how india can drive towards an emission …...towards an emission-free economy and achieve the...

ENGLISH QUARTERLYVol : 5 Issue : 4 October - December 2018 Free Distribution

HOW INDIA CAN DRIVE TOWARDS AN EMISSION-FREE FUTURE

IMAGINE A ROBOT THAT CHARGES YOUR EV WITHOUT YOUR ASSISTANCE!

NEED OF HUMAN FACTORS TRAINING

FOR SUSTAINABLE AEROSPACE SECTOR

MOBILITY ENGINEERING DECEMBER 2018 1

SAEINDIA News

48 Technology Update TRAIN 18 ICF’s Train 18 consisting of specially designed coaches will start its maiden journey in December.

50 Technology Update WORLD’S LONGEST BIKE The record for the longest hybrid bike runs on petrol engine and electrical motor is 6.8 meters with 15 seats and was achieved by the Indian Institute of Industry Interaction Education and Research (IIIER).

51 Special Update Future Of Sustained Mobility The third convention hosted by iCAT focussed on

new powertrain technologies.

Features

CoverThe world needs major policy interventions to drive towards an emission-free economy and achieve the climate goal targets of 2030 and 2050.

53 Feature Ashok Leyland completes 70 years Mobility Engineering traces Ashok Leyland’s journey

since its inception in 1948

MOBILITY ENGINEERING2 DECEMBER 2018

SAEINDIA NewsDepartments 4 Editorial 5 SAEINDIA News 5 AERO Design Challenge

6 ADMMS 2018

8 Automotive lighting conference

9 Two & Three Wheeler conference

10 AWIM MTTP

12 FISITA - 2018 World Automotive Conference

18 Technology Report 18 Robo Charger

21 Lift Axle

24 Human factors

38 Visteon AI program

41 FEV revs up

45 ZF’s Clutch-by-wire

28 Global Vehicles 28 Volvo FM 380

33 IVECO Stralis

35 Guest column – K K Gandhi 58 Interview - NATRiP’s Neeti Sarkar 60 Index 61 Q&A Mr. Frank Zhao is Director, Tsinghua

Automotive Strategy Research Institute and President, FISITA.

Mr. Murli M. Iyer is Executive Global Advisor, SAE International and Vice President, FISITA.

© SAEINDIA and SAE INTERNATIONAL reserves all rights .

No part of this publication and/or website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of the Publisher. Permission is only deemed valid if approval is in writing. SAEINDIA and SAE International buys all rights to contributions, text and images, unless previously agreed to in writing.In case of Address/addressee not found return to SAE INDIA, No 1/17Ceebros Arcade, 3rd Cross, Kasturba Nagar, Chennai -600 020. Telefax: 91-44-2441-1904, Phone: 91-44-4215 2280.

The dual sta�on shock absorber tes�ng system is a high produc�vity test system specially designed for tes�ng shock absorber /strut / front-fork in the produc�on line. This machine ensures the assembled shock absorber meets required performancespecifica�on. It is the result of two decades of R&D with a focus on harmonizing produc�on line test requirements for 2, 3 and4-wheeler suspension components. Individual features of the Dual Sta�on have been tested and proven by all major shockabsorber manufacturers across the country. Almost every shock and strut manufactured in India are tested on BISS machine,tes�ng over 2 million parts a month.

5 to 15 kN dynamic force ra�rg

Velocity ra�ng 0.005 to 1.5 m/s

Self aligned top pneuma�c and bo�om hydraulic grips

Quick change of jaw faces and spacers to switch betweenthe parts

Tooling to test unsealed parts

Low-force "bull-dog" top grip to avoid damage

Top and bo�om tooling to suit threaded, rod eye mounts

Tooling suitable for 2, 3 and 1-wheeler parts

BISS is a subsidiary of ITW-lndia and part of the Test and Measurement Business Division of ITW, USA. More than 25 years, BISSis proudly associated with automo�ve industry worldwide in developing and manufacturing of a variety of servo-controlled testsystems to evaluate the quality, performance and durability of automo�ve components and sub-assemblies.

Dual sta�on shock absorber performance tes�ng machine


EDITORIAL

SAEINDIA BOARD OF DIRECTORSDr. Bala K. Bharadvaj President

Dr. R. K. Malhotra Immediate Past President

Mrs. Rashmi Urdhwareshe Senior Vice President

Mr. I. V. Rao Vice President

Mr. Deepak Sawkar Secretary

Dr. K. C. Vora Treasurer

Dr. Arunkumar SampathMember

Mr. N. BalasubramanianMember

Mr. Dinesh ShyamsundarMember

Mr. Munirathnam JavajiMember

Dr. D. MuruganandamMember

Ms. Pamela TikkuMember

Prof. Prakash B JoshiMember

Mr. Prakash SardesaiMember

Mr. Purushottam PandaMember

Dr. SSV RamakumarMember

Dr. R. RajendranMember

Mr. S. ShanmugamMember

Mr. S. SriramanMember

Mr. R. VelusamyMember

Representing SAE InternationalDr. David. L. Schutt

Chief Executive Officer Mr.Murli M. IyerExecutive Global Advisor, Global AffairsOffice of the Chief Executive Officer

SALES & MARKETINGK. VenkatarajSAEINDIANo.1/17, Ceebros Arcade3rd Cross Kasturba NagarChennaiIndia 600 020(T) 91-44-24411904(E) [email protected]

It gives me immense pleasure to report on the positive feedback received for the 1st Indian edition of Mobility Engineering fully packed into the advertisements of Indian Automotive Industry taking part in FISITA World Automotive Congress 2018.

It was the first time that the biennial industry event, initially organized in 1947 in Paris, was held in India, which speaks volumes for the country’s growing status in the global automotive scheme of things. The theme was ‘Disruptive Technologies for Affordable and Sustainable Mobility.’ The event was a huge success from all standpoints registering 1500+ delegates.

The FISITA President, Prof Frank Zhao, Director, Tsinghua Automotive Strategy Research Institute (TASRI), spoke about the current challenges for the global automotive industry and the way forward for sustainable mobility. Read the interview in our Q&A section.

In this issue of Mobility Engineering, we have packed a variety of articles which will interest a cross-section of our readers. As Ashok Leyland completes 70 years in the field of mobility, we carry an in depth article with interesting photographs.

While on one hand, we have an advanced

heavy-duty vehicle from Volvo, the FM380, on the other end of the spectrum, an innovation from our enterprising student community, in the form of the World’s Longest Bike from the Indian Institute of Industry Interaction Education and Research in Chennai is included for your reading pleasure.

India in the unique and path breaking effort of manufacturing an indigenous Train 18, an engine-less train is set for use on Indian Railways. We proudly feature this information in the inside pages.

We welcome technical articles from our esteemed members for our future issues. We also encourage our collegiate clubs to send in information about the technical conferences and events conducted in their institutions. Many of you, are working with our sections to promote technical events, and please take pride in reporting them.

SAEINDIA has launched a new operational model, details of which, is available in our website saeindia.org. Another biennial marquee event, SIAT is happening between Jan 16-18, 2019 at Oxford Golf Resort, Pune (siat.araiindia.com). See you there for more exciting technical interactions!

K. Venkataraj EDITOR

Mr. Subodh MoryeMember


SAEINDIA News

SAEINDIA Southern Section (SAEISS) conducted the 3rd

edition of Aero Design Challenge (ADC) 2018 Finals at CEG

Campus, Anna University, Chennai from 11th to 13th July

2018. Student members from various engineering

Institutions across India participated in the Competition.

On 11th the inaugural function of the Event happened at

Sports Complex, CEG Campus, Anna University by Chief

Guest Shri. Banwarilal Purohit, Honourable Governor of

Tamilnadu, and Guest of Honour Shri. R. Rajagopal I.A.S.

Additional Chief Secretary to Governor of Tamil Nadu.

The event started with the welcome address by

Prof. M. K. Surappa, Vice Chancellor, Anna University fol-

lowed by a presentation about ADC Competition by

Mr.S. Shanmugam, Vice Chairman, SAEISS who gave com-

plete details such as rules of the event, different classes of

the event and other relevant matters related to the event.

Dr. K. Senthil Kumar, Champion, ADC briefed the partici-

pants on the impacts and outcomes of the Aero Design

Challenge. Dr. S. Thamaraiselvi, Director, Centre for

Technology Development and Transfer (CTDT), Anna

University also spoke about the achievements in

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by Anna

University. Special Address was given by Shri. R. Rajagopal

I.A.S., Additional Chief Secretary to Governor of Tamil

Nadu. The dignitaries also released a booklet with a de-

tailed article about ADC 2018.

The colleges were also honoured for conducting

Workshops in their premises by presenting mementos to

them, namely Jeppiaar Engineering college represented by

Mr. Edson Chandraseelan. R., SRM Institute of Science &

Technology represented by Mr. Pungaiya Yadhav and St.

Peter’s College of Engineering and Technology represented

by Dr. M. Chinnapandian R. and Mr. Yuvaraj. The Vote of

thanks was delivered by Dr. S. Senthil Kumar, who also

thanked the honourable governor who had spent his valu-

able time and his knowledge-sharing speech to motivate

the participants. The Technical presentations were held at

CTDT Conference Hall and Centre for climate change Hall,

at the same time. The Technical Inspections and the Final

Flight Round Session were held at sport complex, CEG

Campus, Anna University simultaneously. A total of about

111 teams comprising of 750 Students had participated in

ADC 2018.

Award Ceremony of ADC 2018 started with Tamil Thai

Vazhthu on 13th July 2018 at Vivekananda Auditorium, CEG

Campus, Anna University where the chief guest was

Dr. S. Ganesan, Registrar, Anna University. The Welcome

Address for this function was given by Dr. B.T.N. Sridhar,

Head, Department of Aerospace Engineering MIT campus,

Anna University followed by Shri. S. Sriraman, Chairman,

SAEISS who gave a brief address about the ADC

Competition. The outcomes and impacts of ADC events

was given by Dr. K. Senthil Kumar, Champion, followed by

Dr. S. Thamaraiselvi, Director, CTDT, Anna University about

the achievements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

developed by Anna University. The Presidential Address

AERO DESIGN CHALLENGE 2018, 11TH TO 13TH JULY 2018, CHENNAI

SOUVENIR RELEASED BY GOVENOR OF TAMILNADU WITH ALL DIGNITARIES DURING INAUGURAL


SAEINDIA Newswas given by Dr. A. Rajadurai, Dean, MIT campus, Anna University followed by Shri. Yogendra Jahagiridar, Aero Club of India who gave the Special Address and finally the Valedictory Address by Dr. S. Ganesan, Registrar, Anna University. Vote of thanks was given by Dr. E. Rajasekar, Secretary, SAEISS. The Program ended with National Anthem. Department of Aerospace Engineering MIT cam-pus, Anna University followed by Shri. S. Sriraman, Chairman, SAEISS who gave a brief address about the ADC Competition. The outcomes and impacts of ADC events was given by Dr. K. Senthil Kumar, Champion, followed by Dr. S. Thamaraiselvi, Director, CTDT, Anna University about the achievements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) de-veloped by Anna University. The Presidential Address was given by Dr. A. Rajadurai, Dean, MIT campus, Anna University followed by Shri. Yogendra Jahagiridar, Aero

Club of India who gave the Special Address and finally the Valedictory Address by Dr. S. Ganesan, Registrar, Anna University. Vote of thanks was given by Dr. E. Rajasekar, Secretary, SAEISS. The Program ended with National Anthem.

DIGNITARIES DURING AWARD CEREMONY

SAEINDIA Southern Section (SAEISS) conducted the 2nd edition of International Conference on Advances in Design, Material, Manufacturing and Surface Engineering for

ADVANCES IN DESIGN, MATERIAL, MANUFACTURING AND SURFACE ENGINEERING FOR MOBILITY - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (ADMMS 2018), 20TH TO 21ST JULY 2018, CHENNAI

INAUGURATION BY AUSPICIOUS LAMP LIGHTING

Mobility (ADMMS) from 20th to 21st July 2018 at Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) Campus, Chennai. On 20th July 2018, at Rajam Lecture Hall complex ADMMS’18


SAEINDIA News

started with Tamil Thai Vaazthu followed by lighting cere-mony by Chief Guest, Mr. S Paul Pandian, Group Director, Scientist G, ISRO Inertial Systems Unit, Trivandrum and key members including Dr. A. Raja Durai, Dean, MIT Campus; Dr. S. Jayaraj, HOD, Automobile Department and Mr. S. Sriraman, Chairman, SAEISS and Mr. Ganesh Dharmar, Champion, Conference.

The Inaugural address on “Sensors and Application in Automation” by the Chief Guest really inspired many auto-mobile engineers to relate with the challenges in the de-velopment of autonomous driving. Mr. S. Sriraman, the conference chair appreciated the hosting collegefor orga-nizing this conference in alignment with the SAEINDIA in their campus. Mr. Ganesh Dharmar, Champion, Conference proposed the vote of thanks.

A total of about 235 abstracts were received, out of which 144 abstracts were shortlisted. 123 papers were received under design, materials, manufacturing and surface engi-neering and 73 papers were selected for publication. The conference had 6 invited lectures, 1 panel discussion and 8 technical sessions for the 2 days. After Inauguration the Technical oral presentation sessions were started. About 3 sessions in the areas of Product Design, Modelling & Analysis and the last session on Advance Material and Application were conducted parallelly.

The session chair/co-chair and evaluators were from indus-tries like Mahindra and Mahindra, Ford, Ashok Leyland, TAFE, WABCO and from reputed institutions like IIT, MIT, and BSA University. In the noon there were 2 sessions fol-

lowed by technical presentations and 1 Plenary in the areas of Manufacturing Process, Advance Material and Applications, Advanced CAE Methodologies for use in Product Design by Dr. Srinivas Gunti, DGM, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

The second day of conference started with a plenary ses-sion on Hard Turning State of the Art and Challenge by Dr. M. Murugan Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai. The third plenary session was about the “Laser based Manufacturing Solutions for Mobility” by Dr. G. Padmanabham, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad. After the insightful plenary sessions by eminent persons from vari-ous organisations we had a thrilling Panel discussion on “Sustainable Mobility” by Dr. Venugopal Shankar, VP & Dean, Mahindra Technical Academy being the Panel Moderator and other panellists were Dr. A. Rajadurai, Professor and Dean, MIT, Anna University; Dr. R. K. Amit, Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras; Dr. Shantha Shankar, Consultant Technology, Innovation and IP Consultant and Dr. Aravind Vadiraj, Senior Manager, Mahindra Technical Academy.

In the noon there were 3 parallel technical sessions in the areas of Product Design, Modelling and Simulation and Composite Material. The session chair/co-chair and evalua-tors were from industries including, DRDO, Ashok Leyland, MIT, TAFE, Caterpillar, IITM, M&M and Anna University, IP Rings Ltd, VIT, BSA University, SRM University, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd., Mapco Schlenk Engineering col-lege and JNTUK.

Dr. P. A. Lakshmi Narayanan, Technical Advisor, Simpson & Co. Limited was the chief guest for the valedictory pro-gram. He was felicitated by Dr. K. Arunachalam, MIT. Best Oral presentation award given to the participants by the valedictory function chief guest.

Overall update on the 2nd ADMMS-2018 conference given by Prof. E. Rajasekar, Secretary, SAEISS and Vote of thanks given by Prof. R. Rajendran, MC Member, SAEISS. The event concluded on 21st July 2018 with the appreciation award to Prof. B. Vasanthan, Dept. of Automobile Engg., MIT for his turnaround help for all the requirements of the conference.

ADMMS 2018 TEAM DURING VALEDICTORY


SAEINDIA NewsAUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING CONFERENCE, 10TH TO 11TH AUGUST 2018, PUNE

DIGNITARIES ON THE DIAS

The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and SAEINDIA Western Section (SAEIWS) jointly organized an Automotive Lighting Conference (ALC) at ARAI, Pune. This conference was held on 10th and 11th of August 2018. The conference focused on knowledge sharing and received large participation from the industry and academia. The ALC 2018 was a congress of the best minds in the industry, the participants ranged from Vehicle manufacturers (2W, 3W, 4W, tractors, construction, EV), Lighting manufactur-ers, Non-automotive lighting manufacturer, Test agencies and Material suppliers, etc. This two-day event was inaugu-rated by Mr. Balraj Bhanot, former Deputy Director General from Department of Heavy Industries & former Director, ARAI, along with Mr. A. V. Mannikar, Sr. Deputy Director, HOD – SHL & PSL Dept., ARAI; Mr. S. S. Nibandhe, Chairman, SAEIWS & Deputy Director - HTC & FID Operations, ARAI, Chakan and Mr. B. V. Shamsundara, Treasurer, SAEIWS & General Manager, SHL, ARAI. The con-ference was witnessed by more than 170 persons during the two-day of event.

The very first technical session was presented by Mr. Mark Jarvis, Head of International Business Creative Services at UNO MINDA Group, aptly known as the ‘Innovation Guru’ of Uno Minda. Mr. Jarvis focused on innovation in the light-ing industry and shared his knowledge on industrial design aspects of it. Mr. Vineet Sahni, CEO & Sr. Executive Director,

Lumax Industries, expressed his views on the very sought after and debatable subject, viz. Preparedness of India for changing Technology trend in Automotive Lighting Technology. Mr. C. S. Singh, CTO, Lighting Business, Uno Minda, spoke further regarding Technology Challenges in India.

Fundamentals of Lighting Devices and Light Sources, and making of Affordable LED headlamps and evolution of Lighting over time was presented in detail by technical ex-perts Mr. Michael Willacker, Head of Professional & Industrial Application, OSRAM, Germany; Mr. Blanco Salvatore, CTO, Magneti Marelli Motherson Auto Systems Ltd; Mr. Tetsuya Mikami, AGM, Engineering, Koito Manufacturing Company and Mr. Tony Bergen, Technical Director, Photometric Solutions International, Australia. The OEM perspective and real-world light evaluation issues were addressed by Mr. Jayprakash from Mahindra & Mahindra, Chennai. Mr. Ramashankar Pandey, Managing Director, Hella India Lighting Ltd., spoke on a crucial topic regarding Arresting Alarming Road Deaths - Prioritizing Technology, Awareness & Regulation. Mr. M. Siva from ARAI presented an indigenous Adaptive Front Lighting Solution for lowering glare and better visibility.

Mr. Rajendra Bandal, GM, TUV Rheinland India Pvt. Ltd. shared his global view and his knowledge on Global Regulations for Automotive Lighting for China, Brazil,


SAEINDIA News

BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF THE EVENT

Indonesia, Europe and FMVSS. Mr. M. M. Desai, General Manager, ARAI elaborated on EMC Requirements for auto-motive lighting technologies and measurement. Mr. N. B. Dhande, Sr. Deputy Director, ARAI, presented ARAI’s pro-file to the participants, summarizing the activities and role of ARAI. The event concluded with Vote of Thanks by Mr. S. S. Nibandhe. The conference succeeded in accomplish-ing its purpose of knowledge sharing and providing a plat-form for exchange of thoughts between the experts and the participants.

