What existing/previous U of T research programs will feed into this new research?

A modernized electricity grid that can safely and securely manage the bidirectional flow of energy is essential to efforts to decarbonize. The University of Toronto has extensive research in electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, edge computing and artificial intelligence. U of T’s Grid Modernization Centre – which is part of U of T’s Climate Positive Energy interdisciplinary clean energy research initiative – is partnered with utilities, government, industry and other key players in the electricity grid ecosystem. We believe that U of T’s Electric Vehicle Research Centre is home to some of the best facilities on the planet for electric vehicle testing and some of the best EV researchers and trainees. And expertise in artificial intelligence and federated learning – which allows for data sharing while preserving privacy) – will be key to creating resilient, decentralized energy networks that rely on data-driven energy management.

To what extent is the direction of the work determined by U of T, or by Nissan?

Like all of our partnerships, this research partnership with Nissan is driven by and aligns with academic priorities. The University of Toronto has a strong tradition of partnering with the private sector, and does so within a framework defined by the university’s academic mission and its fundamental values.

Where does U of T add value to work in the V2G field, as opposed to it being kept in-house by an auto maker?

This research partnership aims to accelerate commercially viable solutions for electric vehicles to contribute simultaneously to both cleaner transportation and a more reliable grid. Our researchers provide the multidisciplinary expertise to address all aspects of this energy equation.

Where are the main obstacles for widespread adoption of V2G, and what do you see as the main technical challenges in V2G that this research will focus on?

To maximize the potential of vehicle-to-grid technology, a variety of challenges need to be overcome. One involves managing energy flow from numerous bidirectional charging sources simultaneously. Another involves complex communication standards between vehicles and chargers. Others relate to power distribution and grid stability, privacy, cybersecurity and the complexity of the energy management system. This research partnership aims to create technology and innovations that will be scalable and industry-appropriate in the timeframe the climate crisis demands.

Who will have patent ownership for any innovations that arise from this work?

Through this agreement, our researchers and students will access leading technology to develop, test and validate vehicle-to-grid solutions and, as with all our research agreements, the results will be published. The University of Toronto always reserves the right to continue to use any newly developed intellectual property for research and teaching purposes to help extend the impact of research results.

When might we see commercialization of the results?

This partnership with Nissan will produce breakthrough research with real-world impact in real time – which is essential given the urgency of the climate crisis.

Explore: INTERVIEW: QNX’s Niko Boeker discusses AI and the future of SDVs in the UK

Amid the ongoing push toward an all-electric line-up by 2030, gasoline-powered sedans are still doing the business for Cadillac. Sales of the mid-size CT5, for example, are at their highest level since the car was launched four years ago, with the brand as a whole enjoying record sales in 2023.

Cadillac plans to build on this momentum with the refreshed 2025MY CT5. Almost two years ago, chief engineer Alex MacDonald (pictured opposite) moved across from a role as vehicle performance manager on Chevrolet’s performance cars to oversee the facelift through to production in early 2024.

Attention to ADAS
The revised CT5 will feature intersection emergency braking and side blind-zone steering assist. Despite those systems already seeing service on other GM vehicles, there has been plenty to do.

“Probably the biggest stretch for me is adding the luxury ride requirements and the active safety systems that we don’t currently have for the most part on RWD performance cars,” says MacDonald. “We’ve all driven cars where you’re interrupted by braking events, or beeping, or fighting the steering. We’ve tried to make sure these systems work with a car that’s built to be driven a little more spiritedly.

“We have a great facility at the Milford Proving Ground to very carefully orchestrate all those systems together,” he continues. “Little details, like the angle at which you mount the radar sensors in the fascia and fenders, require custom tuning to make sure that you’re identifying the [activation] zones properly. Changing their position just a couple of degrees in the [styling] refresh meant we had to go through and remap where they are in the sensor set. It’s fun work tuning that because you’re driving really close to other people!”

With constant pressure on vehicle makers to reduce development times, MacDonald believes this type of detailed work sometimes gets cut from the test schedule. Not at GM, however.

“We don’t see that [attention to detail] in all of our competitors,” he offers. “Some of those competitors that are coming to market faster might say, ‘These two brake calipers are similar, we’re going to share an ABS calibration for these two cars.’ The average consumer is not going to notice. But we are very much into the integration of those details, making sure that if you buy a different tire, you’ll get a different calibration in your ABS or your suspension to make sure that is optimized on the car. And that’s where some of that time goes. You have to decide, are we going to budget time for that or are we going to race to market as fast as we can? It’s a balance.”

Agile advantage
Faster software development cycles (see Crack the code, ATTI June 2023, p36*) are another new frontier affecting programs at GM, including the CT5. The refreshed sedan gains a 33in wraparound screen featuring built-in Google and Amazon Alexa.

“I have a ton of experts on the team developing these features until they’re ready to undergo testing,” comments MacDonald. “My contribution is more to be the voice of the customer, [seeing] how those features work when you’re in a dynamic situation, in a way that is engaging and not interrupting.”

