Charity, was once the Executive Director of the SAE-A from 2003 until 2006.

Over the past years, the demise of the Australian www.saea.com.au

“I think the aftermarket is going to play a big part of that because it’s still automotive, there are still engineering roles happening within the aftermarket, there is still product manufacturing happening in this country,” Mr Brittain explained.

“It’s less, definitely less, but it’s still happening. And I think the SAE-A can play a great role in working through the technical aspects of the aftermarket.

AAAA are probably more a governing association, they’re not really heavily involved in the technical and the engineering side.”

Some of the ex-car company engineers have also taken the huge step of developing our new automotive industry based on the electric car, companies such as ACE EV and Applied EV but this is a developing industry where the aftermarket is still very much in catch up mode.

“The aftermarket’s view was actually just recently stated in a statement from Stuart (Charity) and I think that the reality of the aftermarket is that the impact of electric vehicles into the aftermarket is going to be a very slow burn, and probably a slower burn than most people think. We’re really not going to see any impact of electric vehicles into the aftermarket until the 2030s,” Mr Brittain said.

“And it will take something like, I think it’s about 2040, to get to about a six, seven or eight percent market share. So, the impact of the industry is it’s a long burn, it will definitely happen. And there is a significant change to the way that the aftermarket is going to have to work with EVs, electric vehicles in the future.

“I think that the attitude in the aftermarket is that it’s not something we need to look at immediately.

We need it to be on our radar. We need to understand the significance of it.”

VTE | 19

Feature | Aero Dynamics

Air Force Kyle Forster: An F1 view on aerodynamics for race cars Australia can be too easily discounted as too far away from the leading edge of motorsport – namely Formula One – to be relevant and involved. That’s a fallacy look at how many Australian drivers and engineers have made the grade – then there’s motorcycle riders and engineers, mainstream automotive engineers: the list is long especially considering the size of our population.

Kyle Forster is one of those engineers who made the move to Formula One but in his own words “particularly coming from outside of Europe it’s difficult to get into Formula One.”

working to achieve his dream by studying for an undergraduate degree in engineering, then finishing his studies with a PhD in aerodynamics from the University of New South Wales.

“I always wanted to work in F1 so I searched pathways into F1 – that pathway for me was to get a PhD,” he said. “At the same time that I was doing my PhD I started up a consulting firm as well as finishing my buggy and starting my YouTube channel (Kyle.engineers).”

In early November Mr Forster agreed to share some of his experience, knowledge and practices with the SAE-A audience in a 2-hour webinar on aerodynamics which is his specialty area.

As he neared the end of his PhD, he began to hunt down that elusive job in F1 and pinned down a position with Mercedes Petronas Formula One where he worked for three years – they were three championship winning years – before returning home to Sydney.

Mr Forster has been a racecar engineer for 14 years and spent almost as long

“I applied to Red Bull and Mercedes; Red Bull never got back to me, but Mercedes did.”

20 | December 2021

It sounds simple when it’s a potted history, but Mr Forster knuckled down very early in his studies and by the time he had finished his thesis on The Variation in Co-Rotating and Counter-Rotating Upstream/Downstream Vortex Interactions he had won a university medal and had achieved average marks of over 90 percent in his studies.

He explains the thesis as a simple problem of two vanes in a line, one moved to different offsets and looking at the vortex interaction of these two vanes but done in great depth.

All the way through university Mr Forster kept himself busy not just with study but with Formula SAE working on the Redback Racing UNSW team first as head of bodywork, then head of steering and finally technical director.

As he explained during his webinar FSAE involved a lot of extra work that requires students to balance university study and FSAE but he also said: “for me undoubtably,

Aero Dynamics | Feature

the skills I learnt from it, the breadth of knowledge, the ability to work in a team – it’s a no brainer I would 100 percent do it again.

It becomes an all-consuming lifestyle. You lose touch with reality a bit. There are definitely no regrets about doing it though.

“Personally would I hire a grad engineer for a race car engineering role without it? Probably not,” he concluded.

Once back on home soil he concentrated on his business JFK Consulting (https://jkfaero. com/) and has continued with his YouTube channel, both have been very successful.

In the same vein, was the PhD work worth it?

He said it was for him as it got him past the HR screen and into the interview room with Petronas. And like the vehicles themselves, an F1 interview is like no other. Mr Forster emphasised that in each part of the interview they’re trying to drill you as hard as possible to work out where your knowledge ends, it was harder than any interview he’d had.

“The interview can duck around a bit, from car to supersonic aircraft knowledge – diversity is important,” he said. Luckily, he had that diversity having been involved in aerospace projects as well as automotive projects during his studies.

For an engineer there’s a lot of super cool things about F1, Mr Forster explained, such as when you’re at your desk you have a milliondollar wind tunnel at your disposal sitting behind you. You learn so much and you have access to the coolest tools and amazing budgets.