TWO & THREE WHEELER CONFERENCE, 30TH TO 31ST AUGUST 2018, PUNE

Two & Three Wheeler Conference was organized by

SAEINDIA on 30th & 31st August 2018 at Symbiosis Skills

and Open University, Kiwale, Pune. It witnessed participa-

tion from Industry professionals, Faculties and students in

the discipline of engineering. There were more than 130

participants, about 25 speakers, 12 exposition stalls, 20

student volunteers, dignitaries and committee members

participated in this conference.

India has become the largest manufacturer of Two

Wheelers in the world during 2016-17 beating China to

CONFERENCE TEAM WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT STALWARTS DURING INAUGURATION

the second place. A New Era in terms of regulations – safety and stringent norms of BS-VI in 2020 has posed a serious challenge to the industry. In this context SAEINDIA Automotive Board had organized the 2nd edi-tion of Two Wheeler Conference in the upgraded form of Two & Three Wheeler Conference 2018. This edition fo-cused on the theme of “Journey Towards Eco-Friendly Two & Three Wheeler”. This conference addressed issues and concerns of increasing carbon footprint, burning of fossil fuels, reduced emission to improve air quality and finding greener alternatives in fuels. It also brought the


SAEINDIA News

CONFERENCE TEAM DURING VALEDICTORY FUNCTION

key stakeholders like OEMs, Tier-1 & 2 suppliers and ser-vice providers including component manufacturers to-gether to brainstorm on the path towards eco-friendly Two & Three Wheeler to transform the scenario and find durable solutions to hybrid and electrification of Two & Three Wheelers. It also ensured compliance with BS-VI regulations to align the industry with the expectations of the policy makers and the Industry Stakeholders.

Padmashri & Padmabhushan Dr. S. B. Mujumdar was the Chief Guest for the inauguration of Conference and Exposition. He is the Founder and President of Symbiosis and Chancellor of Symbiosis International University. In the inauguration session, SAEINDIA felicitated the stal-warts with Lifetime Achievement from Education and Industry for their contribution in respective areas. The dignitaries’ names and brief profile are as follows:

1. Padmashri & Padmabhushan Dr. S. B. Mujumdar - He is the Founder and President of Symbiosis, Chancellor of Symbiosis International University. He is M.Sc in Botany, Ph.D in Microbiology from Pune University.

2. Mr. Ravi Chopra - He is the Chairman of Piaggio Vehicles Private Limited at Piaggio & C. SpA, also was Managing Director since 1998. He has Degree in Science and Engineering and attended Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He has three de-cades of experience with brand leading companies mainly in the automotive industry.

3. Mr. M. S. Keshav - He is B.Sc Engineering from B.I.T. Ranchi, M.E. (Internal Combustion Engineering) from I. I. Sc. Bangalore, M. Sc. Engineering (Automobile Design) Cranfield, U.K. He has worked in various areas in Two Wheeler industry.

The event featured parallel technical sessions including 2 Plenary Sessions, 6 Technical Presentation Sessions and 1 Panel Discussion, on the topics of current interests of fast-growing sector in Two &Three Wheeler industry. Overall, 15 Topics were presented in 6 Technical Presentations. These sessions provided knowledge shar-ing platforms for the mobility fraternity to exchange ideas, benchmark the best industry practices, discuss the open ideation processes and leverage opportunities from different regions of the world. The concurrent exposition was a gallery to showcase products / technologies in the “Two and Three Wheeler” domain from OEMs, Ancillaries, Proprietary units and Battery Technology suppliers. Two & Three Wheeler Conference offered multiple opportuni-ties for participants to showcase / demonstrate their work, products and technologies. Mr. Babasaheb Ajri, Regional Transport Officer, Pune was Chief Guest for the valedictory session.

The contest with full of fun & challenges for school

students called A World In Motion (AWIM) had two main

ingredients in this innovative, hands-on, physical science

curriculum, designed by the Society of Automotive

Engineers (SAE), USA. AWIM was started in the USA first

and India is the second country to conduct a competition

at National level for school children. This competition

makes them work as a team, applying scientific design

concepts and exploring the principles of laws of motion,

inertia, force, momentum, friction, air resistance, jet pro-

pulsion, etc. to create moving vehicles like skimmer and

AWIM MTTP, JULY & AUGUST 2018, ACROSS INDIAballoon powered Jet-Toy cars. This Master Teacher Training Program (MTTP) is the platform where the Industrial Volunteers of AWIM guide the Teachers and Student Volunteers intended for the AWIM Competition who in turn guide their students and make them participate in the event.

After the initial demonstration, the team formations were made with minimum 1 teacher and 1 student volunteer and 2 industry volunteers. Teams were asked to build new sail patterns other than conventional designs. They were also provided with chart papers to prepare presentation with a


SAEINDIA News

TEAM AWIM MTTP WITH THE PARTICIPANTS AT SOLAPUR

theme for their Jet toy and Skimmer. Each team tested their Jet-toy and Skimmer on corresponding tracks for Distance, Weight carrying capacity, Speed, Accuracy, Maximum time & Turning ability. The results for each round were noted by respective team during the training pro-gram. Master Trainers presented on Track Description & Scoring along with Rules / Guidelines for the competition. They also presented science notes on simple physics for school children.

The 1st MTTP program was conducted in the Northern India Region by SAEINDIA Northern Section (SAEINS) on 28th July 2018 at Mapple Emerald for the Delhi NCR region. Mr. Alok Jaitely, Vice Chairman, Student Competition, SAEINS; Mr. Rakesh Sood, SAEINS; Mr. Deepak Panda, Co-convener, AWIM and Mr. Anup Kacker, ED, SAEINS were present during the program. Various schools from Delhi, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad participated in the program.

On 13th August 2018 AWIM Master Teacher Training program (MTTP) was held at N. K. Orchid College of Engineering & Technology, Solapur. The master trainer for this training was Mr. Sagar Murugkar from SAEINDIA Western Section (SAEIWS) & Prof. Dipak Bhoge from N. K. Orchid College of Engineering & Management. There were around 25 teachers from 12 different schools in and around Solapur and 10 student volunteers from N. K. Orchid College of Engineering participated in the program. Last year’s winning teams were also invited to guide the participants.

On 18th August 2018 AWIM Master Teacher Training program (MTTP) was held at SAEINDIA Western Section Office, Pune. The master trainer for this training was Mr. Salil Shaikh from John Deere. Teams of four members were made which comprised of minimum 1 teacher and 1 student volunteer and 2 industry volunteers. There were 20 teachers from 6 different schools in and around Pune and 6 industry volunteers from John Deere participated in the program.

On 31st August & 1st September 2018 AWIM (A World In Motion) Master Teachers Training program was conducted successfully at SAEINDIA Southern Section (SAEISS), Guindy. The Master trainer for this program was Mr. C. Shanmugam, AWIM Champion, SAEISS. There were 23 participations for both the days from the schools in and around Chennai.

ONE OF THE PRACTICE SESSIONS


FISITAReport

For an industry taking on disruptive technologies, auto-motive engineers will be the movers and shakers of mo-bility. The 37th FISITA World Automotive Congress, held in India for the first time, saw plenty of discussion and debate, technical seminars, student and young engineer activities, all with an aim to share and expand knowledge.

The first week of October 2018 was a momentous one for India and the automotive industry. That’s because the 37th FISITA World Automotive Congress – a congregation of international automotive leaders and experts – was held in Chennai from October 2-5. It was the first time the biennial industry event, first organised in 1947 in Paris, was held in India, which speaks volumes for the country’s growing status in the global automotive scheme of things. SAEINDIA, the local arm of SAE International, hosted the four-day event at the Chennai Trade Centre on the theme of ‘Disruptive Technologies for Affordable and Sustainable Mobility’. SAEINDIA, with a membership base of over 50,000, is the biggest affiliate of SAE International.

FISITA or the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies, has 37 member bodies globally. With disruptive technologies in the auto industry gaining significant momentum and India being a hub for IT and software development, the event essentially was meant to enable participants from all across the world to not only exchange ideas but also brainstorm challenges and

changes that these new trends offer. And it proved to be an engineering tech tour de force, what with 400 dele-gates, 90 exhibitors and over 1,500 visitors.

India, which is set to surpass Japan as the global No. 3 passenger vehicle market by 2022, and is the No. 1 in motorised two-wheelers, clearly was the undisputed destination of choice for 2018 FISITA. It was in September 2016 that the FISITA organisers confirmed Chennai as the venue for the global event. The capital of Tamil Nadu was a good fit considering it is the preferred automotive and R&D hub in India and a stronghold of both vehicle manu-facturers and component suppliers. Chennai and its Oragadam belt are from where OEMs like Hyundai Motor India, BMW India, Renault and Nissan, Ashok Leyland, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Royal Enfield and TVS Motor Co roll out their products. What’s more, being an engineering hub with rich local talent as well strong in-dustry-academia connect, it was not surprising this year’s FISITA saw a packed house on all four days with 1,600 visitors, well over its 1,500 closed registrations limit, thronging the show.

With global industry tackling a plethora of disruptions, the likes of which have never been seen before, the programme at FISITA included plenary sessions from luminary industry personalities, as well as a slew of technical seminars on varying topics such as engine and transmission design, NVH, electric vehicle development,

Engineering future mobility


FISITA Report

vehicle safety and autonomy among others, conducted by industry experts in their respective domains.

FISITA 2018 was also the ideal forum for companies to showcase their latest advances and the industry did not disappoint. Nearly 90 exhibitors including carmakers BMW, Toyota and Nissan wowed with their latest techno-logical advancements on the EV front; component majors like AVL, Bosch and Continental revealed their break-through technologies for vehicle electrification; and test-ing equipment suppliers such as ATS, IDIADA, iASYS and Faro along with software majors DassaultSystemes and PTC gave a hint and more of how they can support ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) and EV validation. There was also participation from leading colleges of the likes of IIT Madras, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Vel Tech showing how young talent is being nurtured at these institutions to make them industry- and fu-ture-ready.

Excellence in mobility engineering

Having been instrumental in establishing SAE’s India chapter and being a patron to the FISITA 2018 World Congress, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, who won the 2016 FISITA Medal of Honour – which is awarded to an individual for distin-guished achievements in automobile engineering – and the sole Indian to get this prestigious recognition, kicked off the global event.

Dr. Goenka, who is a true-blue automotive engineer, said, “Disruptive, affordable and sustainable are the new key trends in the automotive industry and engineers are working strongly towards not only developing such tech-nologies, but also wholly encompassing business models which are disruptive at the same time. While which tech-

nology emerges as the inanimate solution going forward is yet to be seen, what is plausible is the collective effort of the industry towards moving in a direction of sustain-able future.”

“The FISITA Congress is a unique conglomerate of techni-cal leaders at a single place and, given its talent, India is set to bring immense value to the automotive communi-ty,” Dr. Goenka added.

He said that the FISITA team had worked hard to handpick the technical programmes listed for students, researchers as well as working professionals. He added that the auto industry is undergoing a metamorphosis with mobility set to be transformed with CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric).

The FISITA nominations committee conferred this year’s honour to Dr. Akihiko Saito, chief engineer at Toyota Motor Corporation, and the man behind redesigning the sixth and seventh generations of the Toyota Corolla sedan, making the car a global best-seller. While Saito’s diligent efforts also saw him take the company into the world of motorsport, Saito now serves as an advisor to the Japanese automaker.

Dan E. Nicholson, President, FISITA, and Vice-President, Global Propulsion Systems at General Motors, said, “The automotive industry is in the midst of a serious transfor-mation and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) are dramatically chang-ing the way how projects are conceived, built and deliv-ered.” He also championed the cause of road safety and added, “With over 1.3 million road fatalities happening every year majorly due to human negligence, active safety systems as well as autonomous driving technologies are the solutions towards improving the


FISITAReport

current scenario. Automotive engineers are at the fore-front and relentlessly working towards developing and refining such lifesaving safety systems.”

Tier 1 supplier Lucas TVS’ joint MD, Arvind Balaji, who presided as the guest of honour, said that the automobile industry is experiencing a four-fold phase of disruption in the form of CASE. While full vehicle electrification is still some time away, IC engines are going to stay in the pic-ture until 2030. “The foreseeable future will see a combi-nation of a mix of propulsion technologies including hy-brids, electrics and fossil-fuelled vehicles.”

“With a need to conform to BS VI and CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) norms, we have to continue in-vesting more in technology, as well as capacities to be able to cater to the growing needs of the market,” said Balaji.

Sharing his thoughts, Chris Mason, CEO, FISITA, said, “As young engineers in India prepare to become leaders of tomorrow, FISITA has chosen the country to launch its Congress to share knowledge and benefit the industry.”

“Mobility requirements of 2030 will only be fulfilled by a collaborative effort between industry and the academia, and FISITA plays a huge role in bringing the two togeth-er,” added Mason.

He also announced the creation of a sustainable, charita-ble fund for engineers in the form of the FISITA Foundation, in an attempt to allow open research, spawn innovation and nurture young talent at the grassroots level.

M.M. Murugappan, Vice-Chairman, Murugappa Group, and member of the board of directors at Mahindra & Mahindra, was the chief guest. He said, “There is a signifi-cant change taking place in mobility across the world. Not only is there a geographical shift happening from the

developed countries in the West to the developing mar-kets like Mexico and India, but the Asia-Pacific region with China leading, can be seen driving growth of the in-dustry globally in the future.”

Murugappan added, “In India, the automotive industry has always been at the forefront of doing consortium re-search. I hope FISITA will support industry to take this research forward. While government agencies are pitch-ing in to resolve the issue of air pollution in India, road safety is another key area which needs to be addressed for progressing in the right direction.”

Tech-on-display

Of the 90 exhibitors at the event, here’s looking at some of those which caught everyone’s eye.

AVL: The German engine technology giant showcased its 48V vehicle electrification systems as viable solutions for cutting down CO2 emissions as well as enhancing vehicle efficiency by up to 30 percent. The motor-and-battery combination can be customised to be accommodated with a number of powertrain options offered by carmak-ers globally. AVL also displayed its electric motor test beds for dynamic and fully automated motor testing. Other solutions also included its E-Motor Emulator for testing motor inverters in EVs at full loads, a low-voltage EV Storage regenerative power supply for testing micro- and mild-hybrid systems, and a range of portable emis-sion measurement systems (PEMS) for mapping NOx and particulate matter (PM) concentration in the vehicle’s ex-haust, as mandated by the real driving emissions (RDE) regulations in EU from September 2017.

ATS: Automotive Test Systems had its range of testing equipment for ADAS and autonomous driving technolo-gies for vehicle OEMs on display. There was the RT Range S under the OXTS brand, which offers testing capabilities


FISITA Report

for US’ NHTSA-guided front collision warning; lane depar-ture warning as well as Euro NCAP-regulated autono-mous emergency braking (AEB) systems. The global navi-gation satellite system (GNSS)-based technology features a hunter and a target, and can capture comprehensive measurements such as polar coordinates to the horizontal range and angle to target with an accuracy of up to 2cm. The data generated can then be plotted into OXTS’ graphing software NAVgraph and viewed alongside CAN data.

Adient: The seating solutions major, which was spun off from Johnson Controls in October 2016 as a separate en-tity of the group, showcased its range of light-weighting as well as scalable seating solutions for various vehicle applications. It had a host of innovations on display with a composite-derived seatback, which, it claims cuts down on weight by a significant 30 percent by doing away with trusses and braces normally needed in a metal-based seat structure.

The innovation continued with the seating foam as well, where the area closest to the occupant’s body saw rela-tively softer material, gradually thickening to offer better support near the seat back’s enclosure. While there was a modular lightweight seat structure on offer, especially developed for South East Asian markets from 2020 on-ward, the company’s showstopper was its AIS-1 demon-strator targeted at the B+, compact sedan and the com-pact SUV segments, which depicted its efficient design, lightweight structure as well as top-notch comfort levels. The key highlights included NVH-absorbent VibraTech foam which cuts down transmission of road vibrations by 20-25 percent; ultra-lightweight headrests and digitally printed seat fabric with removable seat covers for easier

upholstery upkeep. The concept also boasted in-built child-seat boosters as well as integrated air vents behind the front-seats for rear-seat occupants.

Bosch: The global Tier 1 major demonstrated its electrifi-cation technology with a clear perspective that electric powertrains are set to be the future of mobility. It demon-strated its 48V battery- and motor-equipped Maruti Suzuki Baleno which would help pave the way for a zero-emission future. The company envisions EV range to go beyond the 300-400km mark by 2022. The technolo-gy also represented its integrated direct current (DC-DC) converter, e-axles, regenerative braking and drive control systems.

Continental: Another of the global technology leaders, Continental, apart from its 48V mild-hybrid technology which now powers a host of electrified cars in the Volkswagen Group stable, had its telematics-based con-nected speedometer on display for two-wheelers, which can connect with a rider’s smartphone and offer features such as navigation and vehicle diagnosis.

The company also gave a hint of its other solutions in-cluding immobilisers running Thatcham logics and tyre pressure monitoring systems.

Dassault Systemes: The French simulation system giant showcased its range of analysis tools for product valida-tion as well as manufacturing operations management. While its Enovia suite helps companies integrate multiple operations right from PLC to manufacturing, quality and

delivery within the enterprise and offer complete product lifecycle management (PLM) capabilities, its DelmiaApriso is well known for digitally managing the shop floor and enhancing production efficiencies.

The company also displayed its Exa analysis platform, which can move 3D geometries and offer virtual water-


FISITAReportand wind-tunnel testing. The tool utilises accurate physics to replicate on-road conditions like water splashes and dust flow, and helps engineers improvise their designs.

Emerson: The US-based electrical equipment giant was represented at FISITA in the form of its sub-brand Branson Ultrasonic, where it showcased its ultrasonic plastic welding technology, which is heavily used at OEMs as well as Tier 1s to seamlessly weld parts such as em-blems on steering wheels, tail-lamp and head-lamp cas-ings as well as glove boxes. The company had its 2000X-series ultrasonic plastic welder on offer, which offers an operational range from 15 to 40 kHz.

Faro: The company showcased its portable coordinate measuring machines (PCMMs) – Faro Arm and Quantum – which aid easy quality verification by allowing for instant 3D inspection of components and surfaces, their dimensional analysis, CAD comparisons, as well as reverse engineering. The laser-based Faro Arm offers five times improved scanning over its predecessor, with up to 25 microns accuracy.

IPG Automotive: This Germany-based testing solutions company revealed its range of systems for validating vi-sion-based ADAS technologies. Its Monitor Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) as well as video interface box offer testing capabilities for functions such as high-beam assist, lane detection, traffic-sign recognition and surround-view. Its HIL integration provides closed-loop capabilities due to short latencies and gives feedback from camera response into the simulation.

PTC: The US-based software and simulations major brought out the capability of Augmented Reality (AR) in a big way, showing how companies can leverage the tools to drive their sales and marketing strategies to connect visually with customers. Its Vuforia Studio tool allows

visualising a system in 3D and then letting people interact in AR to have a unique product experience.

Driverless cars, shared vehicles as new mobility solutions

In an interesting plenary session on educating the mobility engineers of tomorrow, Professor Helmut List, CEO, AVL, made a detailed presentation where he depicted autonomous driving and shared mobility as the new mobility solutions for the future. He said, “CO2 reduction remains a big target for automotive companies and answers such as ICE-based hybrids (XEVs), full EVs or even FCEVs (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles) have the poten-tial to emerge as the new propulsion technologies. While each technology has its own set of merits and demerits, their adoption will largely depend upon a country’s power and fuel generation roadmaps.”

