ALTEN China has partnered with a leading global automotive manufacturer to provide comprehensive engineering support across the design, testing, and validation of essential automotive systems. ALTEN’s expertise spans a wide range of product areas, from infotainment systems and electric powertrains to gearboxes, brake systems, and chassis components. This collaboration ensures that all systems meet the highest standards of quality, performance, and safety for the client’s automotive products.

Challenges

The automotive engineering and testing environment faces several key challenges, particularly in developing and validating complex vehicle systems:

• Integrated System Design: The development of integrated systems such as infotainment, electric powertrains, and vehicle architecture requires close coordination across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Complex Testing & Validation: Each system needs thorough testing across various conditions, from bench validation of powertrains to real-world testing of infotainment and vehicle subsystems.
• Interdepartmental Collaboration: Efficient collaboration with suppliers, design teams, and various internal departments is critical to ensure seamless development and production of vehicle systems.
• NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness): Optimizing NVH characteristics in components such as chassis, steering systems, and electric drivetrains is essential for improving vehicle comfort and performance.

The client needed a reliable engineering partner capable of providing end-to-end support across multiple domains to ensure the smooth design, validation, and production of automotive systems.

Solutions

ALTEN China assembled a specialized team to address the client’s needs across several key areas of automotive engineering:

E/E Design & Validation

• Infotainment System Design & Development: Led the design and development of advanced infotainment systems, ensuring seamless integration with other vehicle subsystems.
• Infotainment Specifications & Testing: Released operation specifications for the infotainment system and conducted comprehensive display audio testing.
• Car-Machine Integration & Software Testing: Validated the integration between the vehicle’s infotainment and T-BOX, including Bluetooth, USB connections, navigation, reverse image systems, and WIFI.
• Electric Engine & Gearbox Validation: Conducted extensive bench and vehicle validation for electric engines and gearboxes, ensuring optimized performance and integration with vehicle powertrains.

Vehicle & Chassis Design & Testing

• STRG Mechanical Design: Designed the mechanical components of steering systems (STRG), ensuring high-quality performance and reliability in dynamic driving conditions.
• Drawing & Layout Verification: Conducted rigorous drawing checks and layout optimization for key components to ensure compatibility and functionality.
• NVH Optimization: Conducted NVH testing and optimization to enhance vehicle comfort and reduce undesirable noise, vibration, and harshness levels in the vehicle cabin.
• Supplier Coordination & Parts Analysis: Coordinated with suppliers and other engineering teams to ensure timely delivery and integration of parts. Also performed detailed part data analysis to identify potential performance issues.

Outcomes

Through close collaboration, ALTEN China delivered significant value to the client in the following key areas:

• Optimized System Integration: ALTEN’s expertise in infotainment design, electric engine validation, and chassis testing ensured that each system functioned seamlessly within the vehicle architecture.
• Enhanced Product Quality: The successful completion of extensive vehicle validation, NVH testing, and infotainment system validation helped ensure that the client’s vehicles met the highest standards of performance and comfort.
• Accelerated Time-to-Market: ALTEN’s end-to-end support across system design, testing, and supplier coordination helped reduce development timelines and enabled faster product launches.
• Improved System Reliability: Rigorous testing of electric engines, gearboxes, and infotainment systems led to improved product reliability and ensured the client could deliver vehicles with confidence.