Vehicle Engineering

The global commercial vehicle sector comprises an extremely wide range of vehicles, from the 3-wheelers of South East Asia to the heavy trucks of the US and Europe, and the multi-trailer roadtrains of Australia. Customer preferences, vehicle duty cycles and legislative requirements vary significantly both geographically and by product type and market, and change constantly. With its global commercial vehicle team, deep technical knowledge and broad engineering experience, Ricardo is equal to any commercial vehicle engineering challenge, providing world-class performance, durability, and total cost of ownership and regulatory compliance.

A truly world-class capability in commercial vehicle systems engineering:

• Concept design, benchmarking, target and attribute setting – integration throughout development using design for manufacture principles and product design data management
• Vehicle, system and component level specification setting and development
• Access to state-of-the-art tools including Ricardo’s well-proven Total Vehicle Fuel Economy (TVFE) development process
• Hybrid and EV powertrain installation and integration including an wide range of energy storage and management systems
• Package design and control including legal and safety requirements, weight distribution and clearance checks
• Component, system, and vehicle level design and validation using state-of-the-art CAE methods including virtual styling tools, ADAMS dynamic optimization, thermal simulation using WAVE and VECTIS, and VSIM vehicle systems analysis
• Vehicle dynamics optimization and incorporation of active safety technologies
• Structural analysis for performance, crashworthiness and durability
• Access to Ricardo’s world-class vehicle NVH team and facilities
• Lightweight structural architecture optimization and application of advanced materials, joining and manufacturing technologies
• Comprehensive prototype build and testing capability including all aspects of calibration and homologation