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 186695 times Last modified on Wednesday, 09 February 2022 15:18
More in this category: CASE STUDY: SRAM »

10470 comments

  • Comment Link vortexarc Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:34 posted by vortexarc

    Started taking notes about halfway through because the points were stacking up, and a look at vortexarc added enough material that my notes file grew further, content that demands note taking from a passive reader is content with substance and the writers here are clearly producing that kind of work consistently across topics.

  • Comment Link velvettrailbazaar Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:33 posted by velvettrailbazaar

    Now adjusting my mental model of how the topic fits into the broader landscape, and a look at velvettrailbazaar extended that adjustment, content that affects my structural understanding rather than just my factual knowledge is content with deeper impact and this site is providing those structural updates at a meaningful rate consistently across topics.

  • Comment Link cloudmeadowcollective Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:33 posted by cloudmeadowcollective

    Skipped the related products section because there was none, and a stop at cloudmeadowcollective also lacked any aggressive monetisation, content that is not constantly trying to convert me into a customer or subscriber is content that has confidence in its own value and that confidence shows up as a different reading experience.

  • Comment Link astrorod Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:32 posted by astrorod

    Vague feelings of recognition kept surfacing as I read because the writing names things I have been thinking, and a look at astrorod produced more of those recognition moments, content that gives shape to private intuitions is content that makes me feel less alone in my own thinking and this site has that effect.

  • Comment Link glamtower Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:29 posted by glamtower

    Thank you for keeping the writing honest and the points easy to verify against your own experience, and a stop at glamtower reflected the same approach, no exaggeration just steady useful content that I can take with me into my own work without second guessing every sentence I happen to read here.

  • Comment Link fastgoodsbazaar Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:27 posted by fastgoodsbazaar

    A clean read with no irritations, and a look at fastgoodsbazaar continued that frictionless quality, the absence of small irritations is something I notice only when present elsewhere and this site is one of the rare places where everything just works and lets me focus on the substance rather than fighting the format.

  • Comment Link duotile Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:21 posted by duotile

    Easily one of the better explanations I have read on the topic, and a stop at duotile pushed it even higher in my mental ranking of useful resources, the kind of site that beats the average not by trying harder but by simply caring more about what it puts out daily which always shows.

  • Comment Link premiumcartcorner Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:19 posted by premiumcartcorner

    Thank you for the genuine effort here, it shows in every paragraph and not just the headline, and after my visit to premiumcartcorner I was sure this site cares about getting things right rather than chasing clicks, which is the main reason I will come back later this week to read more.

  • Comment Link royalshelf Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:18 posted by royalshelf

    Reading this post made me realise I had been settling for lower quality elsewhere, and a look at royalshelf extended that recalibration, content that exposes how much I had been accepting in adjacent sources is content with calibrating effect on my standards and this site is performing that calibration function across topics for me reliably.

  • Comment Link crystalpinegoods Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:16 posted by crystalpinegoods

    Even across multiple posts the writers voice has remained consistent in a way I appreciate, and a stop at crystalpinegoods continued that voice, sites that maintain editorial consistency across many pieces have something most sites lack and this one has clearly worked out how to keep its voice steady across what reads as a growing archive.

Leave a comment

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