With this huge variety and complexity, he described how engineers are shouldered with an essential task of creat-ing products that are based on flexible, yet, integrated systems, which include power electronics such as state-of-the-art electric axles and battery packs.

“Multiple variants, system complexity and environmental regulatory conformity will call for an atmosphere of in-creasing partnerships within the industry. Quicker devel-opment will also need more analysis being done in the virtual world,” advised Professor List.

He explained how methodologies such as fully integrated software and simulated analysis tool chains such as Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) are going to become important assets towards testing and validating these powertrain solutions of tomorrow. “The modular engine families of today need to be transformed into those sustainable ones of the future, which could cater well to the consumer


FISITA Report

.

requirements,” remarked Professor List.

He added that “prices of battery cells are coming down and will go below US$ 100 per kWh by 2022. Engineers will have to work around the battery packs in order to get the maximum range and performance possible. The next stage in terms of battery technology will be solid-state battery cells which are set to enhance range further.”

On the other hand, electric charging infrastructure and the longevity of batteries with fast charging remain the other areas demanding crucial research. “For a company to arrive at the right decision for product development, there needs to be an in-depth assessment of the entire technology spectrum,” he concluded.

BMW’s vice-president for vehicle safety, Professor Klaus Kompass threw light on the potential of active safety systems in cutting down road fatalities by monitoring vehicle dynamics and actively preventing accidents in the first place. “Ninety-eight percent of road accidents are caused by human errors, and even though technical systems are advanced, they have their own strengths and weaknesses too,” said Kompass.

He showcased how BMW has been marching towards de-veloping and deploying contemporary ADAS functions such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control (ACC), and other associated radar moni-tored safety functions which help aid driver in responding to a situation and preventing a crash.

India, with its safety regulations such as frontal- and side-impact crash testing norms becoming mandatory for new models from October 2017, and now set to cover all existing models from October 2019, is also set to march in the direction of reducing the number of road crash fatalities on its roads, with the government upping the

ante by putting in drastic regulatory reforms. While it all boils down to individual road manners in the real-world, engineers are tasked with the humongous job of enhanc-ing vehicle safety, as well as reducing vehicular emissions, all at the same time. The FISITA Congress, with a substan-tial display of innovative technological solutions as well as developmental tools gave the industry a right platform to muster up and collaboratively act towards a better tomorrow.

In a panel discussion on ‘The future of mobility’, Autocar Professional’s executive editor, Sumantra B Barooah, set the tone by taking into consideration the ‘7Cs’ as defined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the MOVE Summit last month in New Delhi.

While Common, Connected, Convenient, Congestion-free, Charged, Clean and Cutting-edge emerged as the key fo-cus agendas from the prime minister’s speech for OEMs and researchers to move towards a sustainable tomorrow, the panelists were largely of the opinion that India has its own set of unique challenges, which need to be solved by solutions which are customised, adapted and even built specifically for the country.

A technology-agnostic policy roadmap towards a cleaner future is also something which the industry demanded, given there is a need to significantly invest in R&D for de-veloping innovative technologies.

Overall, FISITA 2018 achieved what its overall aim is: to support and encourage the world’s engineers to achieve their goals and create solutions which continually push the boundaries of technology and improve our society, especially where they relate to mobility, safety and the environment.


TECHNOLOGYReportIMAGINE A ROBOT THAT CHARGES YOUR EV WITHOUT YOUR ASSISTANCE!

BMW WIRELESS CHARGING

ROBO-CHARGER

Since its inception, the development in Electric Vehicles, the ease of their operation and their ability to meet the pollution norms,are attracting the automobile market. They are replacing Internal Combustion engines vehicles global-ly. An electric vehicle is powered by an electric motor and a Hybrid vehicle uses the combination of electric motor and internal combustion engine. These electric motors draw the power for their operation from a battery pack which is fitted somewhere inside the vehicles. These bat-teries require frequent charging just like we charge our mobile phones and trimmers through a charger. Electric vehicles are provided with a charger. Customers need to plug the charger in their vehicle in order to charge it. Charging an EV requires more time than simply refuelling an IC engine powered vehicle.

Though, EVs are very advanced and they are loaded with so many features like autonomous driving, high torque and acceleration, light weight, silent and simple operation, aug-mented reality, auto pilot, auto parking and what not, they need sufficient time for charging. And what is the point of having such a smart vehicle if it is not charged when you need it. Now imagine, what if you don’t have to charge your car ever!You came home in evening; parked your car in your garage or you visited a mall and parked your car in

the parking lot. When you came back, you found that your vehicle is charged automatically. You never have to worry about charging your EV and that’s what Robo-chargers are going to offer. The idea is to make a charger which will automatically charge your vehicle without any human assistance.

Literature review

There are only few charging methods available in the mar-ket right now. The most extensively used method is ‘Direct Charging’ where you charge your vehicle by plugging the charger provided by your manufacturer in your vehicle manually. You have to plug in and plug out your charger every time.

The German Luxury car manufacturer BMW have recently introduced the Wireless charging technology which will use electromagnetic induction to charge your battery. In order to use the facility of wireless charging, you have to park your vehicle carefully over a Ground pad provided by them. Then with the help of magnetic induction it will transfer the electric energy and charge the batteries.

Overhead Charging is another kind of charging technology but it is mostly used for buses in USA. In this method, a charging station and a contact system mounted on the roof of the bus is required. When the bus is parked below the charging station, then roof mounted contact devices make a physical connection with the overhead station and the charging starts automatically.

So the available charging methods are not suitable to be


TECHNOLOGYReport

IMAGINE A ROBOT THAT CHARGES YOUR EV WITHOUT YOUR ASSISTANCE!

METHOD Direct Charging Wireless Charging Overhead Charging

Working Uses physical wires

Uses Magnetic Induction Uses Contact devices mounted on the roof

Human assistant required

Require someone to plug and un-plug the charger

Drivers are required to park the vehicle over the Ground pad carefully

Drivers are required to park the vehicle under the Overhead charging station

Extra devices required

No extra device required

Requires a sender coil in charger and a receiver coil in the vehicle to transfer electricity from ground pad to vehicle through magnetic fields

Require a charging station and a roof mounted contact device

Advantages Efficient, Cheap and simple

Autonomous but only if vehicle is parked properly over ground pad

Efficient and automatic once vehicle is parked properly at Charging station

Disadvantage Require human assistance

Costly and less efficient and overheating issues. Also not fully autonomous

Costly and used for heavy duty vehicle only, uneconomical for passenger vehicle

a true autonomous charger as they have their limitations. Let’s see if a Robo-Charger can be any good.

Construction & Working

The goal is to make an autonomous charging technology. The idea is to not to worry about charging your electric vehicles anymore. To accomplish something which doesn’t need a human assistant, the first requirement is to make a system which can sense and communicate with its surrounding. The duty of Robo-Charger is to sense the nearby electric vehicle and charger it automatically. This process of autonomous charging should start with a com-munication between the Robo-charger and the vehicle. Today, robots are capable enough to perform above tasks. They use a network of sensory devices, 3D cameras and preloaded digital maps to communicate, identify and walk. Other devices which a Robo-charger need is a mechanism to adjust its power output according to the vehicle’s demand.

Let’s start with the scenario where you have come to your home from office and parked your vehicle in your garage where your Robo-charger is already installed. As soon as your vehicle comes in the range of Robo-charger the communication between them should start. Firstly both the devices should check the authentication of each oth-er. Then the information about the battery condition of vehicle must be shared. If the charging is required then

the Robo-charger should walk toward the vehicle’s charging port. The charging port should open automati-cally once it senses the charger before it. The Robo-charger should read the instructions like voltage require-ments, ampere requirements and type of power supply from the chip inside and adjust itself. Then only it should plug the charging wires to the charging port of the Vehicle.Once the battery is charged to the full of its capacity, the Robo-charger should unplug the wires and walk back. As soon as the Robo-charger leave the vehicle, the charging ports should close automatically. It should also have the feature to inform the customer that his vehicle is charged by his Robo-charger.

Advantages, comparison & future scope

The first advantage of the Robo-Charger will be the facili-ty of autonomous charging, a charging without any hu-man assistant in a very long range. A Robo-charger is just like a ‘Direct charging’ where physical wires are connect-ed to the vehicle which is very easy, convenient and eco-nomical. But it is better than a direct charging because it do everything automatically. A Robo-Charger is better than wireless andoverhead charging because it doesn’t require you to park your vehicle at a particular place in order to get automatic charging. It also reduces the loss-es and doesn’t require any extra part in the vehicle which


TECHNOLOGYReport

Author: Abhishek Shukla, final year

B.Tech student of Mechanical and

Automation Engineering from

‘Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha

University’, New Delhi.

OVERHEAD CHARGER

TESLA’S DIRECT CHARGING

will account for extra weight. One more advantage over the wireless charging is the enormous increase in the range.

There are many possibilities with this kind of technology. We can make a charger for one kind of vehicle or we can make a universal charger which can charge every vehicle present in the market. We can install them at home, offic-es and in parking lots. With multiple charging cables within one Universal Robo-Charger who have the ability to change its output according to the demand, we can charge more than one electric vehicle in a parking lot ir-respective of their type and manufacturer; similar to the universal infrared remotes who can control any device like AC, Television, DVD players etc. The Charger will commu-nicate with one vehicle and then plug the charger in it and then it can walk to establish a connection with the adjacent vehicles. That means Robo-chargers could be used commercially at the parking lots and other places where they can provide their services on paid basis. They can also be used to charge two wheelers.

User can also have the facility to control when and where a Robo-charger should charge his vehicle through a dedi-cated mobile application. They can get notifications on mobile phone that a Robo-charger is present near his ve-hicle and ask them to allow or deny its services. They can also track the charging percentage and remaining time for full charge. With a technology like Robo-Charger, we can imagine a future of autonomous vehicle and autono-mous charger. The vehicles will drop you to your destina-tions and the Robo-chargers will provide them the power to do so.

Feasibility & Conclusion

Maybe we have to wait for one or two decades to enjoy the services of autonomous vehicle but we can get the services of autonomous chargers soon. Robo-Charger is just a concept. It requires investment. We have discussed what it can do and the way it can change the world of Electric vehicles. But the concept of Robo-charger requires a proper research and development to decide whether they will be feasible or not. Universal Robo-Chargers sound feasible to use at parking lots on paid basis but we have no data to comment anything about the cost to own one in your garage. At this stage we can only say that it will be better than Direct Charging and Wireless Charging.


TECHNOLOGYReport

Lift axles are auxiliary axles that give better fuel efficiency and less operational costs with increasing load carrying capacity of heavy commercial vehicles.

The axle is a hollow non-rotating shaft which supports the weight of the vehicle over the rotating wheel shaft and allows the rotational motion relative to the vehicle. It is the only part of the vehicle which bears maximum load of the vehicle.

The number of axles in any vehicle depends on the payload of the vehicle. To reduce the reaction force impacted by the loaded vehicle to the ground surface, it is necessary to spread the allowable weight to all the axles. Hence the proper spacing between the axles is also important to consider. Number and spacing of axles can be determined by Bridge’s law.

The payload capacity of vehicle can be increased by adding an extra compatible axle (which can bear that extra load) on the existing vehicle. On loading condition, that extra axle will be helpful but at un-loading condition this type of system will be of no use, because it will increase the gross weight of vehicle. This affects the fuel efficiency of engine. More number of axles also increases the turning path of the vehicle.

To overcome the aforesaid troubles, lift axle is the best arrangement which is used by many truck manufacturing companies. Generally, Lift axle mechanism is governed by air bellows which are made by flexible elastic material (rubber). Compressed air is responsible for expansion

of air bellows. Upper end of air bellow is attached with chassis of vehicle while bottom end is assembled with the axle directly. Hence, the upper end acts as fixed end which can’t move because chassis is fixed but bottom end acts as movable end which can move along with axle in vertically upward and downward direction.At the laden condition (heavy load acted on vehicle), the compressed air is inserted into the air bellow. Now, the air bellow starts toexpand, and movable end of bellow starts to move into downward direction along with axle. Now, the axle acts like working axle and expanded bellows act like shock absorbers. At unladen condition (no load or very less load acted on vehicle), the compressed air is ejected from the air bellows. As the air is ejected, air bellow tries to come into its equilibrium condition. Hence, it starts to compress, and movable end of air bellow starts to move in upward direction along with axle. Now the axle acts as lift axle. This act causes less tire wear, which improves the working life of tire andthe load on engine also gets reduced, which improves the fuel efficiency.

Types of Lift Axle:

Hendrickson USA LLC is the most leading manufacturer and developer of lift axle mechanism in world. Lifting axle mechanism can be used either in pusher axle, tag axle or second front axle (FA II). Lift axle could be steerable or non-steerable.

Normal drop axle with lifting mechanism as shown in Figure 4 is retrofitted axle assembly, which can be fitted

ADVANCING TOWARDS LIFT AXLE FOR HEAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

FIG.1. PUSHER LIFT AXLE


TECHNOLOGYReport

FIG.2. LIFT AXLE ASSEMBLY

in the place of FA II, pusher axle and tag axle.One of the advantages to make the axle as drop axle instead of straight cross section is, due to dropping, the centre of gravity comes at lower portion of vehicle,which increases the vehicle’s stability.This axle could be steerable or non-steerable. If it is steerable then it is best for placing at FA II. This type of steerable axle without lifting assembly is generally used in place of FA I. In the lift axle mechanism, the lifting height is an essential thing. As the lifting height increases, hitting probability of lifted tires to any obstacle like road

bumps will reduced, which saves the tires from wear as well as axle from sudden impact.

Challenging Task to Develop the Lift Axle

There are mainly two basic design requirements to develop the lift axle:

-To design the cross section of axle such that the lifting height is maximum.

-Strength of axle against sudden impact and fatigue loading is high.

If normal lifting drop axle is used as pusher axle, then it will not give maximum lifting height because the propeller shaft is just passing above the axle. To maintain the draft angle of the propeller shaft, lifting height is restricted with propeller shaft’s height. The only alternate option to improve lifting height is to use centralised drop axle as shown in Figure 5. This type of axle is compatible in the place of pusher axle only. Now the lifted axle can lift beyond the height of propeller shaft. Hence the lifting height is increased upto 50-65mm from the earlier case.

Development in Lift Axle

The centralized drop axle which is shown in Figure 5has constraint of lifting height. Extra lifting heightof axle is equivalent to depth of drop curved section.Bending radius (R) of drop curved sectiondepends on the thickness (t) of hollow axle. As the ratio of the bend radius to the thickness of sheet (R / t) decreases, the tensile strain on the outer surface of sheet increases. If R / t decreases beyond a certain limit, cracks propagation start on the surface of material. This limit is called Minimum Bend Radius for the material. The minimum bend radius of steel plate is 6t. Thickness of hollow section of axle lies between 13-15 mm. Hence total depth of curved section can’t exceed from 50-65 mm.

FIG.4. NORMAL DROP AXLE

FIG.3. NOMENCLATURE OF AXLE

FIG.5. CENTRALIZED DROP AXLE


TECHNOLOGYReport

Conclusion:

Lifting axle is the best arrangement to increase the load capacity of the vehicle. Its proper designing causes less packaging value with high load carrying capacity at different dynamic loading conditions.At the un-laden condition, when the axle is in air, its lifting height is dominating factor which should be maximum. Lifting height of pusher axle is less as compared to lifting height of other axles like FA II and tag axle. Less lifting height may cause the collision between tire and road bumps. Straight axle cannot lift beyond the propeller shaft height. Hence to maximize the lifting height, centralized drop axle is best solution. Due to drop axle, lifting height can be increased without affecting the draft angle of the propeller shaft.

Fig.6. Centralized Pusher Drop Axle

Advantages:

• Lifting height of the pusher axle is increased by 90-120 mm.

• Strength of parent axle is increased by adding up extra foreign parts on it.

• Rate of tire wear becomes very less.

• Axle is more compatible against fatigue loading.

• Dropped section causes lowered the centre of gravity, which improves the stability of vehicle.

• Load capacity of axle may increase.

Drawbacks:

• This type of dropped axle requires more machining processes, which can increase the overall cost of production.

• There are so many separate plates that are used to develop the drop section of axle. These plates are of different cross sections. Hence it increases the production time also.

• All foreign plates are welded to one another. Whole drop section assembly is welded with main parent axle. This processmay decrease the overall strength of axle.

In the continuation in development of centralized drop axle to increase the lift height, the Indian automobile company Ashok LeylandLimited developed the new approach to make centralizedpusher drop axle.

The cross section of drop section is like trapezoidal form instead of curved section. The main feature of this development is, depth of dropping sectiondoes not depend on thickness of the axle.This type of axle is made by straight axle to cut it into two sections. Separate dropped section assembly is welded with parent axle as shown in Figure 6. The height of dropped section can be managed by customer’s requirement. Normally the lifting height is increased by 90-120 mm as compare to the earlier cases.

Author: Jitesh Shukla, working as Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His areas of expertise are Finite Element Method, Computer Aided Design.


TECHNOLOGYReportNEED OF HUMAN FACTORS TRAINING FOR SUSTAINABLE AEROSPACE SECTOR

“Human factors” refers to the study of human capabilities and limitations in the workplace.Human factors researchers study the interaction of maintenance personnel, the equipment they use, the written and verbal procedures and rules they follow, and the environmental conditions of any system. The aim of human factors is to optimize the relationship between maintenance personnel, the technology, and systems with a view to improving safety, efficiency and well-being. Thus, human factors include attributes such as human physiology; psychology (including perception, cognition, memory, social interaction, error,etc.); work place design; environmental conditions; human-machine interface; anthropometrics (the scientific study of measurements of the human body).

In 1940, it was calculated that approximately 70% of all aircraft accidents were attributable to human error. When the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reviewed the situation 35 years later, they found that there had been no reduction in the human error component of accident statistics. The UK CAA carried out a similar exercise in 1998 looking at causes of 621 global fatal accidents between 1980 and 1996. Again, the area “maintenance or repair oversight / error / inadequate” featured as one of the top 10 primary causal factors. Researches carried out in recent times also confirm that 70% of aircraft accidents are due to Human Errors.

It is clear that understanding of the importance of human factors to aircraft maintenance engineering is essential to anyone considering a career as a licensed aircraft engineer is the essential way to reduce aircraft

accidents. Human factors impinge on everything an engineer does in the course of their job in one way or another, from communicating effectively with colleagues to ensuring they have adequate lighting to carry out their tasks. Knowledge of this subject has a significant impact on the safety standards expected of the aircraft maintenance engineer.

Design, construction and control of aircraft predominated during the early days of powered flight. The main attributes of the first pilots were courage and the mastery of a whole new set of skills in the struggle to control the new flying machines. As the technical aspects of flight were overcome bit by bit, the role of the people associated with aircraft began to come to the fore. Pilots were supported initially with mechanisms to help them stabilize the aircraft, and later with automated systems to assist the crew with tasks such as navigation and communication. With such interventions to complement the abilities of pilots, aviation human factors were born.