Moving to the other side of the world was not as easy as it seemed, and Mr Forster struggled with the location of the team, which was in a small town in the middle of England with a very small population. There’s a lot of pressure to perform and succeed, and the hours are long.

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Since coming back from F1 he has worked on a Porsche that successfully competed at the world’s most famous hillclimb – Pikes Peak in the US. And has worked developing an autocross car, boat developments and touring cars as well as biotech projects. Variety is enjoyable.

For the most part of Mr Forster’s webinar, he concentrated on explaining the various aspects of designing aerodynamics for race cars comparing work done in Formula One with work done for Touring Cars and his personal favourite, Time Attack cars.

Time Attack is a type of motorsport where racers compete for the best lap time. Each vehicle is timed through numerous laps of a track. The fastest wins – quite simple.

“Time attack cars and F1 are favourites because they are the craziest expressions of aerodynamics in different packages,” he explained.

Downforce and drag were the first two areas he explained in his presentation including how to achieve it: flow energy = kinetic energy + static pressure. Needless to say, it is not as easy as a simple calculation and he

went into greater depth throughout his talk to ensure that he led the listeners from one idea to another working through: vortices, aero balancing, testing and design, key developments and compromises.

Finally, he ended his presentation with a case study of the aerodynamic differences between a Porsche and an F1 car, before opening the floor to questions.

JKF Consulting also runs an in-depth course called Race Car Aerodynamics: the Definitive Course which comprises of 69 lessons, during the webinar a special discount was offered to webinar attendees.

The course is intended for: •

A university student looking to get ahead of their peers with high level aero knowledge

•

Someone looking to apply for a job in F1 as an aerodynamicist

•

An amateur or professional racer looking to maximise performance on their car

•

A professional aerodynamicist looking for an aero refresher

•

An engineer (racing or otherwise) looking to upskill into race car aerodynamics

•

Anyone with a keen interest in and passion for aerodynamics.

The course starts at the fundamentals and builds from there.

More information is available at: https://courses.jkfaero.com/courses/ race-car-aerodynamics-the-definitive-course

VTE | 21

Feature | Savic Motorcycles

Electric Start-Up An obsession with engineering motorcycles led this ex-Ford engineer to form his own start-up to design and manufacture electric motorcycles in Australia.

Savic Motorcycles is a relatively young start-up based in Melbourne but the idea of designing and building electric motorcycles was well formed in Dennis Savic’s head long before he left his job as an engineer at Ford to go solo.

“I’m obsessed with automotive and design in general. And so, I loved my job at Ford and really enjoyed working there. So, leaving it was definitely bittersweet. But yeah, this has always been the dream,” he said explaining that he decided at the age of 14 that he wanted to build his own motorbikes and the company that he started is the outcome of that dream.

In 2016 the first electric bike that Savic built had a traditional style of frame, a twin spar trellis frame and he used an off-the-shelf power unit but later realised that they needed to do a ground up design not one that had been produced for different power units such as reciprocating engines.

The company then went for a backbone frame which is still quite common, where the engine is a stressed member. Savic said it was a somewhat traditional option, but not overly common as most mass manufactured bikes use a twin spar frame.

“So, we did that. And then in 2018, it took us a bit of time to raise money because I ran out of funds at that point … then we raised a little bit of money from friends and family and built a concept bike, the C series. So that was the 2018 bike,” Savic explained.

“And that was with an off-the-shelf powertrain as well. So that was also the first time we’d launched Savic Motorcycles publicly, and we did really well, we got a lot of publicity. And then, through building that, we realised that the off-the-shelf powertrain wasn’t going to be reliable enough or powerful enough for what the market would want.

“Nor was it going to be cheap enough because when you’re buying off the shelf, there’s lots of margins involved. And so, 2019 was the first bike that we built with our own 22 | December 2021

powertrain design. Obviously, having done that, we had a lot of lessons learned and not just engineering, but also supply chain.”

According to Savic the supply chain was probably one of the biggest hurdles that had to be faced because the company was quite young and low volume even by Australian standards, so a lot of time and energy was spent in sourcing components.

Another bike was completed at the end of 2020. And then Savic spent 2021 capital raising again. Success with capital raising was at a critical point, but now the company has managed to raise roughly $2 million in order to get to commercialisation following a co-funding investment from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre under the Federal Government’s $30 million Commercialisation Fund.

The co-investment of $657,000 from AMGC, will be paired with funding contributions from Savic and its partners for a total project value of $1.14 million (including AMGC funds).

With that funding the company plans to offer three C-Series motorbikes which include a 25-kilowatt Omega (comparable to a 300cc traditional bike) a 40kW Delta, and the 60kw Alpha (roughly equivalent to a 1000cc bike).

The Alpha has 200Nm of torque, powering

it to 100kph from a standing start in 3.5 seconds. The C-Series’ 16kWh lithium-ion battery can be charged to 80 percent in under four hours and boasts an urban range between 150km (for the Omega) and 250km (for the Alpha).

