{"id":14830,"date":"2020-05-26T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/?p=14830"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:29:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:29:59","slug":"chengdu-multi-attribute-balancing-for-better-electric-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/chengdu-multi-attribute-balancing-for-better-electric-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"Chengdu: Multi-attribute balancing for better electric vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/chengdu-to-build-chinas-auto-silicon-valley\/\" target=\"_blank\">first blog of this series<\/a>,&nbsp;we discussed the new engineering center in Chengdu, China&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;an&nbsp;innovative leader&nbsp;when it comes to vehicle&nbsp;electrification.  We have since discussed various&nbsp;labs, including the ADAS, HIL and battery simulation labs located at this advanced new facility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today&nbsp;we focus on the Chengdu multi-attribute balancing (MAB)&nbsp;lab&nbsp;and how it can help design teams build their electric vehicles early on and boost performance. The MAB lab helps to balance&nbsp;and optimize&nbsp;seemingly conflicting performance requirements&nbsp;of&nbsp;individual attributes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Building the electric vehicle<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At first glance, creating an electric vehicle&nbsp;(EV)&nbsp;looks fairly simple. First, you put an electric motor, a battery and maybe a generator together. Then, you&nbsp;attach&nbsp;it&nbsp;to&nbsp;wheels,&nbsp;design&nbsp;the chassis around it and&nbsp;off&nbsp;it drives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s how&nbsp;many EV&nbsp;designers&nbsp;approached&nbsp;the first generation of electric vehicles.&nbsp;But then they noticed that there was so much more needed to satisfy&nbsp;customer&nbsp;requirements&nbsp;and expectations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A vehicle\u2019s attributes include, but aren\u2019t limited to:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Acceleration performance&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seat rail acceleration&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fuel economy or driving range&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thermal management&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Battery management&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>HVAC capabilities&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Noise, vibration and harshness&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All these things must&nbsp;balance together&nbsp;for the second generation of&nbsp;EVs&nbsp;to&nbsp;compete in a global, upscale market.&nbsp;Engineers&nbsp;need to&nbsp;deliver overall&nbsp;quality. This&nbsp;is&nbsp;where multi-attribute balancing, which is a combination of engineering expertise and a software capability, comes into use.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vehicle quality often has to do with acceleration, maneuvering and braking. But underlying&nbsp;attributes like noise and vibration, the things you perceptively feel and hear, also&nbsp;define&nbsp;a vehicle&nbsp;as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These attributes&nbsp;must&nbsp;work together well&nbsp;at the very outset\u2014during the early concept and design phase.&nbsp;Therefore, it is crucial to find the optimal balance between all these attributes&nbsp;during the design phase&nbsp;for two reasons.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exploring faster and cost effective scenarios<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>First, exploring possible scenarios is much faster and&nbsp;cost effective. It also makes it easier for&nbsp;all the teams to&nbsp;collaborate&nbsp;effectively. Especially since waiting until later in the design cycle&nbsp;to resolve competing attributes&nbsp;can&nbsp;significantly impact&nbsp;schedule and&nbsp;program&nbsp;costs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, once the system definition is agreed&nbsp;upon, everybody&nbsp;focuses&nbsp;on&nbsp;developing&nbsp;their own components. As the vehicle&nbsp;goes deeper into&nbsp;the development cycle, the focus shifts from the bigger picture of&nbsp;what it&nbsp;could&nbsp;mean for the full vehicle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"379\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-2-1024x379.jpg\" alt=\"The Chengdu Multi-attribute Balancing lab will help design teams build their electric vehicles early in the design process and boost performance.\" class=\"wp-image-14831\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-2-1024x379.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-2-600x222.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-2-768x284.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-2-1110x411.jpg 1110w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-2.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Performance balancing at the early development stages helps to validate new ideas and set design goals<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Chengdu multi-attribute balancing demonstrator<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many manufacturers struggle with balancing an overall superior driving experience despite hiring some of the best attribute talent.&nbsp;The MAB lab at the Chengdu engineering center shows how balancing multiple attributes and components relies on a lot information, models, data and the use of a unique combination of disciplines and software technologies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, the comprehensive digital twin encompasses the huge complexity of the design challenge.&nbsp;User experience combined with advanced simulation software is key in achieving multi-attribute balancing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"541\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3-1024x541.jpg\" alt=\"The Chengdu Multi-attribute Balancing lab will help design teams build their electric vehicles early in the design process and boost performance.\" class=\"wp-image-14832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3-1024x541.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3-600x317.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3-768x406.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3-1536x812.