He describes agile software development practices as “a new paradigm” for all automotive manufacturers, enabling features to be introduced as close as possible to the start of production.

“It gives us a lot of flexibility that we didn’t have before,” he explains. “But you also need to rethink your expectations at each milestone. We work closely together [with the software team] to make sure that we all understand the timing, understand when it is okay for us to say that details need to be fixed on something that should be finished.”

An early preproduction car from the plant in Lansing, Michigan, was on display at Detroit Auto Show in September. The week before, MacDonald had taken part in a “100% ride” in a similar car.

“For that particular ride, the written expectations are that it’s done. Earlier rides might be missing a calibration that won’t be done for another two months, for example. This time we were able to say, ‘Okay, everything’s finished,’ which was really gratifying.”

Mustang GTD evolved in collaboration with Multimatic engineers in a small workshop behind the new Rolling Road Wind Tunnel (RRWT) in Allen Park, Michigan. Its F1-style drag reduction system (DRS) will eventually be tested in the tunnel, as other 2024 Mustang variants have been, but to date has been honed in CFD and on road courses like Road Atlanta in Georgia and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

“If you’re a real racer, you have a budget, and your budget runs out,” says Farley. “You challenge yourself to race smarter, not to waste money like a lot of companies do and write a big check.

“This car ran into some problems during its development,” he continues. “Any good product happens that way. [With] the best products in our industry, you’ll find a moment or two when someone said, you’re not going to do it. It’s not going to make enough money. It’s not good enough for the company, it’s not going to help our brand. And this car is no different. There were two times when the project basically stopped and we weren’t sure if it was going to go through, so we all worked together [on a resolution]. Some of [the discussion] wasn’t polite, but we got it done.”

Look out for a feature on Ford’s Rolling Road Wind Tunnel in the November issue of ATTI

After a slow start, the Stellantis EV offensive is gathering pace in North America. The company plans to bring 25 BEVs to that market by 2030 yet perhaps none will be as important as the 2025 Ram 1500 REV, which will be the first vehicle on the new STLA Frame EV platform.

The pickup was recently unveiled in prototype form at the New York International Auto Show, where ATTI caught up with the latest from the program. Led by senior manager of vehicle synthesis Doug Killian, the Ram team is currently running development vehicles built with parts from prototype tooling.

“We’re into the representative hardware phase of the program,” he explained. “Some of that is simply to correlate to the simulations and modeling that we’ve done, taking advantage of the economy of doing work virtually. Every prototype we build is extremely expensive and therefore we work to minimize them, but each is extremely valuable.

“We can confirm elements of the simulation in hardware, adjust our model and keep developing in simulation, then come in with a later prototype to do our true production validation later in the phase.”

The first vehicles from production tooling will be built in the autumn. Such is the team’s faith in the digital tools that at the time of writing it had yet to crash a physical prototype.

“We’re not crashing vehicles to learn something anymore, we’re crashing them to confirm what we’re seeing in CAE,” Killian continued. “We will build later versions to do some of that confirmation work. In some cases, we may do some energy tests on a frame component, just to confirm how a part is going to buckle or dissipate its energy. But the virtual tools are so good that it’s literally throwing money away to build the vehicle and then to crash it, only to learn something. It’s not efficient.”

Global resources
Ram’s USA-based engineers aren’t short of experience when it comes to truck development. In addition, there’s in-house knowledge of electrical packaging to leverage from Chrysler and Jeep PHEVs, while Grand Wagoneer has similar architecture to the 1500 REV, with body-on-frame construction and independent rear suspension. Nevertheless, input from Stellantis colleagues in Europe has been invaluable, including in HMI, where, according to Killian, “the European side of our business has more knowledge and feedback” on the electric driving information customers want to see on the Uconnect 5 infotainment screen.

There’s collaboration on the powertrain itself, too. Joe Tolkacz, chief propulsion systems engineer, told us that it goes beyond building on the experience of the in-house PHEVs – important as that is – or sharing electric drive modules (EDMs) with upcoming vehicles on the STLA Large platform.

Ahead of the second-gen EDMs that will appear in the 1500 REV, lessons are being learned from the Gen-1 electric drive systems fitted to the Ram ProMaster EV (Fiat e-Ducato) van and certain Maserati models. The same applies to the new truck’s battery pack, which is projected to offer 563km or 805km of range.

“The European side is a little ahead of FCA [North America] from the perspective of building a battery pack,” said Tolkacz. “They had a pack design that they had optimized, so when we came with our first pack design, we did a deep dive [with them] on where we were different. It was very helpful to have that [knowledge] in-house. We have the advantage of a global network and we’re using people throughout the world on the propulsion side.”

All hands on deck
When it comes to designing and validating the pickup’s V2X charging capabilities, however, the team is working from a clean sheet. The truck can send power to a home during a storm or power a jobsite from a 7.2kW power panel in the bed. As such, the electrical design is no longer just to automotive standards but must also meet the home-wiring stipulations of the National Electrical Code.