“We’ve managed to pack a pretty big battery pack in there. You know, 16 kilowatt hours … that’s on par with high-performance electric motorcycles already in the market. And so yeah, we think we’ll be able to, to get a decent range out of it,” Savic added. “So, the battery pack that we have in there is about 80 kilos worth of cells. I think a normal engine dry is roughly 50.”

Savic Motorcycles employed optimisation modelling in its design process with a CAD software tool called Inspire. Engineers tell the software what the materials and design limitations are, and it removes the material that isn’t needed automatically.

For example, the headstock of the C-Series prototype went through a number of design iterations to reduce its size while maintaining its load-bearing strength. Inspire helped by breaking down the headstock into its smallest components, assessing the contribution of each, and providing the smallest organic shape to fulfil its structural requirements.

Savic Motorcycles | Feature

The bikes incorporate an instrument cluster that is touchscreen with navigation as well as a few other features like a phone app. Designed by Sam Carter and developed by Kim Suandee, the 7-inch Resistive Touch display will provide an array of base UI templates that riders will be able to tweak to their own style.

The cluster pairs closely with the bike’s other major electrical component, the Vehicle Control Unit (VCU), which controls its signals, sequences, and ultimately its performance. This VCU is based on a renowned aeroplane control system, Wingmate, which was designed for the Red Bull Air Racing team by Savic’s mentor, engineer Peter Wezenbeek.

The C-Series boasts a number of world-class, race-quality components, including Wilbers suspension, Brembo brakes, and a customised Optibelt carbon-fibre drive belt.

The Savic team is partnering with Bosch Australia for an anti-lock braking system.

Through a clever combination of cloud storage, GPS, in-bike sensors and real-time processing, a unique Savic App will give riders a 24/7 connection to their vehicle – enabling them to see everything from its current location and charging status, to previous journey stats and future servicing needs.

They will be able to download the app and have instant access to a world of information about their bike – how their build is progressing, news on customisations and special features that may be available.

According to Savic one of the hardest things to do was to achieve that right balance of costs.

“You know, the design itself and how that impacts cost, the supplier capability,and having a supplier at all to supply that component. And then even when you think

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VTE | 23

Feature | Savic Motorcycles

you found a supplier, you need two or three backup suppliers just in case something doesn’t quite work out,” he said.

“And yeah, just balancing all of that is so difficult, because then you have to do it across all the systems in the bike. And we’ve got 27 to 30 subsystems alone. So, our parts count is around 300 components, individual components.

“The battery pack itself as well. Again, from a supplier perspective, it was difficult to find a good supplier to work with. When we did find a supplier the battery technology is rapidly changing, there are a lot of new options out there and many different cells you can use.

“Working out which cell architecture’s the best for the business, not only now, but in future, it was very difficult to do.

“I guess the third biggest challenge has probably been the software side for us. We developed and designed our instrument cluster, basically inhouse from a physical standpoint. But we did that to give ourselves as much flexibility as possible on the software side of things, which is how we’ve managed to package so much capability into the box.

“So, our software engineer has been working very hard for the last few years to overcome obstacles and get it to the point we and our customers will be happy with. And we’re very, very close now and pretty happy with what we’ve got. So yeah, look, I’d say, those are probably the biggest standout things.

“And then, when you think you’ve solved everything, you come up with 20 ideas on how you might tweak it or make it better. So that’s why there’s a saying, you know; shoot the engineering, and ship the product.

“So, yeah, we’re really happy with the product we’ve got now.

“Look, it’s been a challenge, but we’ve got a great team. The team we’ve got are persistent, 24 | December 2021

talented and very passionate about what they’re doing, that makes the impossible seem possible and it’s all worth it.”

“Over the next 12 months, the idea is to be able to produce one a week. And we could probably do that in the current space.”

As it stands there are already 150 pre orders for the bikes. Exporting the bikes is on the radar but will not be entertained until possibly 2025 starting with New Zealand.

However, that won’t do when the plan is to produce 14 bikes a day. When that happens, the company will have to expand from its current 30 workforce to 70-100 people by adding engineers and technicians, and including implementing an apprenticeship program to encourage and nuture new talent in the e-Mobility space in Australia.

While Savic and his team of 13 engineers design the bike the manufacturing of components is done overseas with much of the structural components out of India, other components from China and then some off the shelf components from Italy and Switzerland. As an example the front frame and steering assembly comes from China, the front and rear suspension from Germany and Thailand and the throttles and grips from Italy.

Assembly though will be in Australia.

“We probably will manufacture in Melbourne, but we will need a bigger facility. Yeah, so we’ve mapped out that we need a two-to-3000 square metre facility. And we haven’t homed in on where that’s going to be just yet,” Savic explained.