Human Factors are used in many different ways in the aviation industry. The term is, perhaps, best known in the context of aircraft cockpit design and Crew Resource Management (CRM). However, those activities constitute only a small percentage of aviation-related human factors, as broadly speaking it concerns any consideration of human involvement in aviation. The introduction of reliable turbojet transports in the 1950s was associated with a dramatic reduction in air transport accidents. As problems with airframes and engines diminished, attention turned to identifying and eliminating other sources of failure in flight safety. Statistics on the causes of accidents from 1959 through 1989, indicates that flight crew actions were casual in more than 70% of worldwide accidents involving aircraft damage beyond economical repair. Recognition of this human performance problem stimulated a number of independent efforts to understand what the term ‘‘pilot error’’ encompassed and what could be done to reduce it. The use of the term “human factors” in the context of aviation maintenance engineering is relatively new. Aircraft accidents such as that to the Aloha aircraft in the USA in 1988 and the BAC 1-11 windscreen accident in the UK in June 1990 brought the need to address aircraft maintenance human factors issues into sharp focus. It took an accident to draw attention to maintenance related human factors problems and potential solutions.

Comparatively, UAV technology was developed to eliminate human limitations and reduce chances of

IMAGE COURTESY: NASA - SPACE HUMAN FACTORS AND HABITABILITY ELEMENT TRAINING.


TECHNOLOGYReport

humanerror in accidents. However, observation on UAV accidents proved to be questionable, as the statistics show higher number of accidents involving human errors in unmanned systems. A study on 56 US Army UAV accidents revealed that human factor was involved in 18 (32%) accidents. It is clear that man machine interface in UAV technology should improve in future. The ability of UAV crew to adjust in different scenario should be enhanced through extensive training. UAV is controlled and operated from the ground by means of telecommunication linkages. It also flies autonomously with thehelp of autopilot. These distinct features reduce on-board situational awareness and rapid decision-making within the UAV. The introduction of autopilot in the system induces complacency in the pilots and they become casual in performing the tasks. Many UAV accidents occurred due to these reasons. Therefore, knowledge of human factors is vital to improving the system safety and reliability.

Either manned or unmanned, a sound aircraft inspection and maintenance system areimportantin order to provide the public with a continuing safe, reliable air transportation system and for successful defense missions. Human factor is a complex one with many interrelated human and machine components.

It is found that application of human factor principles in aviation spread beyond the technical arena of man-machine interface. The discipline has created a significant impact on aircraft design, operations and maintenance. Its applications have percolated into the design of aircraft maintenance facilities, task cards

and equipment. Human factor concepts are being used for maintenance resource management. The principles are applied to shape the safety behavior and culture in aviation maintenance workplace. Air transportation safety in the air demands quality maintenance and inspection on the ground.

Aircraft maintenance is one of the key functions in airlines. To minimize human errors in aircraft maintenance, organizations prioritize to establish suitable maintenance facility, manpowerand maintenance procedures as per the regulatory requirements. The quality of the aircraft maintenancerest with the maintenance personnel performing the work. Therefore, it is the responsibility of system designers to include human factors and aircraft maintenance personnel during the design phase to ensure that the design complements human capabilities and limitations-it is simpler to modify a paper design that to change the hardware after it is built or develop expensive work-around maintenance procedures.

The elimination of human errors in aircraft maintenance is a myth, but the errors may be contained within a limit through a continuous process of improvement in maintenance standards and methods. All such standards shape the aviation maintenance organization as a distinctively “high-reliability organizations,” where critical errors are not tolerated. Maintenance organizations are characterized with multiple protective systems such as government’s legislations, authority’s regulations and airline’s policies to make it more error resilient system. In specific, governments enforce

IMAGE CREDIT: USAF DOUG CURRAN - 2006 C-5 GALAXY


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specific standards through regulatory mechanisms, such as licensing, certification and defining minimum performance levels for organizations and professionals. The regulatory framework often focuses on minimizing the risk of errors in the maintenance operation. The regulations published by European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) of the European Union and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of USA are fully or partially adopted by many countries.

To summarize, the first line of defense in reducing aircraft maintence human error is design systems that factor in the human capabilities and limitations. Equally important is Aircraft Maintenance training as a primary intervention means to enhance individual and team performance. Maintenance training increases the competency and situation awareness, whereby

technicians are likely to commit fewer errors during maintenance. Even though mechanics attain over 90% of the critical skills through on-the-job training, it is a very costly approach for the airlines to make the technicians learn through experience. Aircraft maintenance is one of the key functions in airlines. The field has attracted much of public attention due to human error-related incidents in aircraft maintenance. Aircraft maintenance organization must sensitize this issue and creates strategies to reduce human errors. Maintenance training is one of the primary interventions to overcome human limitations and to improve an individual’s and the team’s performance and this should be introduced in AME institutions to create more awareness and experience. Effective training and competency development are one of the critical spotlights of error reduction goal that should start from student level.

Authors

Mr. C. S. Karunakaran Assistant Professor, School of Aeronautical Sciences, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science.

Mr. George Salazar P.E., ESEP, Human Computer Interface Technical Discipline Lead, Avionics Systems Division, NASA/JSC.

Dr. J. Ashok Babu Professor, School of Aeronautical Sciences, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science.

IMAGE CREDIT: CHINA AIRLINER ACCIDENT - AVIATION-SAFETY, NET: THOMAS MITCHEL


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SURVIVAL OF IC ENGINES

Volvo is continuing to renew its thrust on the construction segment with the introduction of a new truck.

Having entered the construction segment in India last year with the introduction of FMX 460 with 22 cu.m. body, FMX 460 with 33 cu. m. body, FM 440 prime mover with tip trailer, and FM 460 6x4 puller, Volvo Trucks has renewed its thrust by launching a new FM 380 8x4 truck. Commanding close to 90 per cent of the heavy-duty mining truck segment, the company, with the launch of the FM 380 8x4 is looking at redefining the Indian construction segment. Betting on the government push for infrastructure, based on the economic reforms like GST, the Swedish CV major is tapping into its experience and expertise. Well-versed

with the global trends and practices because of its participation in most global construction and mining truck markets, Volvo is also applying its understanding of the Indian market where it has been present since 1996. Entering the Indian market in 1996, Volvo has come a long way in understanding the local market dynamics with the help of its distributor and partner (at the truck and engine level) Eicher. With highway construction projects rising 70 per cent to an all-time annual high of 7,400 km (valued at Rs.1.2 trillion) in FY2017-18 when compared to projects worth 4,300 km (valued at Rs.59,000 crore) in FY2016-17, the company has equipped the new FM 380 8x4 with a BSIV emission compliant 13-litre engine and an I-Shift auto transmission with 12 forward and four-reverse gears.

VOLVO FM 380 CONSTRUCTION TRUCKS


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Producing 380 hp at 1400-1900 rpm and a peak torque of 1900 Nm at 1000-1400 rpm, the FM 380 8x4 could be had with a 23 cu. m. U-body or a 19.5 cu. m. rock body as per the application need. Eyeing various irrigation projects, airport projects, metro projects, and road construction projects among others, Volvo Trucks, with the addition of the FM 380 8x4 to its construction trucks range is promising world-class machines that are capable of supporting the time-bound and speedy completion of infra and construction projects. Looking at the FM 380 8x4 playing a key role, Volvo is confident that its construction truck portfolio is truly versatile and result-oriented. This, especially in the wake of the large-sized projects being awarded. Expressed Vinod Aggarwal, MD & CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles, “In the construction segment, the Centre has been paying a lot of attention to large infrastructure projects and their speedy completion. With large-sized projects being doled out, operators will need bigger and more reliable trucks that can achieve higher uptime. Customers are

increasingly becoming conscious about the cost per tonne, and about the total cost of ownership over its lifecycle.”

Banking on the ability of its construction trucks to offer superior performance, reliability and an ability to clock the most uptime, Volvo Trucks is confident of convincing the customer against the initial deterrents like high acquisition cost. Confident of convincing the customer of what he stands to gain by opting for a Volvo construction truck, the company is pulling out all the stops by aptly highlighting the advantages. With the trucks said to cost significantly higher than the machines that have been used for the job until now, the addition of the FM 380 8x4 to the construction truck range Volvo offers, the operator stands to gain in terms of performance, safety, reliability and profitability. Making some of the best regarded trucks the world over, Volvo Trucks, with the introduction of the FM 380 8x4 in India, is highlighting trucks that are robust and reliable. Featuring a strong chassis and the most


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modern driveline, the FM 380 is part of the company’s global line-up. It is capable of meeting the demands of the customers as per their needs. Meeting the highest quality and safety standards, the FM 380 8x4, according to Dinakar B, Senior Vice President — Sales, Marketing & Aftermarket, Volvo Trucks India, marks the flow of innovations and a constant urge to go further too deliver ‘customer success’.

A dandy machine the FM 380 is. Resulting from Volvo’s participation in most global markets with access to best practices in on-road, long-haul, mining and construction trucking segments, the FM 380, like its FMX counterpart, looks bold and contemporary. Claimed to be one of the most versatile Volvo trucks yet, the FM 380 sports aerodynamic lines and soft curves. Distinctive looking, confident, friendly, and every inch a Volvo, the FM 380 comes with a four-point suspended cab. Riding on 12.00-20 tyres, the truck incorporates a modern interior that is well-engineered and offers the driver the

necessary comfort. Well put together and economic in nature, the cabin with large glass area is airy. Presenting the driver with a good view of the surrounding, it is the strategically placed mirrors, which ensure minimisation of blind spots. Engineered to work under arduous operating conditions, and where large quantities and heavy material handling is involved, the FM 380 with the rock body may prove to be just the right solution.

Built to swiftly, efficiently transport large and heavy loads without getting bogged down, the FM 380, with the new higher capacity rock body, is set to offer superior operational profitability. The U-body FM 380, at the other end, offers superior operational profitability in the area of soil movement. Averred Dinakar B, “Expectations (of construction truck operators) are high. There is always a curiosity about what challenge would come next. Looking at our journey, it is apparent that building trucks is becoming more and more complex.” Stating that commitments grow, and also considerations,

1. MOST MODERN, COMFORTABLE AND SAFEST CABIN KEEPING DRIVER PRODUCTIVE THROUGHOUT THE OPERATION.

2. I-SHIFT.

3. TO SUIT THE CONSTRUCTION NEEDS, FM 380 IS FITTED 12.00-20 TYRES.

4. FM 380 COMES WITH 23 CU.M U-BODY.

1 2

3 4


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responsibilities and requirements, Dinkar B averred, “At Volvo Trucks, we are ready to face the challenges, and to overcome them.”

Claiming to raise the standards of productivity, efficiency and reliability in the construction segment with the launch of FM 380 8x4 and the first-of-its-kind FMX 460 8x4 19.5 cu. m. granite body, Volvo Trucks is assuring customers of higher operational efficiency. Keen to get its truck operators to save more, and to support timely completion of projects, the company is looking at opportunities in road construction projects, hydel projects, stone quarries, marble quarries, granite quarries and more. It is wooing customers with the promise of lowest cost per tonne, and an ability to carry more load per trip. Packing the best tech in the field, according to Dinkar B, the company is also looking at large projects like the linking of rivers, smart cities and border road development. Such projects, said Dinkar.B, would need considerable tech support. Banking on a comprehensive after sales service, the company, opined

Aggarwal, is engaging with its customers. “At Volvo, we do not stop after producing high quality, premium trucks,” he mentioned. To ensure that our customers get a high return on their investments, quipped Aggarwal, we are providing initiatives like driver training.

As part of the driver initiatives at Volvo Trucks in India, each and every driver of a Volvo truck is trained at the company’s training institute at Bengaluru. He is trained to extract the best efficiency from the machine. He is also trained to communicate with the machine, which has an amount of electronics on board. The driver is trained to schedule maintenance, read errors, do preliminary diagnostics from behind the wheel, and conduct various other activities. To facilitate safe and comfortable operation, the cabin of the FM 380, apart from being airy and well-engineered, is ergonomically spot-on. Providing an ambience that is no second to a luxury car, the cabin of the truck makes for a good working environment. There’s a pleasant use of colours. The dash is well laid out. The instruments that provide


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vital information are easy to read. The customisable switches ensure that the driver does not wear out quickly. The suspended seat offers excellent support, range and legroom. It can be adjusted for forward and backward movement. It is also adjustable for height.

The I-Shift transmission as standard provides the driver the convenience of clutchless drive. Designed to save fuel and minimise frictional loses, the transmission times every gear change precisely. A combination of mechanical and electronic wizardry, the transmission in communication with the engine through CAN-bus and Volvo EMS ensures a combination of performance and

economy that no amount of driver skill could achieve.

Not consistently, and over a long operating cycle. The system ensures that the engine works at its most efficient rpm, whether in the economy or performance mode. Travelling downhill, the I-Roll disengages the engine and leads to a fuel saving of up to two-per cent. Based on a ‘classic’ unsynchronised manual gearbox (has low internal losses and a compact design therefore), the I-Shift transmission takes into consideration information such as speed, weight, road grade and torque demand. Mentioned Dinkar B, “Every Volvo truck we sell, is with an I-Shift gearbox. With I-Shift, customers experience better productivity, ease of driving, and better efficiency.”

A brief drive of the FM 380 on the company’s test track at Bangalore was an eye opener. The truck smoothly moves away from stand still. With small increments in speed, the transmission seamlessly shifts ups, indicating a travel through the cogs on the digital readout of the instrument console. The Volvo dynamic steering aids maneuverability, and the I-Shift makes easy work of driving the truck.

Both reflect the technological prowess of the truck. They also signal the advantage the truck offers in terms of superior drive-ability,

performance, safety, comfort, and efficiency. Pointing at profitable trucking, albeit beyond the initial deterrents, the FM 380 8x4 is representative of the strategy Volvo Trucks is quietly and firmly driving in place, in India. It is doing so in the wake of the opportunities it is identifying. Banking on the government thrust for infrastructure development, Volvo Trucks stands to gain from having Group entities like Volvo CE.

Bhargav T. S.

Commercial Vehicle


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IVECO STRALIS NP 460 WINS “SUSTAINABLE TRUCK OF THE YEAR 2019”

The Stralis NP 460 reaffirms its European leadership by winning the award for “Sustainable Truck of the Year 2019” in the Tractor category. The prize was awarded at Ecomondo 2018, an international expo dedicated to all circular economy industry sectors.

A year after winning the “Low Carbon Truck of the Year” title in the UK, the Stralis NP 460 has received an important new award by being voted “Sustainable Truck of the Year 2019”, in the Tractor category. The prize, which is sponsored by Vado e Torno magazine

in collaboration with Lifegate, was awarded to IVECO, a brand of CNH Industrial (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI), at Ecomondo 2018, in Rimini, Italy, an international event with an innovative format which unites all circular economy industry sectors on a single platform.

Now in its third edition, this award, which recognizes the most significant innovations in clean transport and is sponsored by Vado e Torno in partnership with the Politecnico di Milano, was presented to IVECO’s most sustainable heavy road vehicle to date in recognition of its technical specifications, performance and technology.

Pierre Lahutte, IVECO Brand President, said: “We are proud to receive this prestigious award, which has been presented to us at a very significant time for alternative drive technologies. This vision can be consolidated via the circular economy of biomethane, which is based on the production of energy using organic or agricultural waste. Vado e Torno, one of the most important publications in the European commercial vehicles sector, has road tested the vehicle and has confirmed its exceptional

fuel efficiency translating into a significant reduction in CO2 emissions”.

The Stralis NP 460 is equipped with a 460hp Cursor 13 NP natural gas engine, which holds two patents and has been developed to deliver the best possible performance during even the most demanding missions. It was the first truck to pave the way for long-range missions, beating the previous limitations of gas vehicles and significantly increasing fuel autonomy to 1,600 km on a single fill of the double LNG tank.


GLOBALVehicleVOLVO TO DELIVER 700 CITY BUSES TO BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

Volvo Buses has in a public tender with Fanalca/Transdev and Somos K been awarded700city buses to Bogotáin Colombia. The buses will operate in Transmilenio, Bogotá’s BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system. The new orders are the largest in ten years for Volvo Buses in Latin America and confirm Volvo’s leading position in the BRT segment.

The orders for 700 Volvo busesare part of a publictender in Bogotá whereby 1,441 buses are purchased for the city’s BRT system, Transmilenio. Volvo is in partnership with operatorsFanalca/Transdev and Somos K, whichwere awarded operational lotsin the tender.

The 700 buses are Volvo B340M chassis models, 298 articulated and 402 bi-articulated units, powered by a 12-litre engine and with 160 and 250 passenger capacity, respectively. The chassis will be bodied by Superpolo in Colombia and deliveries will start in March 2019.

Bogotá is replacing its Euro II and Euro III buses with new vehicles that meet the far stricter Euro V emission standards. Along with the changeover, the Colombian capital city is also expanding the capacity of its BRT system by about 30% through the introduction of more bi-articulated buses.

“We are very proud and delighted to once again have the privilege of delivering a large number of city buses to Bogotá, thus contributing to an improvement in the

city’s air quality. Our solution, featuring high-capacity Euro V buses extended with Particle Filters, reduces local emissions by a massive 96% compared with the current Euro II buses,” says HåkanAgnevall, President Volvo Buses.

“The BRT Euro V offering with filters represents a well-proven solution that meets the demand of true sustainability from all aspects – environmentally, socially and financially.”

Articulated and bi-articulated buses operating in BRT systems such as Transmilenio is a well-proven solution for improving the efficiency and sustainability of public transport in metropolitan areas. They speed up passenger movement, reduce emissions per passenger transported and cut operating costs.

Since 2001 Volvo has delivered more than 2,300 city buses to the BRT system of Bogotá. The fleet includes almost 360 of the company’s hybrid buses making this the largest fleet of electromobility buses in South America.

Volvo is a pioneer in the development of buses for BRT systems and is regarded as the market leader in Latin America. With this most recent order, the company has delivered more than 5,000 buses to BRT systems in Curitiba (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Mexico City (Mexico), Santiago de Chile (Chile) and San Salvador (El Salvador).


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The world needs major policy interventions to drive towards an emission-free economy and achieve the climate goal targets of 2030 and 2050. The transport sector needs to play an important role and would require country- and regional-specific action plans. This would require aggressive progression of vehicular emission regulations moving towards zero emission targets for tailpipe and also well-to-wheel to enable the world to reduce the overall GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and leave a liveable world for the future generations.

The measures required over the next decade need to include a number of initiatives as no single solution can help meet the targets for an emission-free ecosystem. Actions are required on traffic management and also higher fuel efficiency targets both at production, energy transmission / storage and vehicle level and material recycling.

India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world with rapidly growing energy demand coupled with increasing income levels, would see the largest growth in transport sector.

The Indian automobile industry has been seeing near-double-digit growth and has already become the world’s fourth largest automobile market. The country is already the world’s largest two-wheeler market, which constitutes about 81 percent of the vehicle parc, with passenger cars at about 13 percent and commercial vehicles and three-wheelers constituting about 6 percent. Two-wheelers consume about 65 percent of the total petrol fuel with the remaining being consumed by passenger cars.