“The intersection of the two codes has created questions because it’s something no one’s thought about before. We’ve had to call on the opinions of industry experts.”

He’s enjoyed the process of developing the use models that shape the test program for the V2X features. The team surveyed professionals and Tolkacz even quizzed the tradesmen who built his new deck.

“The guys that came to my house were plugging into the wall to run their circular saws but could potentially run it off the truck, so I talked to them about how they use them,” he recounted. “We’ve used [drive] batteries on our vehicles and have good durability correlation from customers, but we don’t have data on the V2X features. How will people use them? Will they use the truck every day as a portable generator? Will a tradesman run circular saws every day, for eight hours continuously?

“It’s been very interesting to develop the use models for these new features, but we’ll have to tweak the models as we learn more. Customers will find new ways to use them that we haven’t thought of yet – and that they haven’t thought of yet – so [in the future] we might have to modify our test protocols accordingly.”

Standard procedure
Killian won’t be drawn on the precise development timescale but says the program duration is similar to a regular Ram 1500’s due to the new frame loads from the battery pack and suspension hardpoint differences compared with earlier products.

The REV is also undergoing the same testing as any Ram 1500, including cold-weather work in northern Michigan, a hot-weather program, durability runs at the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan and trailer-tow testing at Davis Dam in Arizona.

It has been said that some automotive manufacturers lag behind when it comes to their software engineering practices. Would you agree?
I couldn’t agree more. When it comes to software engineering practices in the automotive industry, it is widely recognized that the sector has been much slower than other industries, such as consumer electronics or software development, in adopting modern software engineering practices. This is in part due to the long development cycles for automotive products and the highly regulated nature of the industry, which requires adherence to strict safety standards and testing requirements.

Many companies in the automotive industry continue to prioritize hardware development, leading to several unresolved issues and challenges. Moreover, there is a lack of technical practices that are exclusively tailored towards software development, coupled with inadequate experience in this area. This has resulted in a lag within the industry, which most companies are aware of and recognize the need to address.

I think Tesla revolutionized the automotive industry by elevating the importance of software in car design. Prior to Tesla’s emergence, traditional car manufacturers were not as focused on software as a crucial aspect of car development. However, in recent years, major players such as BMW and Mercedes have also started to recognize the significance of software in their products, leading to a shift in the industry’s perspective. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go, as there are many areas in which software development can be improved, such as the absence of software factories.

How can companies ensure agile practices, continuous integration (CI) and automated testing?
Automotive companies can invest in training, implement DevOps practices, adopt modern software development tools, introduce automated testing, and establish a culture of continuous improvement.

The V-model is a requirement of the regulators when it comes to development processes. Many automotive companies find it challenging to combine the V-model with an agile model. This means that companies are not fully agile yet. For example, in testing, creating a digital twin is necessary when physical testing is not possible. However, full automation in testing is not yet prevalent in the industry.

For CI and auto-testing, OEMs and companies like Sigma Software are putting tremendous effort into implementing the same approaches as in other industries. Based on our experience we think automotive companies will soon be on the same level of tech as others.

How can Sigma Software help in this respect?
We can leverage our extensive experience in software development to help improve the automotive industry. By building software factories and working with software throughout the entire development cycle, we can assist with R&D efforts and help fill the gaps in the current development process. Specifically, we can help address the missing parts in agile methodology, ensure a complete development cycle in software factories and help integrate software into cars effectively.

However, it’s important to note that while agile is beneficial for software development, it may not be fully applicable to the automotive industry. In ensuring vehicle safety, complete adherence to agile principles while changing requirements frequently could pose a challenge.

How can companies rethink their entire approach to software development, including the underlying operational model?
Automotive companies should consider adopting a DevOps culture, embracing agile methodologies, and conducting small R&D projects to test hypotheses. By bringing in skilled professionals from the software and automotive industries, companies can expand their knowledge and move from the unknown to the known.

Additionally, establishing cross-functional teams, investing in software development tools and infrastructure, and prioritizing continuous learning and improvement are essential. However, this transformation requires a fundamental shift in organizational culture and mindset, with a focus on innovation, collaboration, and customer satisfaction.

How can companies cut software development complexity and increase efficiency?
With the continuous advancement of technology and the introduction of new features, software development projects are becoming more complex and challenging to manage. This complexity can easily get out of hand and cause significant setbacks for companies that are looking to stay ahead of the curve.

At Sigma Software, our Technical Excellence Practice (TEX) approach helps us reduce complexity and ensure high-quality code. This approach includes peer technical design and code review, automated code analysis, unit and integration testing, continuous integration builds, developer testing, and gated check-ins. By constantly measuring and improving KPIs, we can identify areas where we need to improve and increase efficiency. We also measure the complexity of our projects, which helps us better understand and manage our workload.

In your opinion, what architectures are best and why?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question as the choice of software development architecture largely depends on the specific needs of the project, the technology stack, and the development team’s expertise. An architecture that works well for one component or product may not work for another.