“Savic Motorcycles is paving the way for electric mobility in Australia by leveraging the best of breed designers, engineers and manufacturing partners to deliver motorbikes of unmatched performance for local and global customers,” Dr Jens Goennemann, Managing Director of AMGC said on presenting Savic Motorcylces the financial assistance.

“Savic is proof that when you embrace the entire manufacturing process from design to research and development, all the way through to sales, there are exciting times ahead for Australian manufacturing.”

Feature | Technical

Tomas Mickevičius, University of Applied Engineering Sciences, Mohammad Aiyan, BMS Institute of Technology & Mgmt., Mechanical Engineering, Bangalore, India S Sumanth Sagar, BMS Institute of Technology & Mgmt., Mechanical Engineering, Bangalore, India Sanjay Raghav S (Corresponding Author), BMS Institute of Technology & Mgmt., Mechanical Engineering, Bangalore, India

Design and Optimization of an Electric Car Chassis and Body using Structural Analysis and CFD ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION One of the main contributors to the greenhouse effect is the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and heating. The transport sector is currently the main consumer of fossil fuels. Hence, car manufacturers are starting to implement a more sustainable approach when developing vehicles with the focus on electric vehicles. Electric cars are emerging as a promising solution for the near future. Being battery powered, these vehicles do not perform as well as the conventional automobiles, and hence they need to be optimized effectively on all other fronts to derive maximum performance from electric power. The two most effective approaches to do this would be to improve the vehicle’s aerodynamics and make it as light as feasible. At highway speeds, an electric vehicle’s air resistance can reach up to 48% of its total driving resistance.

(Tamer Nabil*, 2020) Aerodynamic design of cars is crucial as it directly affects the fuel economy and stability in motion. A virtual wind tunnel can be developed with the help of CFD analysis in order to obtain the drag force on the vehicle body. A streamlined car has less drag, whereas a boxy vehicle, such as a bus, has a high aerodynamic drag; thus, the goal of this research is to develop a practically streamlined body to maximise the performance of the electric car.

The second aspect of this project is to design a chassis for the electric car. In general, achieving lightweight and rigid automobile structures plays a critical role in maximising electric car efficiency. Without a doubt, the chassis is one of the most crucial components of the construction. As a result, it must be constructed in such a way that it reduces weight while improving total vehicle performance. In order to meet the strength, low manufacturing cost, and aesthetic standards of common lightweight urban cars, space frame structures are frequently used (R.K. Kawade, 2017). A space frame chassis was chosen for the study as it is rigid, lightweight, cost effective and simple to manufacture. On the other hand, chassis stiffness requirements make any weight reduction difficult and costly. For the development of both high-performance and cost- effective road vehicles, the problem of finding the best compromise between 26 | December 2021

chassis stiffness, weight, and cost is critical.

(Luiz CarlosGertz, 2015) The structural components of the chassis frame, such as cross members, must be strategically located to reduce frame twist and minimise local deflections of suspension mounting brackets. Chassis stiffness is a direct factor of torsional rigidity. Increasing the torsional rigidity of a vehicle improves ride comfort quality by allowing the suspension to work more efficiently.

The torsional rigidity of a vehicle’s chassis can be defined as “how much a frame will flex as it is loaded when one front wheel is up and one front wheel is down while the rear of the car is held level” in simple terms. Having a good torsional rigidity results in good handling. The task of designing a chassis is to improve the torsional stiffness without compromising the its weight. One way of doing this is to incorporate lightweight materials into the chassis. The rising popularity of composite materials such as Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRPs) and Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) has made it possible for these materials to find applications in the automotive industry.

Carbon fibres are an excellent choice of material when it comes to chassis building due to their high strength, lightweight, thermal resistance and flexibility. (H Ahmad, 2020) In this study, a comparison is made between carbon fibre chassis, the traditionally used stainless steel and newly introduced aluminium alloy.

2. MODELLING 2.1. Electric Car Body The body of the car is designed in CATIA V5 software. For economical, city friendly purposes, a two-seater hatchback design is chosen. Inspired by the British Leyland Mini 1000 Mk. 4, this design has a length of 3150mm, height of 1737mm and a width of 1400mm. The wheelbase of the car is 1810mm with a ground clearance of 200mm.

The objective is to develop a two-seater car

Fig I. Isometric, Side, Top Views of Electric Car Body

The transition from traditional gasolinepowered automobiles to electric vehicles (EVs) has taken time, two major challenges of engine- powered vehicles are greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy. Electric cars require less maintenance. A lot of money can be saved while also helping the environment. In today’s world, working with lightweight materials have emerged as a key area for improvement in the automotive industry. The most efficient method for increasing power output is to reduce the weight of vehicle components. Composite materials have benefited greatly from research and development because they are stronger, more recyclable, and easier to integrate into vehicles. The primary goal of this research is to design the body and chassis frame of a two-seater electric car. A CFD analysis was performed to determine the drag coefficient of the body along with structural analysis to obtain the frontal impact and torsional rigidity of the chassis to develop an effective electric car design.