The transport sector contributes to about 20 percent of the pollution load in Delhi. As per the Source Apportionment study carried out by IIT Kanpur, of this, passenger cars contribute to about only 2 percent. This is under focus of the policy makers and subject to many directions by the National Green Tribunal, various High Courts and the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

The transport sector contributed about 138 TMT of CO2 in 2007-08 (as per the report on low carbon strategies for inclusive growth).

This is expected to rise to about 346 TMT by 2022, which means this is a business as usual scenario, pegging the contribution from the transport sector at around seven percent.

India needs to urgently put in place strategies for its

HOW INDIA CAN DRIVE TOWARDS AN EMISSION-FREE FUTURE

energy security, as it imports nearly 82 percent of oil for meeting mobility demands, and for moving towards zero emissions. India is expected to double its consumption of petroleum by 2030, thus becoming the third largest consumer in the world due to expanding vehicle ownership as a result of economic growth and rising aspirations of the masses.

BS VI: A Bold MOVE

India’s policy makers have taken various steps to address these twin challenges of energy security and increasing pollution in our cities. India took a bold step to skip BS V and leapfrog to BS VI emission norms from April 2020. Real Driving Emissions (RDE) are to be mandated from April 2023. The Ministry of Road Transport is also discussing the implementation of the WLTP test cycle, which is more realistic than the Modified Indian Driving cycle (MIDC). This was developed under the UN WP 29 as a Global Technical Regulation (GTR) with inputs from India. WLTP has been adopted in Europe and India should move to this test cycle latest by 2023. The RDE boundary conditions to be developed on BS VI vehicles should be with WLTP.

The draft National Auto Policy for the next stage of emission norms is proposed from 2028, eight years after the introduction of BS VI. India needs to keep the gap between the two successive norms at five years, which is in line with the introduction of BS II to BS III and BS III to BS IV, which were introduced in metro cities in 2000, 2005 and 2010 respectively.

In view of the increasing pollution levels in our cities,


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ENERGY OF FUELS PER VOLUMEit is important that we move to near zero-emission vehicles by tweaking the Europe’s Euro 7 norms for Indian driving and climatic conditions as Indian priorities vary from the developed world.

Furthermore, as hydrocarbon fuels with the associated greenhouse gas emissions, are adversely affecting the environment, the government has been promoting production and usage of ethanol through second-generation biofuels derived from sugar molasses, biomass and agricultural waste for blending with petrol and biodiesel for blending with diesel fuel. Blending of 10 percent ethanol petrol is permitted, depending upon the availability. Recently methanol produced from coal, as a blend with petrol, is also being considered and some studies are underway.

USE OF CNG AS A POLLUTION REDUCER

India also has the largest bus fleet running on CNG in the world. In Delhi, all commercial vehicles are mandated to run on CNG; this has helped reduce the particulate matter (PM) emissions, which is one of the pollutants considered to be carcinogenic and emitted by diesel vehicles. India accounts for 11.5 percent of the total world NGV (Natural Gas Vehicles) population and is at the third position behind China and Iran, which account for 23.2 and 17.2 percent respectively. India has an ambitious plan for expanding the footprint of CNG availability during the third phase of bidding by PNGRB. This would increase the penetration of NGVs in the country significantly.

On-board energy storage with respect to volume is an important criterion for customer acceptance, as regards the range while making a purchase decision. The table above shows that gaseous fuels give the lowest energy per volume and therefore to address the range, the same has to be stored at high pressures in heavy cylinders.

In view of range anxiety, CNG has not found favour with the goods transportation industry as the weight of the cylinders reduces the payload carrying capacity. LNG can be a possible alternative for on-board storage in goods vehicles as higher energy can be stored without a weight penalty and still offer the advantage of natural gas. China is at the forefront with the largest LNG fleet in the world. India has also started looking at the possibility and proposes to create LNG / CNG corridors.

THE EV MOVEMENT IN INDIA COMES WITH ITS OWN SET OF CHALLENGES

The Indian government is focusing on electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy. While the government has

come up with an ambitious roadmap for 100 percent public transport and 40 percent private vehicles by 2030, the Indian auto industry aims to achieve 100 percent EVs on the 100th anniversary of India’s independence in 2047. However, EVs have their own set of challenges in India:

• Lack of EV charging infrastructure/ stations.

• Limited range (range anxiety) of electric vehicles.

• Use of ‘dirty fuels’ to generate electricity at power plants.

• Electric vehicles still very expensive and not affordable.

The well-to-wheel percentage reduction in emissions by BEVs (battery EVs) would depend on the source of electricity generation. BEVs can be a path towards an emission-free world, provided the source of electricity generation is based upon renewables like solar, wind or nuclear energy.

In the near term, the Indian roadmap should be to focus on renewable biofuels, CNG, LNG and hybrid vehicles, and finally to BEVs and a hydrogen economy.

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TECHNOLOGYReportINDIA BECOMES DRIVING FORCE FOR VISTEON’S AI DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.

A TEAM OF OVER 1,000 ENGINEERS ACROSS THREE TECHNICAL CENTRES IN INDIA — IN CHENNAI, PUNE AND BANGALORE — ARE A KEY PART OF VISTEON’S ADVANCED TECH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.

Umang Salgia: “We use a lot of AI and deep learning models which can process data coming from various parts of cars and which are going to affect the driving decisions.”

The global supplier, which is building Level 3 and 4 automation for autonomous driving, is seeing much work emanating from its tech centres in Chennai, Pune and Bangalore.

The automotive industry worldwide is witnessing rapid change and as part of this transformation, automakers and suppliers are actively engaged in staying ahead of rivals in the technological revolution underway in the world of wheels. Visteon Corporation, a global technology leader in cockpit electronics, is making a massive shift toward connected cars and autonomous vehicles.

Being one of the key players in this emerging segment of automotive technologies, the company is leveraging new areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and deep learning to get ready solutions for rapidly shaping autonomous car technologies. While Visteon is working in these technologies on a global scale, the interesting part is that India has emerged as one of the major technology development sites in these new developments.

Speaking to Autocar Professional, Umang Salgia, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality, Visteon India, who leads an AI team in Pune, said, “The real opportunity in the autonomous driving as of today is in highway pilot, auto parking and we are working on some of the technologies with finer progress with India taking the real lead.”

While the key skills for new technologies are spread across the world with certain locations being ideal

for some technologies, software development is a predominately strong area for Indian engineers and a significant work is being carried out in India. A large portion of the software part of the technology is being delivered from India to the company’s global projects. Nearly 80 percent of Visteon’s work in AI is delivered from India to the company’s global network of autonomous driving and augmented reality.

Visteon has a team of over 1,000 engineers across three technical centres in India – in Chennai, Pune and Bangalore – that are a key part of its advanced technology development program. The Pune technical centre plays

a key role in developing automated and autonomous technologies such as augmented reality. Pune is also home to several of the AI, computer vision, sensor fusion and computer graphics experts who are working towards realising this critical goal for Visteon. These teams also collaborate with experts in the field of optics, HMI design, hardware and systems engineers spread across the US, France, Germany, Bulgaria and China. “Indian engineers are curious, ready to try out new things and applying things differently. Even in failure, engineers learn quickly; therefore, it offers the flexibility and helps significantly,” says Salgia.

TAKING ON AUTONOMOUS DRIVING THROUGH AI

Visteon is currently building Level 3 and 4 automation in passenger cars. Its autonomous driving feature called Highway Auto-Pilot – a hands-free vehicle operation in a highway environment – enables a vehicle to travel from the entrance of a highway to the exit on its own, using AI and other autonomous driving technologies, while the driver can sit in hands-free and pedal-free comfort. The second major characteristic of this evaluation is the


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self-parking of cars where the solutions evolving rapidly.

Visteon is also taking on autonomous driving through AI employing a technology called reinforcement learning, where the vehicle observes and learns how to stop at the light perfectly, rather than following the pre-defined logic. This is done by creating a huge number of simulations of the vehicle stopping at the light, with good and bad outcomes. Each of these different scenarios helps train the AI algorithm to perform that maneuver perfectly while avoiding collisions and undesirable situations.

Visteon’s Drive Core platform accelerates adoption of self-driving technology by facilitating OEMs in building driving solutions quickly, in an open collaboration model. DriveCore consists of hardware, in-vehicle middleware and PC-based software toolsets needed to develop machine learning algorithms for autonomous driving applications of Level 3 and above.

The DriveCore platform provides OEMs a high-performance, reliable domain controller allowing them all major areas of autonomous driving including sensor-fusion with perception, AI and computer vision algorithms, automated drive-by-wire actuation, and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology. It also uses highly advanced security protocols to prevent hacking into vehicles, while supporting the integration of data from multiple cameras, Lidar, radar, and other sensors.

“We use a lot of AI and deep learning models which can process this data coming from various parts of the cars which are going to affect the driving decisions. We are doing a lot of work with maps, using them with the dynamic information coming from the sensors and static information from the map. With this data, we are able to have a clear understanding of the speed the car is driving at the particular moment. We are also able to apply the algorithm which can predict what will happens next,” says Salgia.

Visteon sees 2018 as a defining year for this area and its highway pilots are working quite well with a lot of advance trial and testing. Visteon believes the autonomous driving solutions for highway driving will

AUGMENTED REALITY HEAD-UP DISPLAY


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be commercialised in the next couple of years. Also, there are several companies working on some form of highway driving for autonomous cars and some of them are at different levels of readiness.

NEW ADVANCES IN HUD AND AUGMENTED REALITY

Another area in the realm of autonomous cars where Visteon sees an increasing shift is head-up displays (HUD) and new advances incorporating augmented reality (AR). AR-based HUDs enhance the surrounding view for the driver – and passengers in case of autonomous cars – directly in their line of sight to represent objects in the vehicle’s path, provide navigation guidance or offer driver assistance related information, such as a lane departure warning or unsafe distance margins.

Visteon is anticipating AR-based HUDs could gain a significant market share in the coming years. The AR harnesses a lot of work that the company is currently doing for the cockpit electronics. AR with navigation can improve safety and driver confidence. It can instantly alert the driver and display the safest path around it. The embedded front-view and driver monitoring cameras trigger smart alerts in the form of lights and sounds (visual or audio alert) when the driver is not paying attention to the road, if the vehicle strays from its lane, or if the vehicle is at risk of potentially hitting an object.

In autonomous driving, AR helps build confidence in the vehicle’s automated features by keeping the occupants

informed about the environment – recognising pedestrians, obstacles, situations – and the vehicle’s planned decisions and actions. In partnership with the company’s autonomous driving computer, DriveCore, the AR HUD helps the driver understand what decisions the automation is making. AR could be an important medium for delivering these additional services to the driver and passengers unremarkably. Visteon estimates that by 2022 nearly 10 million vehicles across the globe would have built-in AR technology.

OEMs AS PARTNERS IN PROGRESS

The company has tied up with leading OEMs in this area and work is progressing rapidly. While Visteon is working alone on several of these technologies, it sees OEM

partnerships as crucial to fast forward the process. Most global OEMs are already been working in some way or the other in the autonomous vehicle domain. There are a fair number of large OEMs who want solutions but have not progressed long enough or don’t want to make higher investments. This is where Visteon sees possibilities of partnerships coming along with its core technologies and working with an OEM’s precise requirements.

In addition to being a cockpit technologies provider, Visteon sees Artificial Intelligence (AI) for autonomous cars as a good business opportunity for the future. As a corollary of this dramatic change in technologies, the company is deploying a lot of resources.

“We see this as a big growth area for Visteon, and one of the most important technologies which will drive our growth in coming years. We are making the right investments to make that happen across the globe to get the right talent available,” says Salgia.

While some part of the new area of work will complement the existing work of the company of its cockpit technologies, some of them would be completely new. “Some of the things in today’s cockpits may not be required tomorrow, the new technology may replace the old one,” affirms Salgia.

Kiran Bajad Autocar Professional

VISTEON’S DRIVE CORE AUTONOMOUS DRIVING PLATFORM MADE ITS CHINA DEBUT AT THE 2018 BEIJING EXPO IN APRIL.


TECHNOLOGYReport

FEV REVS UP TO BE A COMPLETE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER TO INDIA AUTO

FEV operates a wide range of modern engine test cells, vehicle application facilities and laboratories around the world. With its India Technical Center in Pune already ready with BS VI testing services and electric mobility test benches to come up in 2020, the company claims it is well positioned to take on the disruptive future.

FEV India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of global engineering services and testing solutions provider FEV, is riding high on the increasing demand for its testing solutions in India. Not surprising considering India Auto Inc has to contend with a flurry of new mandatory norms across emission and safety parameters as well as ensure a consistent flow of new products in a time of fast-changing customer preferences.

Reason enough to understand why OEMs across vehicle segments and Tier 1 suppliers are steadily eyeing solutions for faster and rapid product development and testing. It is this evolution in the domestic auto industry that is providing plenty of opportunities for players like FEV, which has globally proven solutions for testing emissions, vehicle powertrain, transmission and more recently EVs.

FEV India, founded in 2006, opened its first Technical Center in Pune with seven modern engine test benches and a vehicle application facility. The company offers a comprehensive range of powertrain and vehicle engineering services, providing support to customers in design, analysis, prototyping, powertrain and

WITH ELECTRIC MOBILITY CATCHING UP, TEST BEDS LIKE THIS ARE GETTING BUSIER.

transmission development, as well as vehicle attributes, calibration and homologation for advanced internal combustion petrol, diesel, and alternative-fueled powertrains.

It also designs, develops and prototypes advanced vehicle powertrain electronic control systems and hybrid-electric engine concepts that address future emission and fuel economy standards. The company has expanded its engineering capabilities to include full vehicle systems and now offers broad expertise in electronics, telematics and infotainment system engineering, cybersecurity and ADAS. FEV India also specialises in design and CAE, friction strip benchmarking, oil candidate evaluation, after treatment, vehicle and OBD calibration.

Speaking to Autocar Professional, Sushil Berry, Managing Director, FEV India said, “In India today, we are capable of delivering almost every solution to the automotive sector, starting from styling, body in white, electric and conventional powertrain and transmission. We are a complete solution provider with a full testing facility, conventional test benches, chassis dyno, transmission testing, NVH anechoic chambers and HiL facilities.”

The Indian government’s sharpened focus on electric mobility has energised the company, which foresees new business opportunities. At present work is underway to set up test benches for e-mobility solutions in India. Recognising the potential for speedy growth, the company has invested substantially in India over the past few years and is also committed to further investment in the country.

FEV says it is the only company in India which has the experience of developing electric and hybrid vehicles for Indian OEMs way back in 2010 when it had developed a fleet of vehicles across various segments.

“In the next four years, we will make fresh investments in our Pune technical centre. The BS VI application centre is ready and this year we are going to commission two test benches, an additional two in 2019 and by 2020 we will have the e-mobility test benches also available in the Pune Tech Centre,” confirmed Dr. TanerGöcmez, Vice- President, FEV Asia.


TECHNOLOGYReport

Sushil Berry: “We are capable of delivering almost every solution to the Indian automotive sector.”

Vijay Sharma: “BS VI, RDE, CAFE norms and Bharat NCAP call for greater work for Indian OEMs.”

DEVELOPING INDIA-SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS

In India, FEV, in conjunction with a strong local team of personnel, works with every leading vehicle manufacturer and Tier 1 supplier with varying projects across several technologies. Over the past decade, its operations in the local market have helped it to understand the customer requirements better and provide solutions tailor-made for Indian conditions.

“We do almost everything with our Indian OEMs. For example, if the engine is capable of an upgrade or if it is a modern engine, we help the OEMs in the complete after-treatment solutions. Even if the engine is not capable of being upgraded, then we can also carry out development on the engine to make it capable. Our solutions depend on our OEMs, customer to customer. For example, Indian OEMs haven’t worked on BS VI or equivalent technologies, electric powertrain or battery development. For this, they need a partner who can support them for a complete development process, on a turnkey basis, and FEV is doing exactly just that,” said Berry.

In 2017, FEV India signed an MoU with the Central Institute for Road Transport (CIRT) to use the FEV testing facility for certification of engines and vehicles to benefit OEMs as a single-window solution. In 2018, FEV and MNIT, Jaipur joined hands for an industry-academia partnership to offer a joint master’s program in ‘Automotive Mechatronics’. Graduating students will have an Academic Mentor from MNIT and Industry Mentor from FEV.

“We are an engineering and development partner for our customers. We work with the customer across all segments of the industry including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger vehicles, CVs, off-highway and locomotive applications. Our partnership starts

with an OEM at the strategic level itself when they begin working on a product which would come to the market two- to five years later,” said Vijay Sharma, Technical Director, FEV India.

DECADE OF GROWTH

The past 10 years have seen FEV achieve significant growth in India. This has only served to further whet the company’s appetite for speedier growth in the coming decade. The key strengths that have helped the company in India are the promise of German quality at an Indian price with extensive flexibility in offering solutions.

As its Indian team has well expanded with core expertise in providing solutions to local customers, given the inherent strength of Indian engineers and

the abundant technical talent and skills available locally, India is being increasingly tapped for global projects.

In the immediate future, FEV says growth will come from various areas including electrification of powertrain and complete EV development, where it sees huge scope to provide complete solutions to Indian OEMs. In fact, the company is already in discussion with a few India customers in this area.

In early October, FEV India had displayed fully developed and made-in-India electric three-wheelers for local OEMs at the FISITA conference. All the major aggregates of these three-wheelers have been sourced locally.

“The advent of EVs has bought the focus towards cleaner IC engines in all the major auto markets. Going forward, there will be more efforts to make the IC engine efficient and cleaner. Similarly, in India, we have BS VI, RDE, CAFE norms, and also Bharat NCAP coming. This will call for greater work for Indian OEMs and we


TECHNOLOGYReport

Q&A Thomas Korfer, Group VP, Diesel Powertrains, FEV

EVs is the new focus area globally. You represent the diesel powertrain. What future do you foresee for the diesel engine?

According to our knowledge and forecast, we see the general IC engine will continue to have dominating market share up to 2030. Then it depends on the acceptance of customers for the alternative systems. Also in this context, the light-duty diesel engine has its right place as customers are going towards bigger vehicles like SUVs and pickups and for these applications, the light-duty diesel engine is the most suitable option.

We are already working on a Euro 7 concept and for certain applications we still see a need and demand for a modern light-duty diesel engine.

What are the areas where FEV is working in the diesel powertrain globally?

Our major driver at the moment for FEV globally focuses on improving the tailpipe emission performance, closing the gap between the behavior and official certification duty cycles and the real-world behaviour. Then we also have to follow up on electrification and mild hybridisation; for a few

applications, full hybridisation is part of our current work. This will, more or less, describe our work for the next few years, aiming towards not having an impact on the environment in terms of pollutant emissions, improving fuel efficiency furthermore by optimisation of the engine but also by adding new functionalities coming from electrical support systems.

How is FEV engaged in India with customers?

In India, we have our engineering centre in Pune which mainly serves the local market but also provides some assistance services for our other locations mainly in Europe by taking over some responsibilities for some of the tasks which we have to execute.

This engineering centre is supporting our customer needs with respect to the upcoming changing requirements. FEV works with India customers in developing engines with the help of the local team.

What are the key areas where FEV is working with Indian OEMs?