What software development toolchain do you use?
At Sigma Software we typically use a whole combination of tools, including version control systems, project management tools, code review and analysis tools, CI and deployment tools, and testing tools.

We use different toolchains for different projects. There are many of them as we have 2,000 developers. For example, we commonly use Git for version control as it is widely adopted and supported. For automating build and deployment processes we use CI and deployment tools such as Jenkins.

If the project has been ongoing for several years, it may not be feasible to switch to a different toolchain immediately, and instead, adaptation to the existing toolchain may be necessary.

In our case, the toolchain we use is flexible and adaptable, allowing us to select the most appropriate tools for each project’s specific needs while ensuring high-quality software development.

What best practices do you follow? What testing do you do?
We have internal development guidelines based on strong standards that are too big to explain in one short answer! Our best practice is the Technical Excellence Practice (TEX) approach that I have already mentioned.

When it comes to testing, we conduct both functional and non-functional testing based on the specific needs of each project. We work with our clients to develop a test plan that outlines the necessary testing types and their requirements.

How easy is it to decouple hardware and software development?
It’s not an easy thing to do. Decoupling hardware and software development in automotive companies can be done by implementing a model-based design approach and utilizing software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop approaches. We use all these models.

However, it can be challenging as it requires a strategic approach and a willingness to invest in new processes and technologies. It also requires significant investment and changes in general organizational structure.

What is agile-at-scale?
It is a good framework to use in automotive. The agile framework is suitable for use in the automotive industry for big projects. Various models of agile-at-scale are available, including the scale-at-agile framework and agile-at-scale, which most automotive providers have adopted as their primary model for software development.

Agile-at-scale is a well-established and well-developed agile system designed for large teams (100+ people), as traditional agile projects were initially designed for small teams (7-8).

How does one proactively reveal looming software issues with time, cost and quality?
There are many methods to proactively identify looming software issues, such as continuous testing and monitoring during the software development process. Another approach is to use evaluation-based models (EVA) or other models within the agile framework to calculate the cost, quality and other metrics. Establishing clear metrics and KPIs can also help track progress and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Ultimately, the choice of which method to use will depend on the specific project requirements and goals.

For an in-depth investigation of the latest in software testing with voices from General Motors, American Honda Motor Company, Bamboo Apps and Harman, plus more from Sigma Software’s Evgeniy Yakovlev, see the June 2023 issue of ATTI.

Rugged derivatives of city-focused SUVs are all the rage in North America, but that wasn’t the case when engineers at the Honda Auto Development Center in Ohio began to consider an off-road-ready version of their own Pilot in 2018. To prove the concept, the team fitted a previous-gen example of the three-row SUV with all-terrain tires, a skid plate and increased ground clearance, then assessed its trail performance in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Five years on, the all-new 2023 Pilot TrailSport production car brings new credibility to the TrailSport badge thanks to a package of carefully developed off-road hardware.

The team consulted with the Nevada Automotive Test Center to determine what was needed to make the Pilot better off-road and create a matrix to guide the development of TrailSport vehicles. Engineers also turned to Honda’s Powersports division for direction on skid-plate design and evaluation. 

They opted for high-strength-steel items that could support the full weight of the car at any point. After digital design and simulation to determine the initial configuration, test engineers jacked up the vehicle
at multiple points on the skid plate to measure any permanent deformation that resulted, iterating until any weak points were eliminated.

Hit the trail
Strength wasn’t only the criterion the plates had to meet, according to Abhi Sadananda, durability leader
for the Pilot.

“It’s important in an OEM solution like this that it works not only as a skid plate but as an integrated part
of the whole car,” he explains. “In the concept stage, the crash group used simulation to understand whether their crash mode was impacted [by the plates]. The aero group conducted CFD simulations to understand the airflow with and without the plate, to ensure we still met aero targets.”

Evaluations on the necessary vents and NACA ducts in the plates included a drive on sand at Outer Banks on the US Atlantic coast in North Carolina to replicate a drive to a beach house, to check that debris had the necessary egress points and that there was sufficient cooling flow to prevent overheating. This was one of 17 off-road venues across the country where the TrailSport’s performance was evaluated – on dirt, sand, rocks, water, V-ditches and slopes – to ensure it could handle the 52% of trails on US public land that are deemed ‘easy’ or ‘moderate’.

“We drove the vehicle in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio,” adds Sadananda. “We used four different trails in Sedona, Arizona, including Cliffhanger and Schnebly Hill, which are popular tourist destinations for off-roaders. And in Moab, Utah, we went on Hell’s Revenge, Fins and Things, and Sevenmile Rim. We tested it to the limit.”

Cut the crap
Cooling was an important consideration when developing the TrailSport hardware. Colleagues from Powersports alerted the Pilot team to how debris from tall grass, mud and even combustible animal waste can cause problems if trapped between a skid plate and the part it’s protecting. “How do we test for feces?” pondered Abhi Sadananda. “That was a fun conversation.”