The design was carried out with the help of CATIA V5 software, while the analysis was performed using ANSYS 19.2. A comparative analysis of the chassis was undertaken by incorporating three different materials namely, traditional steel i.e., Stainless Steel 304L, Aluminium Alloy 7075-T6, T300 Carbon Fibre composite. The energy efficiency of the car for the three materials are also computed.

Keywords: Electric Car, Finite Element Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Composite Materials that is ergonomic, roomy, and rides well. The low ground clearance provides better handling as less air will pass under the car. To add to this, a spoiler with standard specifications is designed to assist in aerodynamics. (Fig I)

Technical | Feature

TABLE I - DIMENSIONS OF ELECTRIC CAR

Dimensions

Length 3150mm Width 1400mm Height 1737mm Wheelbase 1400mm

2.2. Chassis Chassis modelling was performed with the help of Wireframe and Surface design in CATIA V5 software. A space frame chassis was chosen for this design keeping (R.K. Kawade, 2017) in mind with our aim to design a cost-effective and electric car.

In this regard a new chassis is designed as per the dimensions of the body with tubular beams of circular cross section with 25mm diameter and a thickness of 2mm. The design is carried out taking ergonomics and stiffness into consideration. (Fig II & Fig III)

respectively. The inlet of the wind tunnel was placed at half car-length in front of the car and the outlet was 2 times the car-length from behind the car to capture the flow at the wake downstream of the car. (Louis Cattafesta, 2010) Following this a volume mesh of 0.8m element size and High smoothness is done with an incorporation of 10 layers of inflation. In aerodynamic simulations it is recommended to refine the cells of the mesh in order to determine any unsteady or turbulent fluid phenomena caused by the separation of the boundary layer from the car body. The number of nodes and elements being 82506 and 389924 respectively.

3.1.1. Boundary Conditions The Boundary conditions are applied onto the meshing as stated above. The wind tunnel-car body setup is then specified to have a velocity inlet, a pressure outlet, the car body and sidewalls which are treated as non-Slip walls to simulate the wind tunnel conditions.

The analysis is carried at three different inlet velocities of 40kmph, 60kmph and 80kmph and outlet pressure set at zero pascal for 200 iterations for the model so as to enable a thorough comparative study of its performance at the real-world conditions that the car body will be subjected to.

Turbulence Modelling:

Fig II. Model of Frame; Circular Cross Section of Tubular Space frame

The Mach number is below 0.3 therefore the flow is incompressible and steady in nature. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes RANS equations are solved to simulate the incompressible turbulent flow and the energy equation is not considered as there are no temperature conditions. K-Epsilon (k-ε) realizable is taken as the turbulence model as it is ideal for external geometry with flow separation. Pressure velocity coupling is used to calculate the pressure field for which the COUPLE algorithm is implemented.

The car body frame is subjected to 40kmph, 60kmph and 80kmph inlet velocity speeds so as to simulate the conditions it will be subjected to while in Real-World use.

Fig III. Electric Car Body on Space Frame

To verify this the Drag coefficient and Drag force values for the car were calculated in the ANSYS FLUENT software. These parameters help in determining if the car body can run at the mentioned speeds without any disruptions. The values are tabulated.

3. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS 3.1. Analysis of Electric Car Body: Computational Fluid Dynamics The body of the electric car is first imported from the CATIA V5 Software into the ANSYS 19.2 software and the CFD simulation tool FLUENT is used, after which an enclosure is created surrounding the car body to simulate the Wind tunnel, the dimensions are 12m,8m and 4.5m in the x, y and z direction www.saea.com.au

Fig V. Meshing of Chassis Frame 3.2. Analysis of Electric Car Chassis: Structural Analysis 1. Material Selection The main parameters to be satisfied by the materials used for the chassis of an electric car is that it should be lightweight so as to reduce the load on the car battery, it should have a high yield strength so as to be rigid, safe to be used for passengers and it should be economical to manufacture.

An extensive study was carried out following which Aluminium Alloy 7075-T6 and T300 which is a carbon fibre composite are selected as the potential materials. Carbon fibre usually combined with other materials to form a strong composite. When impregnated with plastic resin such as epoxy and baked, it forms carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer which has high strength-to-weight ratio, and is extremely rigid. (H Ahmad, 2020) A comparative analysis of these materials is carried out along with the traditionally used Steel 304L alloy. The comparative analysis allows us to identify the most efficient material for use. The mass of the chassis for each material is listed below along with the percentage reduction in weight. (Fig VI) The weight reduction in chassis plays an important role as it affects the overall performance of the vehicle.

A. Aluminium 7075-T651: Aluminium 7075-T651 is a commonly used 7-series Aluminium alloy. Among the other Aluminium alloys, it is found to have the best strength and is highly suitable for highstrength applications. The main elements in the alloy are zinc and magnesium and a small percent of copper. This alloy is now beginning to be widely used in the automotive and aviation industries.