It all depends on the customer to customer and their requirements in the development process. We are also capable of full turnkey responsibilities, getting to the target which has to be reached and taking over the entire engine development target by taking over all different tasks to finally deliver the product.

Our local teamwork with customers starts from the concept layout, design, procurement component hardware, prototyping and assembling the first engine or installing it in a first new vehicle. The company has all the capacities available in India.

What is your assessment of the Indian automotive market?

I think the Indian market is growing exceptionally well and we anticipate that in 2025-27, India will be the third largest market globally. Therefore, it is an important market for us with the dynamic government pushing a lot of new regulation and partially leapfrogging other norms.

will help them overcome these challenges,” says Sharma.

Today, FEV India has a strong team of more than 270 engineers in India and expects this number to touch 500 in the next two years with a strong presence in Pune, Chennai and Delhi.

EYEING CV MARKET FOR BS VI BUSINESS

Speaking to Autocar Professional on global trends in the commercial vehicle sector, Peter Heuser, Group Vice-President, Commercial Powertrains, FEV Group GmbH said, “India is one of the major commercial vehicle markets globally and the upcoming new emission legislation of BS VI in India are a strong driver for us. Such new development needs new technologies

THE COMPANY’S INDIA TECHNICAL CENTRE IN PUNE.


TECHNOLOGYReport

and it is here that we help our customers in India. We have strong cooperation with Indian OEMs and engine manufacturers. We are even doing turnkey development for new engine families of off-road applications. We are also carrying out a lot of commercial vehicle engine testing at our facility in Pune, for after-treatment, mechanical development and even some benchmark testing,” he said.

The Indian automotive industry has an extremely challenging time schedule to be ready for BS VI norms

which are to be implemented from April 1, 2020, which is just about 17 months away. The shift from BS IV to BS VI, skipping BS V altogether, is unprecedented and not attempted anywhere in the world before, even in developed markets.

While this upgrade represents a big challenge, it also constitutes a big opportunity for FEV as the company has complete knowledge of this technology. Secondly, India being a cost-driven market, transplanting a solution from Europe, US or even China into India will not work. What’s needed is an India-specific solution to be successful. According to Heuser, minimised operation and investment cost, long life durability and reliability are the three major targets for commercial vehicle powertrains in India.

“Given the investment that we have made in the past and our future investment plan, we see India as a high-potential market for us. In Asia, we are proud of our local team in this market and the capabilities that have been built. Since establishing ourselves here in 2006, we are building both virtual and physical competence for our customers,” concludes Dr Göcmez.

Kiran BajadAutocar Professional

Can you tell us about the work FEV is doing in petrol powertrains globally?

We are working on several areas of a gasoline (petrol) engine. For example, to optimise the classical areas like friction reduction, further improvement of the combustion, introduction of direct injection boosting of the engine with downsizing, thermal management. All this is the classical approach.

Then, the new area coming up like variable compression ratio is very attractive and we have a lot of interest in this technology. We also see other technologies like water injection may be advanced but there is an announcement to go into mass production by BMW.

How efficient is the petrol engine as compared to emerging solutions?

The gasoline (petrol) engine is very much part of today’s mobility solutions and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. The gasoline engine has a maximum efficiency of 38 percent. Currently, there are new technologies coming up which provide efficiencies far above 40 percent, and even beyond 50 percent is possible. This is a huge improvement.

Q&A Henning Baumgarten, Group VP, Gasoline Powertrains, FEV Group GmbH

FEV INDIA RECENTLY SHOWCASED AN ELECTRIC THREE-WHEELER AT THE FISITA WORLD AUTOMOTIVE CONGRESS IN CHENNAI.

The forecast is that until 2030 on a global basis, 80 percent of the powertrain will feature IC engines, and in most cases a combination of hybrid solution.

Indian motorists prefer petrol for powering personal vehicles. Do you see this as an opportunity for FEV?

Yes, I think so. FEV has a global footprint and an increasing number of our customers are for gasoline powertrain solutions. The future will be a lot of diverse solutions — no one solution will dominate the market.


TECHNOLOGYReport

Global automotive component and technology major ZF Friedrichshafen AG introduced an ‘electrified’ clutch that makes manual powertrains even more efficient. ZF launched the Clutch-by-Wire (CBW) system for the global market. It is an electromechanical actuator system that, for the first time, controls the clutch independently of the driver’s left foot and without a mechanical connection to the pedal. This enables car designers to implement fuel-saving features. Due to the upcoming new emission regulations in India, all the OEMs are working on reduction of CO2 emissions and to increase fuel efficiency of a manual transmission (MT) system. In order to support the need, ZF India plans to bring CBW to the Indian market.

Though manual transmissions are losing market share in favour of automatic transmission, the absolute number of MTs is expected to increase in the coming years. However, the current forecasts also show that the overall sales curve for MT will continue to point upward for a long time in the emerging markets like India. At the same time the increas-ingly tough emission regulation is also driving the compo-nent makers and OEMs to innovate systems to increase the overall fuel efficiency.

Speaking to Auto Components India, Jorg Buhl, Manager, Car Powertrain Technology, Design Actuation Systems, ZF Friedrichshafen AG said, “The main idea to develop this system is to actuate the clutch electronically by an inte-

ZF PLANS TO BRING CLUTCH-BY-WIRE SYSTEM TO INDIAgrated electric motor. With this system, the fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emissions drop by up to 10%.” The soar-ing function alone, which requires an automatic transmission or an automated form of clutch control – could generate as much as 10% less fuel consumption. The CBW enables car designers for the first time to combine soaring with man-ual transmission.

Explaining how the CO2 and fuel con-sumption is reduced, Buhl said, “If the vehicle has achieved a certain speed on the highway, the driver can put his feet on the accelerator pedal, the system will detect the situation and will open the powertrain automatically by itself. So the combustion engine will run, for ex-ample at idle speed and with the open

powertrain, you have reduced the friction inside and can roll for a long distance and this will reduce the fuel con-sumption and the CO2 emissions. If the driver presses the accelerator pedal, the clutch will be closed again and can continue the driving. This is the latest development that we are doing at the moment for the manual transmission systems. Furthermore you can improve the comfort of the MT system with the CBW system. With this, we have the possibility to implement new functions for safety, comfort and surely at the end to make a manual transmission sys-tem possible for reduction of fuel consumption.”

CBW controls the clutch independently of the driver’s left

Jurg BuhiManager Car Powertrain Technology. Design Actuation System, ZF Friedrichshaien. AG


TECHNOLOGYReportfoot and without a mechanical connection to the pedal. This adds functions to manual systems that were previous-ly reserved for automatic or automated transmissions: above all fuel-minimising coasting. Apart from this the drivers should also work with the sailing function to reduce CO2 further. ZF’s fuel-saving sailing function separates the engine from the rest of the driveline in suitable situations and automatically engages the clutch. ZF has now also made this possible for automated manual transmission (AMT).

Sailing functionality

The clutch-by-wire clutch actuator is a further develop-ment of the tried and tested ZF AMT clutch actuators. So the company has developed its AMT clutch actuator to the new level, especially for the CBW application. Therefore the system had sailing functionality in an AMT application also. Buhl added, “We have done the test in Germany with the AMT-fitted car, which was equipped with sailing func-tionality. In the total 1400 km drive, we tested the vehicle with the sailing functionality for 700 km and the remaining without sailing functionality. We figured out the benefits of around 5 to 7% during sailing function. All in all, this proba-bly makes us the only partner that supplies a sailing con-cept for every car segment and virtually all commonly used transmission types.”

The sailing function makes the most of situations in which the car also has sufficient momentum to freewheel for-ward. Clutch actuation systems from ZF then temporarily disengage the combustion engine so that it doesn’t sup-press this kinetic energy. These can be electronically con-trolled and activated by wire, providing the basic prerequi-site for the sailing function.

The disengaged engine can then idle while consuming a minimal amount of fuel. Ideally, however, it stops com-pletely for a short period of time, because this is the only way in which zero emissions can really be achieved. “It is ultimately the vehicle manufacturers who decide how this concept is integrated into a car. We have also developed the sailing function, turning it into a sailing manager that can react even better to each driving situation,” Buhl said.

MT without clutch pedal

The CBW technology can also be designed for 2 pedal solution, which means, the clutch pedal can be eliminated and can be worked with the MT system. Here the clutch pedal is eliminated and needed some sensor system to detect the wish of the driver to change the gear and also needed some sensors inside the gear to detect the

position of the gear. With this combination of sensor system, on shift side and gearbox side the clutch pedal can be eliminated and will have much more comfortable sys-tem than the traditional manual system. This will be a big step forward for the comfort of the manual transmission system, says Buhl.

ZF’s CBW is under development and the company is in dis-cussion with several OEMs right now. At present CBW technology is for passenger car application up to maxi-mum 350 Nm. “Today, we have worldwide market from around 37 million manual transmission cars with weight lower than 6 tonne and that’s our market we think about for CBW. If you look at the market in 2024, we see the market will be more or less on the same level. So the market for MT is still given in the future and we just offer the solution to make this MT systems fit for the future to reduce the CO2 norms. When it comes to the Indian market, we know how to develop a smart actuation system with a long life time and wide range of functionalities. If we bring in all this knowledge to the new clutch-by-wire tech-nology, it could be possible to develop such a system in an attractive price range. Many customers in India are show-

ZF ACTIVE KINEMATIC CONTROL

ZF ACTIVE KINEMATIC CONTROL


TECHNOLOGYReport

ing interest in this product, so we have to wait and see what will be the next step,” Buhl said.

ZF is also mulling entry into AMTs in CVs. The AMT has re-ceived a lot of traction in passenger vehicles and going forward could offer a lot of potential for growth in CVs as well. AMT solutions will surely fit in the Indian market and ZF is betting big on it in the coming years. With both the PV and CV market moving up the technology graph, ZF’s focus going forward will be on its in-house technologies, moving to market-oriented technologies and custom-er-oriented designs.

ZF has developed a strong manufacturing footprint across both the automotive and non-automotive businesses in India since it established operations in the region around 60 years ago. With 2 wholly-owned subsidiaries, 5 joint venture operations and a new technical center dedicated to software engineering, ZF is well positioned to support its customers’ growth aspirations.

Bhargav T. S.Auto Components India

In the recently-concluded FISITA 2018, ZF showcased its range of advanced technologies for the Indian market designed for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. The product range for passenger cars includes technologies such as its ProAI supercomputer, electric drive, seat belts, airbags, clutch cover XTend, clutch by wire and advanced driver assist systems (ADAS). In the commercial vehicle segment, the company has highlighted its clutches, dampers and automated manual transmissions. Additionally, ZF also showcased its advanced chassis technology solution mSTARS (modular Semi-Trailing Arm Rear Suspension).

The mSTARS axle concept offers multifaceted applications in the most diverse vehicle segments such as the compact and mid-size car, the luxury vehicle and the sports car. For performance and comfort reasons, in the mSTARS

core configuration all control arms are connected to the subframe. In an entry version of the suspension, the longitudinal link can alternatively be attached to the vehicle body. The application in hybrid, fuel cell and battery-powered vehicles is also possible in combination with standard

powertrain modules or the active rear-axle steering system known as Active Kinematics Control (AKC).

Dr Holger Klein, Member of the Board of Management, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, said, “India is an important growth market for ZF and we are significantly

expanding our presence here – in terms of localisation technologies for our domestic customers but also developing our engineering activities here to support our global business. We are expecting above market growth over the next few years. We have furthermore recently established India as an

individual region within our own internal structure, allowing us to place greater focus and attention on this market.”

Suresh KV, President of ZF India, said, “The demo vehicle equipped with mSTARS is a good example of how our global engineering teams work together to develop technologies which meet local market needs. This

system can help our customers to meet the new requirements for lightweighting specified in the upcoming BS-VI norms from April 2020. We plan to launch our AMTs and dampers for commercial vehicles by 2020.”

New technologies at FISITA 2018


TECHONOLOGYUpdateTRAIN 18: INDIA’S FIRST TRAIN SET THAT’S MADE IN INDIA

ICF has been a pioneer in manufacture of railway passenger coaches and has turned out more than 55,000 coaches in more than 500 varieties since its inception in the year 1955.

ICF has turned out conventional passenger coaches such as second-class coaches, first-class coaches, air-conditioned coaches, chair cars, luggage-cum-brake vans, in addition to special coaches such as self-propelled electric multiple unit coaches, diesel electric multiple unit coaches, luxury coaches such as vistadome coaches, etc.,

In continuation of its legacy, ICF has now turned out the first ever train set of Indian Railways named Train 18, that truly fits in the line of Hon’ble Prime Minister’s call to ‘Make in India’. This train contains 80% inputs made indigenously, with technology totally developed in-house by ICF. The Train 18 train set has been developed from scratch within a short span of 18 months to roll out

by 2018, as against the industry trend of 3 to 4 years.

Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board, in the presence of officials from Railway Board, Railways, ICF Staff rolled out the first rake of the prestigious ‘Train 18’ on 29.10.2018 at Furnishing Division of ICF. Speaking on the occasion, Sri Lohani said that he was pleased to see ICF turning out such a world class technology train set for the first time in India that is made with maximum indigenous input. He said he was also happy to see that the train has been rolled out within a record time of 18 months, at nearly half the cost of an imported equivalent train set.

This gleaming Train 18 has unique technology for quicker acceleration/deceleration and contemporary passenger amenities offering both comfort and safety to the passengers and will replace intercity express trains which have travel time in the range 6-7 hours. The train is designed to increase Indian Railways’ Green


TECHONOLOGYUpdate

footprint by dispensing with the power cars and saving about 30% electricity by advanced regenerative braking system.

Train 18 has continuous windows for modern and sleek look. The salient features of Train 18 are 16 coach chair car type configuration, stainless steel car body, running at a maximum speed of 160 kmph, fully sealed interconnected gangways for the passengers to move inside with ease, fully air conditioned including driver cab, automatic doors with sliding foot step, onboard computer for train control and remote monitoring, 50% powered axles, fully suspended traction motors, all propulsion equipment are underslung. A new semi-permanent coupler has been developed for Train 18 to eliminate the jerks during travel.

Out of 16 coaches, 12 coaches are normal air-conditioned chair car type with 78 seats each, two coaches are air-conditioned executive type with 52 seats and two driving trailer coaches that are normal chair car type with 44 seats. The total seating capacity of Train 18 is 1128 that is more than a Shatabdi Express train due to availability of seats in the driving coaches and elimination of generator cars.

Train 18 has two driving trailer coaches with aerodynamic driver’s cab (nose cone) on the driving ends which enable quicker turn-around time at destinations. The aerodynamic shape of the nose cone will save energy requirement significantly by reducing air drag, apart from giving the train a sleek and aesthetic look.

The train has world class passenger amenities such as onboard WiFi infotainment, GPS based passenger information system, plush interiors, bio-vacuum toilets, diffused LED lighting, charging points beneath every seat, individual touch based reading lights, intelligent air-conditioning system that will adjust the cooling according to the climate conditions/occupancy, concealed roller blinds, facility for Divyangjan (PWD – passengers with disability) to enter the driving trailer coach using their wheel chairs, PWD friendly toilets, auto sensor taps in the toilets, modern pantry and food service facilities, rotating seats to match with the direction of the train in Executive Class, modular luggage rack with glass bottom and CCTV cameras on both sides of driving cab for tracking passenger movement. Train 18 costs Rs 100crores (approx.) which is about half the price of a similar imported train.

Following extensive trials happening in Moradabad, the train will start its maiden journey from December 15, 2018. The Train 18 is sure to elevate the Passenger Experience of train travel in India to a modern era with the best comfort and safety standards.


TECHONOLOGYUpdateWORLD’S LONGEST BIKE BAGS AWARDS

Necessity is the mother of invention. A Hybrid bike is one of the latest inventions which will give a new identity to the world of bikes. It has been formalized seeing the availability and scarcity of fuels which will make our daily commuting easier. The record for the longest hybrid bike runs on petrol engine and electrical motor is 6.8 meters with 15 seatsand was achieved by the Indian Institute of Industry Interaction Education and Research (IIIER) on August 23, 2018. at the institution’s premises in Kolathur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. “Our IIIIER World Record has been recognized under the category Technology and Innovation by Asia Book of Records and India Book of Records and the project has been recommended for Guinness World Records,” says Dr. Sundarapandi, Managing Director of the Institute.

Technical details:

Seventy students formed the technical team which designed and fabricated the hybrid bike. The project took 8 months to be completed and was put up for the Asia Book and India Book Records.

The bike uses a 105 CC Yamaha Libra engine which delivers 7.6ps @ 7500 rpm. The fuel tank is that of a Bajaj Avenger and has a capacity of 30 litres fuel. The total length of the bike is 6.8 metres and the height is 1.2 metres. Weighing 350 kilograms, the bike can seat 15 including the rider.

The bike is shod with a Ceat tyre in the front and MRF tyre at the rear, mounted on rims of 15” and 17” respectively.

“The unique feature of the transmission is that the rear wheel is run by the engine through a chain drive and the front wheel is driven using an electronic motor of 2 hp, powered by a battery. They can be individually and simultaneously driven through an electronic throttle. Both wheels have disc brakes. Obviously, the bike cannot be run on public roads, but within a controlled environment, the bike is well-balanced with all 15 riders astride,” informs Dr. Sundarapandi.

Nikhil Raghavan


SPECIALUpdate

SEARCH ON FOR POSSIBLE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY SOLUTIONS

The third convention hosted by iCAT on October 11 and 12, 2018 focused on new powertrain technologies, reducing emissions, moving towards BS-VI emission norms and electric vehicles.

The 2-day convention organised in New Delhi by the International Centre for Automotive Technology (iCAT), revolved around the future of powertrain technologies. Its timing was very appropriate as the talks on alternative fuel options such as hydrogen fuel cells, electric vehicles and others are gaining momentum. Right from large play-ers such as Mahindra & Mahindra to analyst firms to start-ups such as TwentyTwo Motors were present at this con-vention discussing the importance of sustainable mobility solutions.

Dinesh Tyagi, Director, iCAT said, “While electric vehicles are the way forward, hydrogen fuel should also be ex-plored and if required, exploited for a country like India due to the volume of vehicles and the limited availability of raw materials such as Cobalt and Lithium.”

P. Balendran, Executive Director, MG Motor India Limited said, the Indian OEMs have improved their designs to meet the next generation demand. “Not only design, the future of vehicles will be electric as well as autonomous.

Although it is out of context for a powertrain technology convention, but electronics taking care of the driving dy-namics would mean lower number of accidents. The new mobility solutions would take over, but it will take some time to come to EV standards.”

Charles Frump, Managing Director, Volvo Auto India, also spoke about the importance of BS-VI readiness for which Volvo as a brand has existing as well as upcoming prod-ucts. The biggest challenge for Volvo would be to bring in 1 million electric cars on the road by 2025 globally. Frump also said that plug-in technology would be the way for-ward.

Dr. R. K. Malhotra, Director General, FIPI said, the largest challenges for the Indian automotive market currently are the initial cost of battery and having the required charging infrastructure. The challenge also lies in the sourcing of raw materials which are not available in India. This would mean entering into a free trade agreement with lithi-um-rich or lithium-controlling countries. Under the new technologies, a proper ecosystem for electric vehicles as well as alternative fuels would eventually be needed to create a sustainable mobility solution.

