News

Friday, 21 January 2022 08:41

Improving the e-Drive NVH performance of your electric vehicle with a digital twin

Written by
Rate this item
(2 votes)

Manufacturers want to reduce the risk of encountering e-drive NVH issues late in the design process. But, optimizing e-drive NVH to create a sound that fits your brand image, is challenging. Where to start? Let’s start here.

Electric vehicle sales are booming

The electric vehicle revolution is well underway. According to BloombergNEF’s recent report, there are currently around 12 million passenger electric vehicles and around one million commercial electric vehicles on the road globally. And this is expected to surge. The growth of passenger electric vehicles is projected to rise from 3.1 million in 2020 to 14 million in 2025.

But as demand grows, and many markets move towards ending the sale of combustion engine vehicles, expectations are increasing too.

Fig.1EVO global EV fleet by segment and market

 

What’s that noise?

As you might know, at Simcenter, we adopt a people-centric approach to the NVH performance engineering of electric cars. When engineering the electric drive, a common complaint is the high-frequency tonal noise of the electric motor and gearbox.

To satisfy their customers, manufacturers need to address these E-Drive NVH issues to give the best results in terms of performance, customer comfort, and satisfaction.

Simple, right?

Not really, given the complexity of the motors and the number of different models that are produced every year. NVH performance analysis has often been left to the end of vehicle development. This makes it difficult to make significant design changes to improve the sounds generated. That’s understandable, given that you need a completed motor to evaluate its NVH performance. But that’s not what customers want, they just want their cars to sound better.

E-Drive NVH hybrid modeling – simulations and testing in perfect harmony

Simulation for success

This is why virtual simulations are so valuable in modern vehicle development. It is exactly the kind of challenge that Simcenter was designed to overcome. Alessandro Lepore, Business Development Manager for Simcenter Engineering Services Solutions recently ran a webinar to show how Simcenter can front-load NVH evaluation in the development cycle to allow manufacturers to build a better product whilst keeping within their cost and time budgets.

Watch the on-demand webinar
and see how Simcenter is a game-changer in E-Drive NVH performance

In the webinar, Alessandro looks at how carrying out e-drive NVH analysis in the earliest stages will avoid issues later. He walks through various customer case studies, including:

  • Vehicle reverse engineering for competitor e-motor benchmarking
  • Inverter switching noise optimization
  • E-drive multi-attribute balancing

He also covers the detailed design stages and how 3D simulation analyzes the complete system from electric currents to radiated noise, and integrating electromagnetic, structural, transmission multi-body, and acoustics analysis. This includes examples from Valeo and Karma Automotive where the Simcenter portfolio enabled enhanced and streamlined NVH performance evaluation in the development process to give them the best possible results.

  

Model the complexity of electric motor transmissions by streamlining all types of analyses into a single simulation environment for a better assessment of E-motor transmission performance.

 

Virtual prototype assembly tool helps predicting e-drive NVH performance

But, as Alessandro points out, simulation on its own isn’t everything. Hybrid modeling, combining test and simulation, delivers the most accuracy. He explains how the Virtual Prototype Assembly tool within Simcenter Testlab facilitates this and allows engineers to develop optimal components. The value of the Virtual Prototype Assembly tool? In a nutshell, it enables to accurately and rapidly predict the NVH performance of any system. It allows collaboration between different areas of the business. Even non-NVH experts can use it to accurately predict the final product NVH performance at any development stage. For more information, read this blog: Master the vehicle NVH performance with a virtual prototype.

 

 

 System NVH performance prediction enables to accurately and rapidly predict the NVH performance of any system.

Read 201289 times Last modified on Wednesday, 09 February 2022 15:18

16923 comments

  • Comment Link linkbloom Thursday, 14 May 2026 23:09 posted by linkbloom

    Decided this was the kind of site I would defend in a discussion about good blog content, and a stop at linkbloom reinforced that, very few sites earn active defence rather than passive consumption and this one has clearly crossed that threshold for me without needing any explicit pitch from the writers themselves either.

  • Comment Link Edgarclith Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:58 posted by Edgarclith

    Took the time to read every paragraph rather than skimming for the punchline, and a quick visit to brightfashionfinds earned the same careful attention from me, that is the highest signal I can give about content quality because my default mode is rapid scanning rather than deliberate reading on most pages.

  • Comment Link rankorbit Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:57 posted by rankorbit

    Liked how the writer used real examples instead of theoretical ones to make the points stick, and a stop at rankorbit added even more concrete examples, this is the kind of practical approach that respects readers who actually want to apply what they learn rather than just nodding along passively without doing anything useful.

  • Comment Link Glennbeaby Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:52 posted by Glennbeaby

    Now recognising that the post handled the topic with appropriate technical precision without becoming dry, and a stop at findyourbalance continued that balance, technical precision and readability are often in tension and this site has clearly figured out how to maintain both at once which is one of the harder editorial achievements in the form.

  • Comment Link ReeseKaf Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:44 posted by ReeseKaf

    Speaking from the perspective of a fairly demanding reader the writing here clears the bar consistently, and a look at bestdailyoffers continued clearing that bar, the calibration of demanding reader is something I apply to all sources and this site has been one of the few that handles the demanding reading well across pieces sampled.

  • Comment Link discovergreatvalue Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:39 posted by discovergreatvalue

    Bookmark added with a small note about why, and a look at discovergreatvalue prompted another bookmark with another note, the bookmarks I annotate are the ones I expect to return to deliberately rather than stumble into and this site is generating annotated bookmarks at a higher rate than my usual content sources by some margin.

  • Comment Link BrendanRix Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:33 posted by BrendanRix

    Came back to this an hour later to reread a specific section, and a quick visit to creativechoiceoutlet also drew a second look, content that pulls you back rather than letting you move on permanently is the kind I want to fill my browser bookmarks with in 2026 and beyond as the open internet evolves.

  • Comment Link Ottosceme Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:28 posted by Ottosceme

    Beats most of the alternatives on the topic by a noticeable margin, and a look at discoverinfiniteideas did not change that at all, this is one of the better corners of the open internet for this kind of content and I am glad I clicked through rather than skipping past quickly like I usually do.

  • Comment Link linkbloom Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:22 posted by linkbloom

    Speaking from the perspective of a fairly demanding reader the writing here clears the bar consistently, and a look at linkbloom continued clearing that bar, the calibration of demanding reader is something I apply to all sources and this site has been one of the few that handles the demanding reading well across pieces sampled.

  • Comment Link SergioDek Thursday, 14 May 2026 22:20 posted by SergioDek

    Felt no urge to argue with the conclusions even though I started the post slightly skeptical, and a look at discoverbetteroptions maintained that pattern, writing that earns agreement through clarity of argument rather than rhetorical pressure is the kind I find most persuasive and the kind I want to read more of these days.

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.