Altair, a leading computational science and artificial intelligence (AI) company together with British-luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and battery manufacturer Danecca have been awarded funding from the U.K. government through the Faraday Battery Challenge.
The three companies have developed a consortium to support a research project to develop a new design process for electric vehicles. The project funding comes from UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to support the development of battery technology in the U.K.
The new process will leverage Altair technology to develop vehicle prototypes.
The new vehicle models will have a new, lighter body that offers more room for the battery without adding additional weight. JLR will also apply Altair’s C123 process, a unique three-stage concept development process for body-in-white structures. They will also perform optimisation with Altair OptiStruct – a leading FEA solver in the Altair HyperWorks design and simulation platform – utilising the solution’s newly developed electrothermal features.
Royston Jones, SVP –automotive, Altair said, “Altair’s simulation and data analytics tools will enable the consortium to develop a new design process of electric vehicles and batteries, which will help make these vehicles lighter and more energy efficient.”
Paul Haney, Battery Technology Senior Manager, JLR said, “This research project with Altair and Danecca marks an important step forward in creating electric vehicles that deliver sustainable e-mobility for the future.”
Danson Michael Joseph, MD, Danecca said, “Our expertise in battery manufacturing, combined with Altair; simulation and optimisation tools, will enable us to create more efficient battery installations that can power the next generation of electric vehicles.”
The project started in February. 1, 2023 and will go on till January 31, 2025. It will continuously explore how to make improvements through simulation after the components for the prototype vehicles have been ordered. All research results will stay with JLR, Danecca, and Altair after the funded project period and can be used for other customers or projects.
