Yansong Chen, senior vice president of strategy and technology at Ricardo—a strategy, engineering and environmental consulting firm—said that innovative technologies are changing the way the industry views its value proposition. it, at the basic level. “They are also changing the way the industry perceives its role in interacting with customers.”
Beyond net zero: Data, design and digital connectivity
The rise of electric vehicles (EVs) clearly shows how change has swept through the auto industry over the past decade. Global sales of passenger electric vehicles in 2022, surpassing 10 million for the first time. One in sevenpassenger cars purchased globally in 2022 are electric, compared with just one in 70 vehicles sold in 2017.
As EV adoption grows, advances in technology and software become increasingly important to connect customers digitally and improve their experience. “Our ability to access data and apply it to design processes in real time is how we will change the industry, reduce costs and carbon footprint, personalize the experience,” said Chen. driving experience and creating new value for customers”.
However, continued advances in software require a deep understanding of how technology is applied to the automotive industry. In particular, traditional manufacturers need to balance old operations with new tools and designs. “Advanced technologies and AI are helping cars become smarter, but they are also changing the fundamental nature of cars,” said Luc Julia, chief scientific officer of French carmaker Renault. both inside and outside”.
Therefore, bridging the gap between the auto industry and technology providers is essential. For example, Ricardo has collaborated with Digital Twins Association, allowing it to collaborate with technology organizations such as Ansys, Dell, Lendlease, and Microsoft. The Open Membership Consortium is an international ecosystem of industry, government, and academic experts shaping the digital twin.
The Rise of the Digital Twin
In recent years, digital twin technology has become an almost indispensable tool in automotive manufacturing, changing the way vehicles are manufactured. For example, Renault has modeled its physical assets as digital twins, and each plant has a copy in the virtual world. This is part of the automaker’s efforts to accelerate the digitization of production lines and supply chain data across the enterprise. “By optimizing the data, we can use AI more efficiently in the factory and increase our operational efficiency,” says Julia.
Renault factories are provided with supplier data, sales forecasts and quality information, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning – thereby enabling the development of multiple project scenarios. guess. For example, predictive maintenance for robots can predict and address potential problems along the chain of operations, at each part of the assembly line, before they happen.
In addition, Renault Recycling The initiative, organized around four main hubs of activity—Retooling, Renewing Energy, Recycling Cycles, and Restarting—uses digital twins to reduce carbon emissions. “It’s not just a question of electric cars, but also of how batteries are made, cars are recycled and materials,” says Julia.