Tell us about the research and development structure at your Okazaki base.
As well as the plant, we have styling, engineering design and testing. Everything is in one place. Within engineering we have divisions including testing, powertrain, and body and vehicle. I take care of them all. Each division undertakes projects for different vehicles such as the Outlander or RVR.

How does the collaboration with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance work?
The Alliance is very beneficial for us because our workload is not so large. For a vehicle like the Outlander PHEV, it is better that they [Nissan] develop the platform part and we can concentrate on the PHEV system or calibration. We can share common technology, like the rear motor in the Outlander PHEV, which is also used for the Nissan Ariya. When C19 meant that we could not travel to the US for local ADAS calibration, Nissan supported our staff in Ann Arbor, because the X-Trail was already done and uses the same system, although it still took about double the time.

How did the design of the Outlander PHEV influence the platform it’s based on?
Originally we had our own, unique Mitsubishi platform ideas. But after we joined the Alliance in 2016, my boss asked me to go to Nissan to see if our concept for Outlander could be adapted to their [CMF-CD] platform. They had already built an advanced prototype car [for X-Trail]. Of course, our PHEV is heavier than a pure ICE, and we had to incorporate requirements like the third-row seat and the larger-capacity rear electric motor. We had daily discussions with the Nissan guys on how to implement those ideas.

Does that mean that Nissan did the early crash testing, too?
Yes. Nissan crash-tested the advanced prototype for the Outlander PHEV, but we tested the production prototype ourselves. Crash testing is completed almost entirely in CAE before we confirm performance with an actual test.

How do you ensure your cars retain ‘Mitsubishi-ness’?
The Super All-Wheel Control [S-AWC] AWD system is unique to Mitsubishi. The complete PHEV system is also Mitsubishi’s, although some components are used as Alliance common parts. S-AWC and our long experience with electrification are Mitsubishi Motors’ two strong technical foundations and both are used in the latest Outlander PHEV. Apart from that, we design our cars individually and once completed, we tune and calibrate them ourselves, in terms of the feel from the ‘innovative pedal’ for one-pedal driving in the Outlander PHEV, for example.

Kentaro Honda joined Mitsubishi in 1994. Beginning in body engineering, his career includes a five-year stint at MMC’s former plant in Illinois. He now heads many of the brand’s development activities and is segment chief engineer for the RVR and the Outlander, including the 2023 PHEV.

HALO (Honda Automotive Labs Ohio) is a brand-new, US$124m facility built at the Transportation Research Center (TRC) proving ground. Under construction since 2017, it became operational in early 2022 and is expected to take on full development loads this autumn. Note that HALO will ultimately amount to more than just the tunnel, as other, as-yet-undisclosed facilities come on stream.

Designing HALO
“When our initial discussions began in 2015, we were renting facilities around the world and using our three full-scale tunnels in Japan,” says HALO wind tunnel lead Mike Unger. “As our development load in Ohio increased, we started renting more, but the inefficiencies of shipping cars around the world, along with the wear and tear on our people – who were sometimes spending two weeks of every month away from home – became unsustainable.”

There’s already a 40%-scale tunnel just across the track at Honda’s Auto Development Center. “Even the scale tunnel can’t catch some of the extreme details that we’re after, especially the underbody-related parts,” continues Unger. “You need a full-scale car to zero in on that level of detail, to make sure you’re optimized in every way possible.”

Honda assembled an in-house team to define the most important performance specifications, to support current and future work in traditional aerodynamic activity and acoustic measurements. Unger expects HALO’s work to be split roughly 50/50 between the two disciplines.

“Having a full-scale wind tunnel to complement our scale wind tunnel is super critical as we move toward BEVs,” he explains. “Things will change somewhat in terms of both aerodynamics and wind noise. With regenerative braking, [unlike in an ICE-powered vehicle], mass is no longer the primary driver in the equation for range or fuel economy. The biggest factor is aerodynamics. And when the exhaust and the engine are gone, wind noise and road noise become much more apparent in the customer cabin. That’s
why this tunnel has the acoustic capability it does.”

Among HALO’s headline specifications are an ultra-quiet 8m fan that contributes to an acoustic environment rated at <57 dBA at 140km/h.

“We have a full acoustic array – left and right sides, top and front – so you can quickly measure and identify from where on the car the wind noise is coming,” says Unger. “That was chosen to improve our testing efficiency. Without that array, it would take three to four hours to do the basic measurements and identify where the noise sources are. With the array, it can be done in an hour.”

User friendly
In the pursuit of efficiency, the design team didn’t only consider high-tech features like the array, which is supplied by Siemens. They also drew on their experience of working in other tunnels to select the features they felt would work best for Honda, including when specifying the 12m-diameter, 180° turntable.

“Even simple things like loading and unloading a car were taken into account,” Unger continues. “We have two ways to get cars in and out of the tunnel. We can rotate the turntable to line up with the diagonal loading door and drive the car right onto the turntable. We rotate it into place and it’s good to go. When we leave, we can back it out and simultaneously bring another car in in parallel. If we’re staying in the same test mode, we can change the car in less than 30 minutes.