Apart from the availability of raw materials such as


SPECIALUpdatelithium, which is a huge concern for India, companies in-cluding start-ups discussed how specific components in internal combustion engines can be made better.

One such company present at the convention was Zygor Energy which has proposed to various OEMs for using spark plugs and intake valves supplied by the company. Inder Sharma, Founder and Owner of Zygor Energy, stressed the need of upgrading the scale of such compo-nents which make a vehicle more fuel efficient and reduce emissions by about 25%. This is made possible by using multiple electrodes which result in better combustion of the fuel and air mixture going in a petrol-powered en-gine’s cylinder.

Sharma said that the new spark plugs have been thor-oughly tested in the US. By getting assistance from NITI Aayog, Zygor Energy made the move to bring this tech-nology to India. The new spark plug works on the ‘Conde Effect’ where the multiple electrodes in it are spiralled and help complete combustion. “Internal Combustion Engines are not going anywhere for another 30 to 40 years and they are here to stay,” Sharma said. During his presenta-tion, he pointed out that the new spark plugs lowered emissions and their life cycle was substantially higher than the conventional ones. Based on the tests conducted by Zygor Enegy in the US, the spark plugs lasted over 1 lakh km.

The new components are being pilot tested in New Delhi/NCR region wherein a CNG vehicle has also been taken into account. A Maruti Suzuki WagonR fitted with a CNG kit also resulted in better fuel efficiency as well as less loss of acceleration. Such pilot projects have accelerated the understanding towards what a sustainable future for mo-bility could be.

Zygor Energy is working to bring about a mass-produced vehicle that has unlimited range. For that there would be 2 sets of batteries, wherein 1 battery unit would be running the vehicle, while the other unit would be charging. Sharma said that this technology would not be available in mass production in the near future.

Devesh Pareek, Manager, Electronics, iCAT, continued with the various applications where iCAT tests various automo-tive components at its facility in Manesar. The investment of Rs 1,100 crore for these facilities is in line with the test-ing for premium products as well as components which are coming up in the advent of electric mobility. He said that iCAT encouraged start-ups to test their new mobility solutions in its test facilities. He supported new mobility solutions such as electric vehicles. He said, “In an electric vehicle the losses that happen at the wheel for the energy transferred from a battery are substantially less than in an internal combustion engine.”

Pareek believes that an electric powertrain which is al-ready efficient can be made better by using better elec-tronics. iCAT has the capabilities to update electronics such as controllers etc which do most of the deci-sion-making in a vehicle without major modifications. Regeneration of energy such as regenerative braking is also another area where iCAT is working. Pareek said that if regeneration of energy can happen, it will increase the overall efficiency of a vehicle, especially in the electric powertrains.

An experiment conducted by iCAT at one of its test facilities showed that for heavy vehicles used in public transportation, regenerative braking is imperative. Pareek said that a rugged electronic system should be able to withstand the high current values during regeneration of electricity and similarly the battery needs to be able to withstand the high current for a short period of time.

Sameer Jindal, Director, MG Motors India, spoke about the trends in China. He spoke on the trend of electric vehicles in China and elaborated on a possible model for India, which may not be the same as China’s, but similar. Jindal said heavy incentives by the Government and further support by the local government bodies, greatly pushed forward the e-mobility solutions.

The convention revolved around new and sustainable powertrains that would propel the vehicles of the future. Right from public transport, to commercial vehicles to agricultural equipment and others, the most important aspect has been the ability to conceive a sustainable mobility solution with minimum carbon footprint.

Gunjan D Bidani & Sukhpreet SinghAuto Components India


FEATURE

The 70-year journey of Ashok Leyland is interesting in how it has helped the country industrialise.

The second largest CV maker in India has turned 70 years old. Tracing its journey to 1948 when it began pro-ducing Austin cars under license in India as Ashok Motors, the CV maker has come a long way. As the fourth largest manufacturer of buses in the world, and 12th largest manufacturer of trucks, the company inked an agreement with Leyland of UK to im-port, assemble and progressively manufacture Leyland trucks in 1950. Founded by Raghunandan Saran (a freedom fighter from Punjab) and named after his son Ashok, Ashok Motors rolled out the first Leyland chassis from the Ennore plant in the form of Comet 350 in 1951. The first four Comet 350 trucks were sold to the Mangalore Tile Factory. Taking to

70 YEARS OF ASHOK LEYLAND

manufacture trucks alongside the manufacture of Austin cars in the early fifties, Ashok Leyland has grown exponentially in the last seven de-cades. It has achieved many patents for its innovations according to Vinod K. Dasari, the managing director of the company.

Exiting the assembly of cars in the mid or late 50s, Ashok Motors got a government approval for progressive manufacture of Leyland commercial vehicles in 1954. This included a li-cense to manufacture 1,000 Comets a year. Renamed ‘Ashok Leyland’ with equity participation from Leyland Motors, Ltd., soon after, the company was recently listed in the Forbes Fabulous 50. Increasing its market cap from Rs.3000 crores five years ago to Rs.45000 crores a few months ago, Ashok Leyland, in 1963 intro-duced Comet buses. These were

made by building a passenger body on the Comet truck chassis. In 1967, the company introduced the first double-decker bus in India in the form of Titan. It had a localisation level of 50 per cent. Of the opinion that Ashok Leyland customers believe in the brand, Dheeraj G Hinduja, the chairman of the company expressed that the journey spanning seven de-cades is not just about winning, but also about giving. He mentioned that Ashok Leyland has come to be a part of the social fabric of the country and is carrying out CSR activities that take care of the health, nutrition, education of more than 20,000 students.

The Comet

Taking to assemble CVs upon realising its importance and necessity in a country that was just beginning to build itself post-independence, Ashok


FEATURE

Leyland made a good beginning with the Comet. As a 4x2 truck with a GVW of 7.5-tonnes in a cab over form, the Comet sprang a bus within two years of the truck rolling out of the Ennore plant. The cab over form made it easy to fabricate a bus body on the truck chassis. Offering power steering in 1969, the Comet came to establish itself as a truck with technology. The concept of a power steering was unheard of at that time. Regarded as a powerful, rugged and fuel-efficient truck, the Comet sold thousand numbers with 252 employ-ees on board in the first year of its launch. Equipped with full air brakes, the platform played a role in the evo-lution of the Indian CV industry by supporting tonnage as well as appli-cation shift. For example, in 1966, Ashok Leyland introduced a 10- to 30-tonnes Beaver/Hippo range.

Manufactured almost until the early 90s, the Comet as a platform has come to occupy a place of pride in the history of the CV maker. Post the introduction of Titan double-decker bus in 1967, marking two decades of operations, Ashok Leyland, in 1970, took to manufacture defense vehicles. A 6x4 Hippo Tipper was delivered to the armed forces the same year. Production touched 10,000 units by 1973, marking a ten-fold increase. In 1974, the turnover of Ashok Leyland crossed Rs.100 crore. Ending collabo-ration with Leyland in 1975, the com-pany launched many new CVs. Notably the Viking and Cheetah range.

Viking and Cheetah

One of the most elegant products to be made by the company, the Viking marked the arrival of a modern and attractive looking bus in 1976. The Viking was the first ever bus with an alternator and a unique front over-hang that facilitated front entry. Finding its way in 1978, the Cheetah turned out to be India’s first rear- engine bus. If the Cheetah saved the driver from engine heat and noise, it

also gave rise to a challenge. Drivers soon started complaining that they could not hear the engine! In 1980, the first Hosur plant went on stream. It would be Ashok Leyland’s second manufacturing facility within the state of Tamil Nadu after Ennore. The Hosur plant complemented Ennore but remained independent enough to ensure seamless production in a fluctuating marketplace.

With the new Hosur plant at its disposal, the company began surging ahead with many industry firsts. These included Ashok Tusker, a 13-tonne truck with a 125 hp engine in 1980. The Taurus was also launched at around the same time and became the first multi-axle truck in the country. In 1982, the company intro-duced the country’s first vestibule bus for urban travel. The same year, Ashok Leyland embarked on an expansion plan that would take it to other parts of the country. In March 1982, the company set up a gearbox plant at Bhandara. In August 1982, the compa-ny set up a unit at Alwar to build pas-senger CV chassis.

Hinduja flagship

In 1987, the overseas holding by Land Rover Leyland International Holdings Limited (LRLIH) was taken over by a joint venture between the Hinduja Group, and Iveco, a Fiat Group com-pany. In 2007, the Hinduja Group bought out Iveco’s indirect stake in Ashok Leyland and made it the group’s flagship. Said Gopichand P Hinduja, Chairman, Hinduja Group, that many were worried about an NRI coming on board. “Workers said that Hindujas are not industrialists and they do not know how to run indus-tries. The meeting with Ram Sani and Manpreet Soni, who were the secre-tary then, assured me that there was a lot of potential in the company, and it needed full support for transforma-tion. We were away from India since 1919 and we felt it was the best way to return to India. After the takeover, many came in and took the company

Ashok Leyland made a good begining with the Comet in 1951.

The Titan double-decker was introduced in 1967.

The Cheetah was India’s first rare engine bus.

The first Hosur plant went on stream in1980.


FEATURE

The Tusker was launched in 1980 with a13-tonne GVW.

The Namakkal driver training facility.

In 1997, Ashok Leyland started supplying the Stallion 4x4 to the Indian Army.

The acquisition of Avia in 2006 markedan entry in to Europe.

forward. I could not have thought about the growth the company has achieved when we took it over 31 years ago. I want this company to be unique, not just in India but across the globe. Money alone cannot do it. It is the team and talent that is required to make it successful,” he mentioned.

Commissioning a technical centre at Vellivoyalchavadi (VVC) on the out-skirts of Chennai in 1990, Ashok Leyland set up a driver training insti-tute at Namakkal five years later. Both the developments marked the coming of age of a CV major in an environ-ment that was beginning to change at a rapid pace. Even today, the Namakkal facility continues to be one of the few most comprehensive driver training facilities in India’s private sector. It is located right where the heart of the Tamil Nadu’s trucking community is. In 1996, Ashok Leyland commissioned its second plant at Hosur. It would be Ashok Leyland’s most versatile plant with a dedicated line to manufacture army vehicles. In 1997, the Stallion 4x4 troop and mate-rial carrier (all-terrain logistics) truck rolled out of the Hosur 2 plant, and was inducted in the Indian Army. The same year, the company introduced a CNG bus. It would mark a significant step ahead in the development of al-ternate fuels for mass transportation. The first CNG bus was delivered to BEST (Brihan Mumbai Electricity Supply and Transport). In 1998, Ashok Leyland celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Stallion.

Alternate fuels

In its quest for alternate fuels, Ashok Leyland, at the 2002 Auto Expo, pre-miered a hybrid electric vehicle. It was developed in partnership with the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), and the Electronics Research & Development Centre, Trivandrum, of the Ministry of Information Technology. First Indian auto company to receive BS 7799 cer-tification for information security management system in 2005, Ashok

Leyland achieved yet another feat the same year. When the Srinagar-Muzzafarabad road route was opened for traffic, the first vehicle to cross from the Indian side was a Stag bus. The acquisition of Avia in the Czech Republic in 2006 marked the compa-ny’s presence in Europe. In 2006, the CV major also inked an agreement with Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority to set up a bus assembly plant in the UAE. It made Ashok Leyland the only CV maker to have a plant there. The assembly facility was turned into a full-fledged manufactur-ing unit in 2010. In 2010, a new plant was set up at Pantnagar. In the same year, the ambitious and modern U-truck platform was launched. Yet another feat was the launch of a plug-in hybrid bus.

Ashok Leyland obtained a 26 per cent stake in Optare plc, a well-known bus maker in the UK. The stake was sub-sequently increased to 75.1 per cent in January 2012. A short-lived and tu-multuous relationship with Nissan led to products like the Dost in 2011. The Dost marked the entry of Ashok Leyland into the LCV segment. Entering the construction equipment space in October 2011 with the launch of a new backhoe loader under the Leyland Deere brand, the company introduced an innovative single step entry front engine fully flat-floor city bus in 2012 called the Janbus. In the same year, the CV major introduced India’s first 37-tonne haulage truck with the highest payload of up to 27-tonnes based on the modern U-Truck platform. In 2013, the Neptune engine was launched. It was equipped with common-rail fuel injec-tion and complied with the stringent BSIV emission norms. The Boss inter-mediate segment truck found its way to the Indian market in 2013. The year 2014 was the year of three significant product launches. The first to arrive on the scene was the modern, heavy-duty truck range called the Captain. The second was the Mitr mi-di-bus, and the third was the light-du-


FEATURE

In 2006, Ashok Leyland inked an agreement to set up a bus plant

The U-truck production was launched in 2010.

In 2013 the in-house designed and development Neptune engine was launched.

The Boss ICV was launched in 2013.

ty Partner truck. The Partner was powered by an advanced ZD30 com-mon-rail diesel engine, that promised superior fuel-efficiency and better turnaround time. The Partner was also India’s first air-conditioned LCV goods vehicle that features a modern Euro cab with spacious car-like interiors.

In 2015, Ashok Leyland unveiled the zero-emission electric bus Circuit. At the Auto Expo 2016, Ashok Leyland showcased a Euro6 Captain tractor with SCR technology from its group entity Albonair. In 2016, the Pantnagar plant won a Deming prize, a first by a commercial vehicle manufacturer. The innovative Sunshine school bus was introduced in 2016. In the same year, the Guru and Partner light-duty trucks were also launched. In 2017, the Hosur II plant won a Deming prize. A signifi-cant technology change at Ashok Leyland marked the introduction of iEGR technology in April 2017. It was in-line with the implementation of BSIV emission norms pan-India. The year 2017 saw the launch of the Captain haulage range, and the Dost+ with high payload, courtesy the leaf spring suspension all-round. At the Auto Expo 2018, Ashok Leyland in as-sociation with Sun Mobility show-cased a battery swapping technology for electric vehicles. In 2018, Ashok Leyland also unveiled a 41-tonne 10x2 multi-axle rigid truck. It aims at a market that is looking to shift up from 37-tonnes and is not keen to go the tractor-trailer way.

Partnerships

In its seven decades journey, Ashok Leyland gained a good deal from the partnerships its striked. The first was the association with Hino Motors, Japan, for the manufacture of H-series engines in 1986. Over the years that followed, the company de-veloped many indigenous versions of the H-series engine in four and six-cylinder guise, and conforming to BSII, BSIII and BSIV emission norms. They gained a strong reputation for power and efficiency. The collabora-

tion with Hino was renewed in November 2017 for the development of Euro6 technology. Ashok Leyland would in-turn help Hino to source parts from India for its global opera-tion. In 1994, Ashok Leyland started producing Cargo trucks at its Hosur 1 plant with Iveco technology. These vehicles used Iveco engines and came with factory-fitted cabs. They were ahead of their time when the Indian market was almost completely domi-nated by cowl chassis designs. Though the Cargo trucks are no lon-ger in production and the use of Iveco engine was discontinued, the cab continues to be used on the Ecomet range of trucks, and on the Ashok Leyland military vehicles. The Cargo truck range was initially available in seven and nine-tonne GVW. Heavier versions of the truck were introduced later. These had a GVW of between 15- and 26-tonnes.

Neptune

Earning a reputation of building vehi-cles that were durable and profitable by 2005-06, Ashok Leyland countin-ued to innovate. R. Seshasayee, the former managing director of the com-pany asked M. Nataraj, former prod-uct development head, to launch the ‘2020 Project’ with a goal to create an engine. Starting from scratch, the project progressed with the close co-operation of suppliers. No easy task it turned out to be. Consultants were hard to come by. There were mistakes and errors. Every challenge however encouraged the engineers at Ashok Leyland to strive for more; to push hard.

A particularly challenging part was the quest to modify existing (tradi-tional) engine designs to suit the Indian conditions. International con-sultants were engaged. Efforts were made to produce multiple options. The final outcome was an engine that worked to the satisfaction of all. It was termed as the ‘Neptune’. The best part of the project was the knowledge the team gained. Valuable knowledge


FEATURE

The modern, Heavy-Duty Captain range was launched in 2014; the haulage range made an appreance in 2017.

In 2015, the Electric bus circuitwas unveiled

In 2013 the in-house designed and development Neptune engine was launched.

To comply with BSIV emission norms Ashok Leyland engineers developed a unique EGR based aftertreatment system for engines upto 400 PS

was gained by Ashok Leyland engi-neers. Those who have bought Ashok Leyland CVs with Neptune engine are satisfied with the performance, claim company sources. Tested for one-mil-lion kms, the Neptune engine is exported to US as well.

EGR technology

With the Neptune engine at its dis-posal, Ashok Leyland engineers were challenged with the need to get the CVs to comply with BSIV emission norms in 2017. Based on their earlier experience where they worked with Bosch to get an in-line mechanical pump to comply with BSIII emission norms, the engineers developed a unique system of ‘intelligent EGR’ (iEGR). This was done to ensure that CV buyers are not subjected to a con-siderable step-up in operating costs with the use of AdBlue, and a SCR af-tertreatment involving a DPF.

Introducing SCR-based CVs in 2010 for specific markets including exports with the support of Albonair, Ashok Leyland engaged a team of 200 engi-neers to develop the iEGR tech in a period of three and a half years. Combining the benefits of regular EGR along with that of a common rail system, the iEGR system is capable of meeting BSIV emissions at power lev-els over 130 PS, and up to 400 PS. The technology promised an increase in fuel efficiency by up to 10 per cent over BSIII with the help of an in-cylin-der combustion management tech-nique. Over one lakh trucks with iEGR technology have been sold since 2017.

On technology front, Ashok Leyland has been associating with both, na-tional and international partners. In 2017, the Ashok Leyland Defence Systems (ALDS) signed an agreement with Russia’s Rosoboronexport and ELCOM Group in 2017 to manufacture tracked vehicles for the Indian Armed Forces. In early 2018, Ashok Leyland formed an alliance with SUN Mobility in 2018 to develop electric vehicles. It also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2018 with the

Indian Institute of Technology Madras to carry out research and develop-ment activities for strengthening bat-tery engineering and related sub-parts for EVs especially. Making stra-tegic changes like asking the custom-ers to pay only on delivery rather than before delivering the vehicle, the company aligned warranty schemes as per the needs of the customers. The frontline was empowered to make decisions and execute them so that the customer does not have to wait endlessly because a part cost too much.

Introducing a ‘tatkal’ scheme to address vehicle breakdown, Ashok Leyland promised a contact time of four hours, and promised to get the vehicle running in the next 48 hours. If it could not, it would pay a penalty of Rs.1000 for every day of delay. A call centre was started so that no cus-tomer calls went unanswered. Working closely with its franchisees, dealers and financiers, Ashok Leyland applied thrust on annual contracts and partnerships. It started cabin repair centres that were good at mini-mizing expenses. They salvaged and rebuilt all that was possible. If this made insurance companies enthusias-tic, the company invested, and contin-ues to invest in building a robust digi-tal support network that leverages telematics and a combination of inter-net platforms and apps. to ensure that its customers are able to reach it from any part of India.