B. T300 Carbon Fibre Composite: T300 Carbon Fibre is a Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) and there is an increased use of fibre reinforced plastics (FRPs) over the traditional materials due to their better properties over other engineering materials.

The properties include high strength to weight ratio, excellent corrosion, thermal resistance and high fracture toughness.

They are highly suitable for car chassis due their extreme light weight and high strength capabilities. (H Ahmad, 2020)

Fig IV. Meshing of Virtual Wind Tunnel

The properties of the 3 materials used for the chassis are shown in (TABLE II).

VTE | 27

Feature | Technical

TABLE II. MATERIAL PROPERTIES Properties

Steel AA T300/Carbon 304L 7075- T6 Fibre composite

Young’s modulus (GPa)

193

70

57

Ultimate Strength (MPa)

564

580

570

Yield Strength (MPa)

210

460

530

Shear Modulus (GPa)

75

26

3

Poisson’s Ratio

0.275

0.32

0.05

Density (kg/m^3)

8000

2810

1400

3.2.2 Structural Analysis The frame is subjected to structural analysis to determine its behaviour at the industry conditions and to evaluate if the frame can withstand these conditions without fracturing.

The model is designed in CATIA V5 software first and is then imported into ANSYS 19.2 software package.

The materials are first created in the Engineering Sources as they are not predefined and then they are assigned to the model after which the structural analysis is performed for each material.

Meshing has to be done to the entire body car chassis and a meshing plan is devised wherein the element size chosen is 10mm and a volume mesh is provided. This allows us to perform a highly accurate analysis. The number nodes and elements are 306586 and 194641 respectively and meshing image is shown. (Fig V) 3.2.3 Torsional Analysis Design of a strong structure is important but is still inefficient if the chassis has insufficient rigidity which is a crucial parameter. The analysis of torsional rigidity is the most essential test to be conducted as it determines not only the comfort quality of the car but also the overall “Torsional stiffness” which demonstrates the vehicle behaviour at sharp turns and overall balance of the vehicle taking into consideration passenger safety.

(Steven Tebby, 2011) Bending Stiffness is another parameter which is determined by the acceptable limit deflection to make it possible to open the doors. This is required essentially when accelerating and braking. If the torsional stiffness of the chassis is adequate, the vehicle will not have problems of bending stiffness. (Luiz CarlosGertz, 2015) Along with this Frontal impact Tests of the chassis is conducted to evaluate the passenger safety in accidental situations.

The impact forces simulated are 10,000N and 20,000N so as to verify the chassis structure strength at extremely high impacts.

In general, torsional analysis is used to determine the relative stiffness between different types of chassis.

28 | December 2021

𝜑 = sin −1 2DL

Typically, a comparison between the torsional rigidity and the weight of the structure is made, to evaluate the efficiency. Therefore, Torsional rigidity and frontal impact test are sufficient to verify the structural integrity of the chassis.

b. Angle of Torsion

Torsional Rigidity

c. 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 (𝑁) = 𝐴𝑖𝑟 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 (𝑁) + 𝑇𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 (𝑁)

The higher the values of torsional rigidity the more stable the vehicle is as low resistance to torsion leads to imbalance in curve-turning and causes instability, which can lead to accidents. This is extensively studied by several authors using both simulation and experimental analysis.

Firstly, the rear suspension of the car is applied with fixed supports to simulate car movement in turns where the rear wheels provide movement in uniaxial direction.

The Front suspension of the left wheel is applied with loads equal to the weight of the entire car body in the downward direction following which the same forces are applied on the right side of the front suspension in the upward direction.

An acceleration of 80kmph is provided to the entire chassis and standard earth gravity is applied. These conditions simulate the movement of the car along a turn at its maximum running speed and are applied for all the 3 different materials.

Frontal Impact The front wheel suspensions and rear wheel suspensions are provided with fixed loads, following which forces of 10,000N and 20,000N are applied in the negative x-direction. The forces applied are high so as to test the structural strength of the chassis to validate its safety for passengers. The conditions are applied for all the 3 different materials.

3.2.4 Loading conditions Torsional rigidity: i. Mass of one passenger = 75kg Mass of two passengers = 75+75 = 150kg ii. Mass of one seat = 1kg Mass of two seats = 1+1 = 2kg iii. Mass of battery = 206kg iv. Mass of steering system = 7kg v. Total mass (kg) = 150+2+206+7 = 365kg vi. Force = 365 × 9.81= 3508.3N vii. Standard Earth Gravity (m/s2) = 9.8066 Frontal Impact Test: i. Case 1 = 10,000N (-X direction) ii. Case 2 = 20,000N (-X direction) 3.3. Calculations

T

a. Torsional Stiffness 𝐾 = 𝜑

𝐾 is the torsional stiffness (Nm / degree)

𝜑 is the Torsion angle (degree)

T is Torque applied to the front of the chassis (Nm)

D is the vertical deflection of point of load application (m)

L is the distance between the applied loads (m)

𝑇𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒(𝑁) = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑎𝑟(𝑁) ∗ 𝐶𝑟

Assuming Coefficient of rolling friction Cr = 0.015

d. Horse Power

ℎ𝑝 =

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 × 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 500

1 horsepower = 745.5 W

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1. Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis on Car Body The simulations are run at the set inlet velocities of 40, 60 and 80kmph at zero yaw angle to maintain the linear flow of air.