“Testing in a full-scale tunnel usually means long days, so we have a break room right next to the control room,” he adds. “We also have a patio so you can go outside and get some fresh air. You’re not stuck in a cave for 10-12 hours at a time. Since we lived it for so many years, we took into account the human factor when designing the tunnel.”

HALO is primarily a production car test facility, but the needs of Honda Performance Development’s (HPD) race teams were also considered. A maximum wind speed of 310km/h, a 3 x 5 x 15m test section and wide-belt moving ground plane all help to simulate race car speeds and characteristics. The latter is one of two switchable, 40-ton MTS moving ground plane modules. The second has a five-belt setup.

Once the main requirements were pinned down, Honda reached out to potential contractors. Jacobs was the successful bidder.

Location, location, location
The tunnel will support the two major manufacturing plants nearby with factory sampling and by verifying quality improvements for wind noise. Placing it within TRC’s existing boundary immediately affords an additional level of security, too.

Confidentiality will also be important to the tunnel’s future third-party users, for whom a dedicated team of contractors will operate the facility to provide separation from Honda (see Rent-a-HALO, above). Honda will run the tunnel for its own operations using a team of around 18 engineering and maintenance staff who will ensure things are running smoothly for internal projects before external clients come through the door.

“We have a consortium agreement with TRC,” says Unger of HALO’s future use by third parties. “We’d like HALO to be at the center of some aerodynamic research in North America. We’re hoping at the end of 2023 to have some of that consortium activity here on-site. That’ll be the first third-party customer use, after which we’ll start bringing in other customers as needed.”

Better together
Unger sees HALO ultimately developing into a center of excellence for aerodynamic and aeroacoustic development within Honda. He believes that the ability to mount a sensor to the traverse and place it anywhere in the test section will help to quickly answer engineers’ questions with high-quality data.

But more than that, “While it’s interesting to talk about the machine and its cool specs, the important thing to realize is prior to us having this tunnel, we had aerodynamic, aeroacoustic and racing engineers scattered all over the world doing testing. Now they’re all going to be in the same building, using the same piece of test equipment. They’ll share their individual experiences, techniques and measurement procedures. Through that collaboration, we’re going to come up with new ideas and develop brand-new procedures that are better than we’ve ever had before. That’s the real advantage of the tunnel. It’s going to be exciting.” 

Rent-a-HALO
It’s unusual for an OEM wind tunnel to be available to third parties, but HALO has been designed from the outset with commercial users in mind. Badge-controlled zones maintain user confidentiality within four secure customer bays. As the commercial user moves its vehicle into the hallway and test section, those areas will be open only to that user group and its support staff. 

“If a Honda competitor is in the building, third-party personnel will support the customer while they are at HALO,” clarifies Unger. “No Honda personnel would have access to their test or data.”

To prepare for tunnel testing, customers will have access to an alignment rack, tire mounting equipment and frontal-area measurement equipment. Other features available to third parties include tools, a surface plate, work benches, a kitchenette and a private office area and meeting room.

Each in its place
“Even when I started at Honda in 1992, there was talk that all wind tunnels would be obsolete in 10 years,” recalls Unger. “But here we are finalizing the new wind tunnel.” The former chief engineer for aerodynamics cites the need to use “the proper tool for the proper time and in the proper place” as the reason why CFD, scale tunnels and full-scale tunnels continue to co-exist in aerodynamic development.

“We have to use all the tools because we’re after every little detail of drag that we can eke out of the car,” he says. “There are some things you can do digitally that give you better insight into what’s going on, especially with visualization. But when you start talking about efficiency, let’s not kid ourselves: CFD is not cheap to run. Those licenses are not inexpensive. It takes an army of people to build a CFD model. It takes thousands of hours of CPU time to run the iterations. By the time you have a real car, it’s faster to test in a tunnel than it is to do CFD.”

The advent of automation and vehicle-to-everything communication has added new complexity to vehicle development programs, which means testing communication technologies has never been more important. As cars become ever more linked to each other and to the environments around them, there’s a growing number of sites where these new avenues can be explored. 

Latest on the scene is the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Fraunhofer IIS) 5G Bavaria automotive testbed in Rosenheim, Germany. Comprising a closed 5G network but covering public roads, the new testbed is designed to bridge the gap between existing commercial public mobile networks and the development testbeds used for standardization or preliminary research work.

“The primary focus is on testing transmission technology and evaluating transmitter and receiver components under real conditions,” says Martin Speitel, head of Fraunhofer’s automotive group. “Determining essential performance parameters such as latency, reliability and throughput provides valuable insights into a given application’s quality of service and user experience.”

The new facility covers more than 15km² and was funded by a Bavarian state government keen to provide a test area for its automotive OEMs. As such, the testbed complements a sister facility for Industry 4.0 applications that Fraunhofer IIS runs in Nuremberg, three hours to the north.