Looking back to the 70-year journey of Ashok Leyland, it is interesting to see how it has helped the country industrialise, modernise and develop into one that is no second to others in terms of technology and knowledge. Re-inventing its entire product line-up in the interest of addressing the needs of its customers, Ashok Leyland is setting the bar higher time and again.

Bhargav T.S.Commercial Vehicle


INTERVIEW

The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) aims to create a state-of-the-art testing, validation and R&D infrastructure in the country. Neeti Sarkar, CEO and Project Director, NATRiP, provides the latest update on iCAT (Manesar), GARC (Chennai) and NATRAX, and its readiness for testing EVs.

Under the NATRiP programme, you have been building testing infrastructure at ARAI, then iCAT and GARC. By when do you plan to complete the entire network?

I am happy to say that iCAT (International Centre for Automotive Technology), Manesar has now already com-pleted 10 years of operational services. What remains are the tracks; due to the limitation of the size of land we could procure in Manesar, the tracks are also limited. Now iCAT will be able to cater to all the homologation requirements on the tracks. However, for developmental work, we have a huge facility that has come up in NATRAX, Indore. That consists of 14 types of tracks, which have different profiles with various torture testing facilities. It is coupled with a vehicle dynamics lab that offer simulation while the tracks

NATRIP’S NEETI SARKAR: ‘WE ARE NOW PLANNING TO SET UP AN EV CHARGER TESTING FACILITY.’NATRAX, SPREAD OVER 4,000 ACRES IN INDORE, IS DESIGNED TO THOROUGHLY TEST ALL TYPES OF PASSENGER VEHICLES AND COMMERCIAL VEHICLES AS WELL AS TWO- AND THREE-WHEELERS.

enable the physical tests. They are a complete solution to vehicle development when it comes to track- related test-ing, tyres, brakes and suspension. At NATRAX, they are fin-ishing the last of the tracks which is a high-speed track. They have already operationalised 13 other tracks, the vehi-cle dynamics lab and one small powertrain lab.

In South India, we have GARC (Global Automotive Research Centre) in Chennai, which is also going to be a homologation centre. Also, the site is bigger there and the tracks have already become operational since last year. With the southern part of the country having a very active and a robust auto industry, stakeholders are already using these facilities, the ones which have become operational. The powertrain lab would make GARC complete.

How much has been invested at GARC?

It is close to Rs 1,000 crore. We will be able to offer this to the industry right in the beginning of next year. Once the powertrain lab is complete, a lot of the testing effort will be met in the south. We are also completing the EMC lab in


INTERVIEW

GARC; it will be much larger than what we have at iCAT. They will have two chambers with

dynamometers et al. EMC installations would be complete soon and we could take another 3-4 months for commis-sioning. What we are sure is that by early next year we should be in a position to offer this to the industry.

So, will the entire NATRiP program be completed by ear-ly 2019?

By early next year, 90 percent of the entire NATRiP pro-gram will be in use with industry. Now they have one ad-vanced passive safety lab at GARC, which will probably be the last facility to be completed there. We are working in-tensely towards that.

Will it be the most advanced passive safety lab?

Absolutely, it is going to be one of its kind in India. There is another facility like this in Germany and a couple of them are coming up in China. This lab will have the usual crash facility which is a car moving to a static barrier. It will also have a car-to-car crash test facility, which is not available in India. It is a development kind of facility where you can have angular crash test too from various angles. Offset tests can also be done here while rollover testing is also on the cards. So it will be an entire gamut of crash

tests. If OEMs are going for these kinds of tests to Europe, by next year they will not have to go anywhere and that is what is going to make a lot of difference.

Is there any plan to go beyond the NATRiP projects?

As I mentioned, 90 percent of the facilities are already op-erational and are being offered to the industry. Considering that these centres work on a non-profit basis, they are able to churn back the revenues into the development of more facilities. So for instance, iCAT has set up a tyre testing centre on its own; it was able to do this because there was a huge demand for tyres and rubber-based ma-terials.

Similarly, we are looking at the electric vehicle segment in a big way. While DHI has already sanctioned about Rs 75-odd crore for ARAI’s EV testing facility, iCAT has moved ahead on e-rickshaw testing. They have also done some testing of some 20-odd varieties of lithium-ion batteries. Will they be able to support it technically? The answer is yes. Do we have the testing facilities? The answer is yes. So, electric mobility is not restrained by the lack of tech-nology or testing infrastructure. In fact, we are discussing this at various government forums.

We are also now planning to set up an EV charging testing facility because the EV charging infrastructure is going to be the key and crucial factor. It has to come up in a big way before electric vehicles start plying in mass scale.

The critical mass has to be developed with the comfort of having a charging infrastructure in place. We are already looking at having the testing facility for charging infra-structure within one of our labs, depending on how the funding comes in. We could multiply it to other labs as well because the demand is going to be huge.

We could also look at some industrial consortium making the funds available for us or we could look at the govern-ment, if through some initiatives we are able to get funds from there.

Sumantra B BarooahAutocar Professional


AD INDEXSIAT 2019

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Q&A

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Q: Congratulations on becoming the President of FISITA. What will be your immediate priority?

A: FISITA is an umbrella society, something like the United Nations for the auto industry. My job here is to focus on the quality and development of FISITA as an international organisation with a 70-year history behind it. How do we make it better? The key is active involvement of all the members in different parts of the world. The other aspect is recognition as members want to be seen as global play-ers; FISITA is the only organisation that has the authorisa-tion to tell them they are part of the global community. We have corporate members and country-society mem-bers. So, my immediate job will be to make FISITA better by involving more members and recognising their efforts.

Q: What is your view on the recently-concluded FISITA in India?

A: This is my second trip to India where I spent a little more time having broader interactions with Indian engi-neers and executives present at this event. Seeing is be-lieving, and my first impression is that the level of interest here in the auto industry is higher than I thought, com-pared with my last visit about eight years ago. The change is even more as I see more cars, bigger and better, which means more opportunities for automobiles in this country. I see many two and three-wheelers, looking for enhanced

quality. You may be a little behind China, but it’s a great opportunity. The high level of interest and the opportunity are the two factors that have impressed me. I find that the Indian engineers are very interested in talking about tech-nology; the executives and professors here have a very clear view of the industry.

Q: FISITA is also a leading advocate of education of the young engineers. Why, what lacks in them?

A: The automotive is a mechanical-driven industry. The interest in it was more 20 years ago because the automo-bile was perceived as a mechanical carrier with electronic capability. In this era of cyber and information technology with the internet of everything, the level of interest, espe-cially among the young, is more on electronics, IT and connectivity than in engineering. They see betteropportu-nity to make more money with more investments in such companies. That’s why I feel the level of interest in engi-neering, not just automotive, has come down. Of course, older companies evolve as time passes by including newer technologies but society doesn’t see it as such. So educat-ing the public is important; hence the need for organisa-tions like FISITA and SAE, to inform the world that the older companies may have a history behind them but they are always ready with new content. They are the real carriers of state-of-the-art technologies and they have done so right from the beginning.

COMBINATION OF MULTIPLE ELEMENTS WILL DRIVE FUTURE MOBILITY: FRANK ZHAO

FISITA, controlled by the engineering professionals and supported by the automotive industry, is the umbrella organisation of the national automotive societies around the world. Its network of Member Societies represents over 210,000 automotive engineers. FISITA pro-vides a forum for discussion among these engineers, the industry, gov-ernment, academia, environmental and standards organisations. It or-ganises several events, including the biennial World Automotive Congress, the annual World Automotive Summit, and the annual brak-ing specialist event, EuroBrake.

Recently the World Automotive Congress was held in Chennai, India, for the first time. Prof Frank Zhao, Director, Tsinghua Automotive Strategy Research Institute (TASRI), and the President of FISITA, spoke to Mobility Engineering, about the current challenges for the global automotive industry and the way forward for sustainable mobility. “There has to be a combination of regulation, technology and the product fleet of new energy vehicles that consists of EVs, hybrids, plug-ins, fuel cells and others; we cannot have a cookie-cutter ap-proach. From now on it will be multiple elements,” he said in an exclu-sive interview. Edited excerpts:


Q&A

Q: What would be your advice to the young engineers?

A: They have the freedom to choose their own careers. They need to be exposed to, and explore, different things to have better understanding before they sign up for any-thing. The auto industry is a perfect example of a capi-tal-intensive, mechanical career with new spirit incorpo-rating connectivity and big data; it has everything for the people. Young engineers need to be open to it, experience it and finally decide how they can contribute to society. Mobility is important and automobile is the enabler that does it.

Q: One of the objectives of FISITA is to develop safe, sus-tainable and affordable mobility solutions, but there is always a trade-off. How do you pursue it?

A: Cost is one thing. We can always be cheaper but at the cost of quality. If you don’t have quality you compromise on safety. Good quality costs a fortune; improving it costs money. So, one has to always balance costs and afford-ability with quality, giving safety high priority. That’s the challenge that engineers face. To resolve it they should have the wisdom to combine all the knowledge of design and technology available in the most advantageous way; the auto industry is the only one that embraces all these together. It produces millions of units annually with af-fordable high quality; that is really the challenge and charm of this business. I would certainly recommend it to the youngsters of today as it is much more difficult to brand a car than a computer; it is something their brilliant minds can work on.

This industry covers everything – mechanical methods, electronics, control systems, materials, manufacturing, processes; now Google and Apple also want to enter here. If you see the situation worldwide, if any country wants to develop its industry, automobile is the first choice as any car needs ten thousand different components to be fitted in.

Q: The founding President of FISITA, Maurice Norroy, had said, “The history of the automobile, more than anything else, is the history of a revolution.” What kind of revolu-tion do you see in the automotive industry now?

A: If you look at the history of the human being you find three revolutions that changed our life. The first is energy. Watt invented steam power which changed the world, then we burnt petrol in the car that changed our life. Second is transportation capability; the car and the aero-plane have made distances shorter. The third one is com-munication; the telephone transformed our lives, now the cell-phone has connected us worldwide. Today, these three things are happening together in the car. We need new energy to reduce carbon emissions to fix problems

relating to global warming. This has ushered in a totally different world of the car; the car is no longer a carrier of people from one place to the other. Today, when you sit in the car you are connected to the outside world; soon you won’t require a driver to take you around with autono-mous vehicles being made. Disruptive technologies will pop up, bringing in a new way of life. In summary, three revolutions are energy, connectivity and artificial intelli-gence (AI) that are leading to six revolutionary changes in the automotive industry that can be described as: from information silo to intelligent terminal; from human-driven vehicles to autonomous driving; from energy dissipation machine to mobile energy carrier; from own-to-use to car- sharing; from conventional manufacturing to smart manu-facturing; from tool for movement to transportation as a service.

Q: With autonomous vehicles gaining significance with every OEM’s R&D, what are the challenges you see in the automotive landscape?

A: Autonomous driving is a totally different world. A smart car is not enough. We need to have, a smarter envi-ronment with the infrastructure to support it, communica-tion capability, smarter roads and higher standards. Autonomous driving requires three elements to work to-gether: the car manufacturer, information technology and infrastructure. Autonomous driving can be well demon-strated now in dedicated areas but it cannot be available to everyone on the road because a lot of changes are nec-essary.

The industry is becoming borderless with the need for smart infrastructure and all the high-tech companies in-volved in the development process. We need to even change our way of understanding the auto business; if a driverless car is involved in an accident, who will be held responsible; what will be the legal issues to be considered. It’s a new world out there and the old understanding of many issues is not enough anymore; they have become complicated and require more knowledge and better un-derstanding. The industry will have to work together to make autonomous driving happen.

Q: With ride sharing picking up, do you think therewill be afall in car production? In some countries, there is a drop in the number of people getting their driving licenses.

A: Sharing of vehicles is the future of business develop-ment. It’s not just in the auto business but it’s going to happen everywhere in our society. Sharing allows people to get access to many things they want. Sharing will be-come the economic outlook of the future; now we have the technology to get there. Sharing of vehicles is adiffi-cult proposition; it is an expensive and movable device


Q&A

that is difficult to manage, but to my understanding, it will be the future. There’s a long way to go. Our study shows that in the beginning sharing would be popular but in due course of time people would still want to own vehicles. As the sharing concept catches on, volumes would rise. How quickly it happens would depend on governmental effort and the business model to be followed. The future would see a better vehicle utilisation rate; depending on the country and population density, it could vary. Vehicle vol-umes may not go down drastically because the utilisation rate will be higher and cars would ‘retire’ earlier.

Q: What is your view on the issues with emission and fos-sil fuels?

A: Emissions mean hydrocarbons, NOX, particulates, etc. This is the traditional understanding of emissions from in-ternal combustion engines that burn fossil fuels. With global warming increasing there is a new definition on emissions – CO2 is now part of it considering the environ-ment and climate level. The world is walking away from fossil fuels, not because it’s not manageable. State-of-the-art technologies of today make it all much cleaner; emis-sions from the tailpipe could be cleaner than the air in the atmosphere.

One of the problems with fossil fuels is that they give out large amounts of carbon dioxide which is a major contrib-utor to global warming; of course, there is a debate that it is the major defaulter. However, global warming is certain-ly going to be a major threat to the human race; obviously, we cannot disregard any potential threat. All countries have reached a common agreement in Paris in 2015 to tackle this. By the end of this century if the temperature increases by two degrees Centigrade than pre-industry level, then half the world would disappear as it will go be-low sea level. So, we should all work together to minimise the risk. Renewable sources of energy (solar, wind and hy-dro) and electricity from nuclear power is what we should look at.

Q: Do you hear the death knell of the IC engines?

A: IC engines are part of our world today regulated by CAFE to ensure that the carbon dioxide produced by them is under control. One can’t easily walk away from fossil fuels as that would considerably affect energy levels; you would need to change your whole infrastructure. Cutting fossil fuel usage means an impact on economic growth, by GDP. It is going to be a long walk before we can replace IC engines completely by other technologies. But we need to be prepared.

Q: The world over, OEMs, and to some extent Tier-1s, are working on certain technologies without knowing the

final destination; it could be on EVs, Hybrids and Fuel Cell vehicles. So, from FISITA’s point of view, how do you educate professionals working with vehicle makers and Tier-1s about the right direction to take?

A: We have to agree with the tougher regulations and on the availability and the use of fossil fuels. We need to cut down usage especially from the perspective of climate change. We have to see what works best for the future whether it’s EVs, hybrids or vehicles using traditional fuels. We need to know how to store energy and how to supply it correctly. We are entering a new era that will have multi-ple choices of power plants. Nobody has a clear direction as yet, given the fact there is no single solution to this. We are entering a multi-choice generation where we will have to discern the right revolutionary changes to go forward. Countries and companies will have to choose for them-selves; they will have to challenge themselves as to where they are heading and what they have in hand to get them there. It’s a real challenge for the decision-makers – you need to know the business and which market you are heading to.

For example, China has to meet CAFE directives for fuel economy; from 2019 there are also mandatory guidelines for EVs. It has to be a combination of regulation, technolo-gy and the product fleet of new energy vehicles that con-sists of EVs, hybrids, plug-ins, fuel cells and others; you cannot have a cookie-cutter approach. From now on it will be multiple elements.

Q: Do you think India can organise Euro-Brake, the world’s largest braking technology conference and exhi-bition?

A: I don’t think Euro-Brake can be organised in India, but FISITA can have other seminars here with local participa-tion. If we get a proposal from India that is mutually bene-ficialwe can go ahead; for example, it could be something on Indian brakes, vehicles or ICT.

Q: FISITA and Institute of Motor Industry (IMI) have col-laborated to form a strategic Partnership to promote new skills and standards among the global industry. It also has partnership with CLEPA. Do you see scope for similar initiatives with other countries including India?

A: FISITA welcomes other member societies to join it es-pecially now that the automobile industry is moving to-wards e-mobility. We have some strategic partnerships with other societies. I don’t see any conflict of interest in teaming up with organisations in India. We encourage this as it would make Indian industry more global and in return bring in talent and technology into the country.

Published by K. Venkataraj. Printed by S. Arumugam on behalf of SAEINDIA. Printed at Hitech Offset (P) Ltd, 11, Srinivasa Nagar Main Road, Koyambedu, Chennai 600107. Published from SAEINDIA, 1/17, 3 rd Cross, Kasturba Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020. Editor: K. Venkataraj


Q&ASAE WILL WORK FOR AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGIES: MURLI M IYER, EXECUTIVE GLOBAL ADVISOR OF SAE INTERNATIONAL AND VICE PRESIDENT, FISITA.

Q: What is your view on the recently-concluded FISITA Congress in India? What is the learning for SAE India?

A: FISITA World Congress 2018 in Chennai was an out-standing success. It proved to the automotive world that India can do a world-class event. SAE India worked hard, backed by its strategic alliance partner SAE International, to make this event meaningful and a showpiece of Indian capabilities. The success of any technical event is primarily judged by the quality of pa-pers. In this case, SAE India received a large number of excellent papers covering all key aspects of mobility engineering. The paper review panel did an excellent job in choosing the very best papers as Congress pa-pers. This has set a new benchmark not only for SAE India but also for other technical bodies. SAE India can now confidently say that it is fully capable of putting up world class technical events in collaboration with its global partners.

Q: How do SAE International and FISITA work together to support global mobility industry?

A: SAE International is one of the key societies of FISITA and has been playing an important role in pro-moting both FISITA’s and SAE International’s vision and mission. They are similar except that FISITA is a Federation of world automotive societies, and SAE International is a society of individual members. Within that framework, both the organizations work closely to achieve the common goal of serving the humanity through automotive engineers. SAE International sup-

port and help FISITA societies from Australia, India, China, Japan, Korea, Romania, Russia and many others.

Q: How does SAE International perceive the evolution in the mobility industry to connected and autonomous?

A: As a neutral convener, SAE is uniquely positioned to develop consensus-based autonomous vehicle safety guidelines. We have taken this approach for automa-tion in the aerospace industry and will use the same methods in the automotive community as we navigate through the major changes facing us. As autonomous vehicles emerge, there is a growing need for communi-cation among vehicles and testing to validate the ben-efits. Without a framework for connectivity, our infra-structure will not support the evolving technology and consumers will have safety concerns.

From our early identification of the need for standard short-range communications, we understand the safe-ty, transparency and security requirements of the con-nected infrastructure. We’ve published standards and convened key partners through symposiums to support safe connected vehicle technology development. In 2016, we developed two standards that define connect-ed vehicle standard message sets and communication performance requirements (J2735 and J2945/1).

Q: Autonomous vehicles have become the prior R & D for all OEMs. What are the challenges you see in the automotive landscape from the SAE International perspective?

A: Automated vehicle technologies are advancing, and AVs are being marketed and sold to consumers without safety testing guidelines for their features. This has led to a lack of understanding by the public. SAE has cre-ated an ADS Safety Performance Testing Programme to work on the challenges facing AV technology and its adoption. With a commitment to safety, public aware-ness and workforce readiness, SAE will convene and collaborate with the global mobility community to ac-celerate the development and deployment of autono-mous technologies. We’ve already developed four stan-dards around AVs including J3016, J3114, J3018 and J3131 (in progress.)

T. Murrali AutoParts Asia

“SAE will convene and collaborate with the global mobility community to accelerate the development and deployment of autonomous technologies.”

RNI No. TNENG/2014/55684

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