The inlet velocities taken are taken so as to simulate the actual working velocity which the body of the car will be subjected to while in use. The residuals were achieved after 200 iterations for Car model and they remained constant as the iteration proceeded. The value of drag coefficient (Cd) is found to be 0.348, 0.347 and 0.346 for 40, 60 and 80kmph respectively with a drag force of 64.07, 143.659 and 254.701N for the said inlet velocities respectively. (Fig VIII) It is observed that a significant amount of pressure accumulation typically occurs at the front end of car bodies due to their boxlike design which contributes in causing a separation between air and car body surface, which contributes to its high drag-coefficient.

Also, the drag force at the rear end of the car body is also found to be high due to the non-tapering or linear design which causes vacuum creation at the rear end of the car surface causing increased pulling force called Drag Force.

To counter these issues, firstly the front end is extended further and the windshield is inclined at an angle (◦) to allow for an overall tapering surface for the air to have a steady and swift linear flow over the car surface. The corners of the front and side profile of the car are rounded to reduce air pressure due to accumulation on its surface. The car roof is modified from a simple straight profile to a linear tapering profile which tapers up from the front to the rear end of the body.

This provides the airflow to steadily flow over the surface of the car body without accumulation. Finally, a spoiler was added to the top rear end of the car which is in geometrical relation with the car body which allows the air to flow over and prevents it from dropping down and creating a vacuum around that area. This helps in reducing the drag force created on the car.

Technical | Feature

The drag coefficient and drag force values are within the standard range and are ideal for use in passenger car as the aerodynamic inputs in design help improve performance as compared to other designs currently used.

At the front end of the car body, the stagnation of air causes a positive pressure coefficient value, in this stagnation area, airspeed increases due to the windshield inclination angle which results in decrease in pressure coefficient value.

At the edges, the pressure coefficient value reduces significantly as the airspeed is maximum here. After which air travels along the top surface while remaining attached to the surface i.e., No separation occurs due to its upwards tapering profile which causes the pressure coefficient curve to become positive and it remains constant.

TABLE III. TORSIONAL RIGIDITY FOR DIFFERENT MATERIALS Material Acceleration Total Equivalent Vertical Torsional

(kmph) Deformation (mm) Von-Mises direction Stiffness

Stress (MPa) deformation (mm) (kNm/degree) Steel 304L

80

0.765

34.16

0.393

451.965

AA 7075

80

0.999

25.67

0.117

94.573

T300/Epoxy 80 0.881 26.51 0.498 31.885

TABLE V. FRONTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS FOR DIFFERENT MATERIALS Material Force (kN)

Total deformation (mm)

Equivalent von- Mises stress (MPa)

Steel 10

0.139

31.148

2.2 Frontal Impact Test

304L 20

0.279

62.297

AA 10

0.376

31.644

7075 20

0.753

63.288

T300 10

0.465

29.695

20

0.93

59.388

The frontal impact test is done to verify if the chassis design is suitable for use in the situation of a high impact on the chassis frame taking into consideration the passenger safety. The equivalent von-Mises stress generated on impact has to be lesser than the ultimate tensile strength of the material to be suitable and safe to use. The equivalent von-Mises stress for 20KN force is found to be 62.297MPa, 63.288MPa and 59.388MPa for Steel 304L, AA 7056-T6 and T300 Composite respectively as seen in Fig IX, Fig X.

TABLE V. CFD RESULTS FOR ELECTRIC CAR BODY Inlet Velocity Drag Coefficient Drag Force (Kmph) Cd (N) 40

0.3482

64.070

60

0.3470

143.659

80

0.3460

254.701

The difference between frontal and rear pressure is reduced significantly thereby resulting in a lower drag force at the rear end of the car body and lesser surface pressure acting on the car body as shown in the figure.

(Fig VI) Fig VI. Pressure Contour of Electric Car Body

to its high overall mass, increasing the load on the electric battery demanding more power to be used as compared to the AA 7075-T6 and T300 Composite. The results are tabulated in TABLE III.

The Finite element analysis was conducted to ensure that the materials were within their safe stress limits. It is inferred from the results as the stress-induced in all the new material chassis frames did not exceed their respective ultimate tensile strength thereby making the design safe. The results for frontal impact are tabulated in TABLE VI.