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3-1110x587.jpg 1110w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Layout of the Simcenter Amesim simulator. Physics are added per component to simulate any attribute, eg drivability, NVH, ride and handling, fuel consumption, energy management, HVAC, etc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, our deep understanding of the automotive industry enables us to share best-in-practice processes with vehicle designers.\u00a0The Chengdu multi-attribute balancing lab lets you to take advantage of it all \u2013 a combination of the power of\u00a0Simcenter\u00a0solutions, part of the\u00a0Siemens Xcelerator\u00a0portfolio, alongside the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/global\/en\/your-success\/engineering-consulting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">engineering services<\/a> experience can guide any EV manufacturer through the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, with the introduction of this unique&nbsp;lab, we&nbsp;help our customers&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;whole&nbsp;vehicle development.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A balanced vehicle ensures a well-developed&nbsp;car from the beginning, designed&nbsp;for all the different attributes. Otherwise,&nbsp;cars&nbsp;may be&nbsp;inadvertently&nbsp;optimized around a&nbsp;single&nbsp;attribute.&nbsp;Unfortunately, in these cases,&nbsp;the other attributes really&nbsp;suffered&nbsp;and so did the&nbsp;overall&nbsp;vehicle brand&nbsp;and sales.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Driving the future of Chengdu<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Multi-attribute balancing&nbsp;is&nbsp;the best&nbsp;way&nbsp;to&nbsp;ensure&nbsp;the different specialty teams work together. And it helps to&nbsp;accelerate&nbsp;innovation faster while minimizing any trouble&nbsp;downstream.&nbsp;That way,&nbsp;when somebody pushes a modification on the design or there\u2019s a new iteration, all the other teams have access to this modification instantly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Doing the&nbsp;collaborative work between different teams&nbsp;seamlessly, it is&nbsp;not&nbsp;lost by being separated in silos or&nbsp;using different software.&nbsp;Working on a&nbsp;compatible platform,&nbsp;every team can simulate at system level&nbsp;to ensure&nbsp;the assembly of a&nbsp;well-balanced&nbsp;car.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example Hyundai Motor Company, they successfully balanced functional performance requirements for HEVs. They achieved a better balanced vehicle with improved energy efficiency. Additionally, they could drastically reduce the required number of physical tests, saving significant development time and cost. You can <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/global\/en\/our-story\/customers\/hyundai-motor-company\/29543\/\" target=\"_blank\">read the entire story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of the goal of the&nbsp;Chengdu&nbsp;engineering center is to promote increased&nbsp;collaboration between&nbsp;design teams.&nbsp;From OEMs or startups to suppliers, it&nbsp;helps EV design teams&nbsp;doing multi-physics systems with different teams&nbsp;and&nbsp;different specialists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Disruptive innovation&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This lab is particularly helpful for&nbsp;startups working on a whole new concept&nbsp;from scratch. As they have carte blanche, they can&nbsp;start&nbsp;balancing attributes&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;early design&nbsp;and go to virtual testing to&nbsp;verify all the&nbsp;components are going to work&nbsp;cohesively.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start-ups&nbsp;that want to be disruptive can&nbsp;use this tool to&nbsp;implement&nbsp;a&nbsp;new process in a much quicker way and be more effective in this change.&nbsp;And for established players, being able to balance all the many attributes at an early stage can&nbsp;enable&nbsp;them&nbsp;to bring&nbsp;next generation EVs faster to market.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Chengdu, the&nbsp;multi-attribute balancing&nbsp;demonstrator will allow customers to simulate vehicles, validate their designs and build their first prototypes. Having utilized the&nbsp;demonstrator, a&nbsp;user will observe how <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/global\/en\/products\/simulation-test\/vehicle-electrification.html\" target=\"_blank\">system simulation<\/a>&nbsp;checks&nbsp;everything in the car&nbsp;and&nbsp;how&nbsp;divisions can operate collaboratively in the early stages of the development process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Balancing the attributes in a vehicle is so critical because performance depends on it.&nbsp;To risk offsetting one attribute for the benefit of another is not acceptable and not only could hinder the operation of the car but the automaker\u2019s brand image as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stay tuned for the next blog in this series where we discuss the vehicle center\u2019s vehicle energy management demonstrator.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A special thanks to the experts&nbsp;Peter Mas, Gaetan&nbsp;Bouzard,&nbsp;Adrien Bialek&nbsp;and Valentin Grange&nbsp;for their insight and input for writing this post.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is how the Multi-attribute Balancing lab at the Chengdu engineering center will help design teams build their electric vehicles early on and boost performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36483,"featured_media":14836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[331,629,639,569,82,298,26,627,86,16],"industry":[89,132,133,134],"product":[590,499,580],"coauthors":[18652],"class_list":["post-14830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-wheretodaymeetstomorrow","tag-automotive-oems","tag-automotive-suppliers","tag-autonomous-vehicles","tag-digital-twin","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-engineering-services","tag-simcenter-engineering","tag-simulation","tag-system-simulation","industry-automotive-transportation","industry-automotive-oems","industry-automotive-suppliers","industry-trucks-buses-specialty-vehicles","product-simcenter-amesim","product-simcenter-cae-solutions","product-simcenter-engineering"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/MAB-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14830"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49852,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14830\/revisions\/49852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14830"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=14830"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=14830"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}