It may come as no surprise that electric transportation is THE trend of the moment! From electric bicycles to electric cars and planes, manufacturers taking part in the race to create electric vehicles – companies such as Lucid, Rivian, Lion Electric, and others.
OEMs all over the world are trying to create the best vehicles to meet customer needs; the most efficient, the most autonomous, the lowest price, etc.
It’s pretty cool to see all this engagement towards electrification. However, these new electric vehicles will still need to be certified just like their gasoline predecessors.
In North America, all electric vehicles must meet the FMVSS/CMVSS standards before their manufacturers can go to market.
Meeting these standards requires a lot of test prototypes, failures, redesign efforts, and so on and so forth until they successfully pass all tests.
Frankly, failing these tests can be a real pain point. It is very costly and involves changes at the design stage, impacting multiple departments, often causing significant delays, wasting material, and, leaving a bad environmental footprint – the opposite of what electric vehicles are aiming to achieve.
How can companies avoid falling certifications when they are ready to commercialize their new vehicles?
Simulating FMVSS standard tests with FEA and a digital twin (virtual prototype) allows us to predict physical test outcomes. Design changes and optimization can be conducted upstream, drastically reducing the time and cost of the certification efforts.
FEA provides manufacturers with the opportunity to build a single physical prototype instead of multiple iterations to match delivery targets.
Even better in certain cases, simulating FMVSS standards and providing acceptable proof of accuracy can be sufficient for certification, avoiding costly physical testing altogether.
How to simulate FMVSS?
At Optimec Consultants, we are working on the simulation of FMVSS standards to accelerate the certification process and reduce the cost of production for our customers.
Check out our FMVSS’ simulations by clicking on the pictures.
If you are interested in knowing how the simulation of FMVSS/CMVSS standards can accelerate your go-to-market and help you win the electrification race, contact us today. It will be our pleasure to help you.