4.2. Structural Analysis on Car Chassis Frame

TABLE VI

4.2.1. Torsional rigidity

Material Force

(kN)

The torsional rigidity test was conducted for all the 3 materials for the same loading conditions and the values for Steel 304L, AA 7056-T6 and T300/Composite are around 451KNm/ degree, 94KNm/degree and 22KNm/degree respectively. The values of torsional stiffness are within the required standard range for passenger vehicles and the design is therefore suitable.

Total deformation (mm)

Equivalent von- Mises stress (MPa)

Steel 10 0.139 31.148 304L 20 0.279 62.297 AA 10 0.376 31.644 7075 20 0.753 63.288 T300 10 0.465 29.695

20 0.93 59.388

The value for Steel 304L is high and is considered unsuitable for use as its mass is also very high at 949.704kg while a weight reduction of 61.26% and 82.4% Fig VII. Drag Force and Cd curves

Fig VIII. Velocity Contour from CFD Analysis www.saea.com.au

For AA 7075-T6 and T300 Composite is shown respectively. This weight reduction significantly helps in making the power consumption of the car more efficient thereby improving the overall performance of the car. The vertical displacement for the torsional force of 3508.3N is found to be 0.0243mm, 0.177mm and 0.498mm for Steel 304L, AA7056-T6 and T300 Fibre respectively.

Although the value of deformation produced in Steel 304L is low when compared with the other 2 materials, the overall performance of the vehicle will be affected substantially due

Fig IX. Torsional Rigidity and Frontal Impact on Chassis Frame for Steel 304L VTE | 29

Feature | Technical

to 0.3460 for inlet velocity speed ranging from 40kmph to 80kmph, and is therefore suitable for use. The range of a standard small passenger vehicle is required to be within the range of 0.20.4.

2. The total weight of the chassis is found to be maximum with Steel 304L materials yielding 949.704kg to the lowest weight being 166.877kg for T300 Composite.

Fig X. Torsional Rigidity and Frontal Impact on Chassis Frame for AA 7075

3. The heavy weight of the Steel 304L material makes it inappropriate for use as chassis material, as its high mass increases the power load on the battery making it inefficient and below the required standards.

4. The chassis made from AA 7075-T6 shows a net weight reduction of 61.46% along with T300 Composite showing a weight reduction of 82.4% when compared to the traditional Steel 304L, are within optimum weight range to be used as a chassis.

5. The torsional stiffness is tested for the vehicle’s max speed of 80kmph as it is the speed at which the car is at the risk of being unstable.

Fig XI. Torsional Rigidity and Frontal Impact on Chassis Frame for T300 Composite TABLE VII. NET WEIGHT REDUCTION Material

Weight of chassis (kg)

Net Weight Reduction (%)

Steel 304L

949.704

N/A

AA 7056

367.847

61.46

T300/Epoxy 166.877

82.4

TABLE VII. POWER LOAD ON DIFFERENT CHASSIS MATERIALS Chassis Material Steel 304L

7. Although the torsional stiffness of steel 304L provides substantial stability, it is not suitable to be used due to its high mass.

8. Both AA 7075 and T300 Composite have torsional stiffness in the optimum range therefore are suitable to be used in chassis.

10. After evaluation it is found that for a running speed of 60kmph the chassis made of steel 304L required a 3.25KW of power to run while that of AA 7075-T6 and T300 Composite required 43.69% and 58.76% less for the same conditions.

(TABLE VII) 11. Weight optimization of the chassis by changing materials was successfully performed by implementation of structural analysis.

6. REPLICATION OF RESULTS The optimisation, design and simulation results in this article have been performed using the CATIA V5 software and ANSYS 19.2 software packages which are available to public and widely used for research and design works.

All information on inputs on design and simulation data has been explained in the manuscript.

The information on material properties have been derived from (www.toraycma.com) for T300 composite material and that of Aluminium alloy and steel 304L have been derived from similar sources after verification from multiple such sources.

Positive results for all analysis were obtained.

Theoretical calculations were used to verify torsional stiffness of the chassis.

(Luiz CarlosGertz, 2015)

References

Speed Power Load Net Reduction (kmph) on Battery (kW) of Load (%) 60

3.25

N/A

AA 7075-T6

60

1.83

43.69

T300/Epoxy

60

1.34

58.76

5. CONCLUSIONS This study aimed to design a chassis and body for an electric Car vehicle to accommodate 2 persons providing a suitable and efficient aerodynamic design and adequate stability and passenger safety with suitable torsional rigidity and structural strength, which has been successfully done as inferred from the results.

1. The Drag coefficient of the designed electric car body ranges from 0.3482 30 | December 2021

6. The values range from 415.96kNm/deg for steel 304L to 22.11kNm/deg for T300 Composite.

9. The frontal impact test demonstrated that all the 3 materials are suitable for use as chassis material as the equivalent stress values are lesser than the ultimate strength of the materials. The stress in T300 Composite is the least and that of AA 7075-T6 the highest.

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