Speitel expects the new testbed to find customers in a broad range of development streams and related fields. He notes that although a state permit is still required for driverless vehicle testing, Germany’s federal government recently took its first steps toward permitting Level 4 vehicles on public roads, albeit with restrictions in place.

“We are in a public area, so one target is clearly autonomous vehicle research, but we are also targeting other users, not only the OEMs,” says Speitel, a 20-year veteran of Fraunhofer. “It may also be of interest
to application developers for in-car entertainment systems, if you want to see how it behaves in a certain network configuration. Hybrid radio may be another topic of interest and the testbed may also address
[the test needs of] insurance companies.”

Got it covered
Discussions about the 5G Bavaria testbed began four years ago. Speitel says that considerable work went
into finding suitable sites on which to place the 5G infrastructure, but acknowledges that the ongoing pandemic and chip crisis combined to delay the project, which opened for testing in spring 2022. Although four 5G antennae were initially considered, the current network architecture comprises three Ericsson 5G antennae, connected by fiber cable, to create a test area of seven sectors.

“We opted to go into the southern part of Rosenheim, from the city center down to the A8 highway,” Speitel explains, noting the city’s long history as an industrial hub for the communications industry. “With that, we can cover a rural area, an urban area with bridges and underpasses and the highway itself. A small part of the highway can be used for our tests, an area that is prone to traffic jams.”

Speitel believes that the site’s unusual combination of public roads and the latest commercially available 5G infrastructure will help it stand out from the crowd.

“I think we are the only site with a testbed under full control in a public environment,” he says. “Other testbeds are either private and linked to an OEM, or they have other restrictions. We are using the same equipment that Telekom, O2 or Telefónica are buying, and we are contracted to get the new applications and new features that become available, as soon as possible.” 

Ericsson will upgrade 5G Bavaria’s infrastructure according to the 5GAA release roadmap. Release 15 is the current standard, with 16 to come and 17 currently in the standardization phase. “We cannot be ahead of what is commercially available,” Speitel stresses. “That’s the nature of this testbed because we are buying commercial equipment. You may be the first to get it, but it must be available.”

Road test
Speitel says that the target for the facility is less about prioritizing commercial operation and more to do with exploring “collaborative research projects and new ideas, or proving existing ideas”. As a state-funded enterprise, the pressure to recoup its investment costs in rental fees is reduced, leading to user fees that Speitel describes as “reasonable”.

In return for their outlay, customers will be guaranteed that they are the only ones working in the test area at that time. “Because we have full control, we can configure it to a certain extent – by adjusting power levels, for example,” Speitel explains. “We can adapt it to special test cases and can monitor what’s going on in the network. Customers can test in a controlled environment, but a public one.” 

Working remotely and without the need for a central control center, Fraunhofer IIS experts can configure the network and assist with test activities. The level of customer support offered by Speitel’s colleagues will vary on a case-by-case basis, from conducting test drives on behalf of a client to simply handing over a SIM card for them to do their own tests. For particular applications, such as artificial intelligence or image processing, the institute could even pull in experts from other disciplines to support the automotive team. No client has yet requested workshop space, but Speitel says Fraunhofer IIS can adapt its offering to customers’ support needs. 

Further possibilities are offered by the presence of a Telekom public 5G network in Rosenheim, paving the way for handover tests between this and 5G Bavaria’s closed network. There’s even C-V2XSim, a simulator that can be used in conjunction with the testbed, enabling users to assess the performance of cellular vehicle-to-everything on virtual streets before heading into the real world, or see whether real-world issues can be reproduced in simulation. 

At the time of writing, Fraunhofer was taking measurements in the network and fine-tuning the site, building its knowledge base with information such as the precise boundaries of the coverage area and where handovers from one base station to the next typically take place. As Speitel readily admits, the facility is still very new and, although Fraunhofer IIS has already received inquiries from potential users, it’s too early to say how the testbed will evolve once users start arriving in Rosenheim.

“We don’t yet know what ideas the customers will bring to us,” he sums up. “If someone wanted to connect a roadside unit to the testbed, for example, it’s doable. The future is open, and it’s exciting.”

There’s no more visible symbol of GM’s drive to go all-electric than the GMC Hummer EV, which launches later this year as a 2022MY pickup. An SUV variant with a 9in shorter wheelbase will follow two years later.

As befits the return of the iconic Hummer nameplate, there’s nothing understated about these off-road-ready models, which will boast up to 1,000hp of electric power from three electric motors, four-wheel steering with CrabWalk mode for inching out of tight spots, and 6in of extra ride height from an air suspension system.

The Hummer EV pickup also marks the production debut of GM’s new propulsion system badged Ultium
– a suite of battery, drive unit and power electronics technologies that will underpin an entire portfolio of electrified vehicles in the coming years. Development for Ultium began before the Hummer team hit the ground and continued through the pickup’s remarkably short, sub-three-year gestation.

