CamMotive customers can now use the new Powertrain in the Loop (PiL) platform to develop, integrate and validate Electric Vehicle systems – long before a prototype vehicle is available.
Developed at our Cambridge Hub Dyno facility, the system enables manufacturers to test and validate a subset of a vehicle’s physical hardware within a representative virtual vehicle environment. Systems that are not yet available in physical form can be modelled in real time, allowing vehicle integration and validation activities to begin much earlier in the development programme.
Manufacturers can assess vehicle behaviour, develop control strategies and investigate interactions between systems before a prototype vehicle is available, allowing development activities to progress in parallel and reducing programme risk. The capability has already been proven during a dedicated 12-month development programme supporting a hybrid electric supercar with our ICE testing group Cambustion – and is now available to automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
Using Hardware in the Loop (HiL) technology, systems that are not yet available in physical form can be represented in real time. Manufacturers can simulate electronic hardware such as steering, braking, battery systems and onboard diagnostics, enabling engineers to validate functionality, investigate system interactions and identify integration issues earlier in the programme.
Bringing vehicle integration forward
Modern EV development programmes involve increasing levels of software, electronics and system interaction. As a result, understanding how vehicle systems behave together has become as important as validating individual components.
Using Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) technology, manufacturers can represent unavailable vehicle subsystems in real time, including steering, braking, battery systems and onboard diagnostics. This enables engineers to validate functionality, investigate interactions between systems and identify integration challenges much earlier in the development cycle.
CamMotive Director, Bruce Campbell commented:
“Our Powertrain in the Loop platform provides an efficient way to accelerate vehicle development within increasingly compressed programme timelines. By combining physical hardware with advanced simulation, we can understand how systems will interact before vehicle build and give manufacturers confidence that vehicle functions and subsystems will integrate and perform as intended.”
Supporting next-generation EV programmes
The facility combines advanced vehicle simulation, dSPACE SCALEXIO HiL and world-class measurement systems, allowing manufacturers to assess vehicle behaviour, develop control strategies and optimise system performance at an early stage of development.
The platform supports both 2WD and 4WD vehicle architectures and incorporates a 1100 V / 500 kW battery simulator. This enables vehicle-level development and validation activities to begin before production-intent battery hardware is available, allowing engineers to investigate range, energy management, fault handling and control strategies much earlier in the programme.
Development in realistic operating conditions
For electric propulsion systems already integrated into a vehicle chassis, testing can be performed by connecting directly to the wheel hubs. High-performance dynamometers accurately reproduce highly transient operating conditions, enabling assessment of everything from legislative drive cycles to advanced vehicle dynamics functions such as torque vectoring.
The temperature-controlled test cell supports testing across a wide range of environmental conditions, including temperatures down to -15°C, allowing manufacturers to evaluate vehicle performance, system robustness and control strategies under both representative and worst-case operating scenarios.
Bruce Campbell added:
“PiL enables vehicle attributes to be signed off, systems debugged and optimised while vehicle build progresses in parallel. Once a prototype vehicle becomes available, development can transition to our 4WD Chassis Dyno, or Hub Dyno PiL testing can continue alongside vehicle-based testing. During our recent hybrid supercar programme, the Hub Dyno proved to be such a versatile and valuable development tool that the customer chose to continue PiL testing in parallel with prototype vehicle testing throughout the programme.”
CamMotive is an independent EV powertrain development and testing specialist, working with OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and research institutions to accelerate the development of next-generation electrified vehicles.