“We took advantage of some of the core development work that we’d done on the Ultium platform, such
as for the cell and power electronics, which certainly helped accelerate the development of the Hummer,” explains Eric Sandstrom, GM’s chief engineer for global electric propulsion systems. “But the drive units are unique for the truck application, so that development is all new.”

Having a focused team was key to the speed of development.

“We put a dedicated team together right away, fully integrated with the vehicle team so that the propulsion system and vehicle were developed side by side. We had really fast decision-making and quick escalation to remove the roadblocks if any issues came up. That high-functioning, core team was co-located before the pandemic and I think that helped us to be very effective throughout the pandemic. We were well integrated before this all happened, with very good connections and relationships established, and a very well-defined mission,” Sandstrom says. 

“Of course, we have had people on site pretty much throughout, working with hardware and development labs to keep the program moving forward,” he continues (see Mega shaker, p7). “We are still going through the same validation process that we do for every product. There is no compromising the development and validation of the product, it’s just been about working in a very different way.”

CAE acceleration
As one would expect, progress has been accelerated by CAE in the areas of battery and drive units, including for NVH simulation. According to Sandstrom, new tools weren’t necessarily required for the switch of drivetrain from ICE to battery electric.

“It’s the same physics in many cases, so even though it’s a very new application, a lot of the core CAE tools that we had in GM were leveraged to accelerate bringing the Hummer to market,” he says. “There was some [tool] development in the battery area, but the tools have fundamentally been in place and used here at GM for quite some time.”

One area where simulation was able to provide early feedback was in the use of the Visteon/Analog Devices wireless battery management system, which gets its first production application on the Hummer EV.

“Electromagnetic interference testing was done up-front, both at a component level and certainly at a pack level,” says Sandstrom. “And like anything, of course we had to make adjustments, but there was not too much course correction because the EMI had been simulated early on, as is the case for all of the electrical components. The system is performing very well.”

Battery testing
In the case of the Hummer, there’s a lot of battery to manage. In its highest-capacity, longest-range form, the pack consists of 24 modules, double-stacked in two layers of 12 in a cross-braced, underfloor enclosure that is integral to the wider vehicle structure. Sandstrom says that because each layer has its own cooling system and each module its own cold plate, testing did not reveal any issues with cooling such a large pack.

The pack has been subjected to extreme temperature use in the heat of the Western USA and in the cold
of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“We’re covering the bases with testing up north and out west, but also in climate chambers – pack-level, component-level and vehicle-level chambers here in Michigan on the proving grounds and in the tech center,” Sandstrom explains. “It’s part of our standard battery of tests that we put every product through before we sell it.”

The Hummer’s go-anywhere remit means that at the time of writing in spring 2021, the pack and the new drive units were being put through some demanding off-road work, too.

“GM has a long history of developing powertrains for heavy-duty and off-road applications, so we’re taking that know-how that we’ve gained over many years [in conventional driveline components] and applying it to the drive units,” says Sandstrom. “The units are designed for off-road and the very high torque that this vehicle puts out.

“The battery itself is a structural component of the vehicle and as such, it’s very robust,” he continues. “We have skid plates under the battery and the front and rear drive units for off-road applications. It’s also a waterproof pack, with a breathable membrane to keep the pressure inside the pack balanced without it being subject to water ingress. This is an extremely capable off-road beast that can certainly handle any obstacles that are thrown its way – water fording as well.”

Long-term benefits
Sandstrom reveals that the Hummer’s architecture – battery enclosures for short- and long-wheelbase versions, and different module counts within those structures – will be carried forward into other GM electric trucks, so the validation work from this program will directly benefit future vehicle projects.

“I’m responsible for all the battery-electric truck propulsion systems and these will benefit from the work we’re doing on this first program because they all share the same propulsion system. The drive units we’re using will be reused, so other programs will benefit from the validation that we’ve done. That’s also true of the battery validation, even in this case at a pack level, because the structure that we’re bringing out for the Hummer is one that’s carried forward on all of our upcoming truck applications.”

The news that the Cadillac Lyriq is nine months ahead of its original launch schedule is proof that the reuse of Ultium components, combined with developments in virtual tools, is also accelerating GM EV programs beyond the truck family.

“All of the programs to come will benefit from what we’re doing,” Sandstrom concludes. “The component testing that we do on the cell, the cell modules, the motor and the power electronics are all building blocks
that we will use [in the future].”

Mega shaker
The Hummer’s vast, double-stacked battery pack has the mass of a small car so something equally massive was required to shake it. GM installed a new vibration table in its labs in Warren, Michigan, for the purpose. It weighs around 70,306kg and boasts thermal capability.

“A lot of infrastructure has also been put into our labs in Pontiac for the Hummer, in the dyno area, to
be able to pull the kind of power we need to drive these drive units,” adds Eric Sandstrom. “We have nothing [in the vehicle line-up] today that requires this kind of current, so we had to put in new drops and upgrade all of our dyno facilities to handle these drive units – not just to drive them, but also to absorb the power and torque that they put out.”