Connected Car News: Volta, REE, Ansys, Ford, SolarEdge, Vodafone, Hyzon Motors & Toyota

In connected car news are Volta, REE, Ansys, Ford, SolarEdge, Vodafone, Hyzon Motors and Toyota.

Volta Picks Proterra

Volta Trucks, the full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer, has selected Proterra, a leading innovator in commercial vehicle electrification technology, as the battery supplier for the Volta Zero. The Volta Zero is the world’s first purpose-built, full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed specifically for inner city freight distribution.

his significant contract completes Volta Trucks’s strategic sourcing of the electric powertrain. Volta Zero vehicles are scheduled to start customer trials later in 2021, with tens of thousands of trucks expected on the roads soon after series production starts around 12 months later.

The Proterra-supplied battery will give the Volta Zero a real-world range of 200kms on a single charge. This distance is more than enough for most inner city logistics and distribution vehicles which spend most of their operating time in slow-moving start / stop traffic. The Proterra battery pack delivers industry-leading energy density and a customizable design. This allows the battery in the Volta Zero to be located between the chassis rails – its safest possible location for the design.

The collaboration represents US-based Proterra’s entry into the European truck market. Proterra’s battery technology has been proven over 17 million miles driven by its own transit vehicles and has also been chosen by other world-class commercial vehicle manufacturers to electrify delivery vans, school buses, coaches, low-floor shuttles, and construction equipment.

Proterra batteries feature passive and active safety features, liquid thermal conditioning, and adheres to state-of-the-art functional safety standards, including ISO 26262 (up to ASIL C). The Proterra battery is designed to deliver over 4,000 recharge cycles over 10 years, without significant degradation, to ensure the longevity of the vehicle.

Other Volta Charging Network for Bolt EV

Volta, the industry leader in commerce-centric electric vehicle (EV) charging networks, is partnering with Chevrolet to help introduce the new, all electric 2022 Bolt EUV and the redesigned Bolt EV. The Bolt EUV is part of GM’s overall electrification push to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025.

Regal Beloit & Rexnord

Regal Beloit Corporation and Rexnord Corporation announced that they have reached a definitive agreement whereby Rexnord will separate its Process & Motion Control (“PMC”) segment by way of a tax-free spin-off to Rexnord shareholders and then immediately combine it with Regal in a Reverse Morris Trust (“RMT”) transaction. Regal shareholders will own 61.4% and Rexnord shareholders will own 38.6% of the combined entity (“New Regal”), before a potential dividend to Regal shareholders and a corresponding ownership adjustment to Rexnord shareholders, sized at closing to ensure that RMT ownership requirements are met. Rexnord shareholders will continue to own 100% of the businesses’ Water Management platform.

REE Auto Merger

 REE Automotive (REE), a leader in e-Mobility, which recently announced its merger with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. announces the establishment of a new state-of-the-art Engineering Center of Excellence.
The new Engineering Center will expedite REE’s strategic plans to meet anticipated global demand for its breakthrough REEcorner and Electric Vehicle (EV) platform technology.
The Engineering Center will spearhead REEcorner and EV platform engineering design, validation, verification and testing, as well as product homologation. REE will also have access to world-class test facilities and a proving ground for physical testing and validation of the REEcorner and EV platform at the MIRA Technology Park in the UK.

Ansys Launches Moxie

Ansys  is equipping engineering teams to cut development time, boost productivity and speed innovation through the launch of Moxie. The new product enables engineers to run and analyze SysML behavioral models in virtual environments and confirm these designs represent systems that will satisfy mission performance requirements—from military aircraft performing reconnaissance to automated cars navigating cities to satellites capturing photos of forest fires.

Defining systems requirements with formalized SysML is becoming increasingly popular. However, if engineering teams do not evaluate and validate SysML architectures within a physics-based, virtual representation of their system’s operating environment, there is significant programmatic risk that the physical system resulting from the virtual system design will not satisfy mission performance objectives. A next-gen digital mission engineering solution, Moxie uniquely delivers continuous event detection during simulation runs, synchronizes execution of multiple simulation technologies and provides customizable levels of simulation fidelity.

Moxie reduces programmatic risk and costly rework by integrating SysML authoring tools with mission modeling tools such as AGI’s Systems Tool Kit (STK). Running SysML behavioral architectures in virtual operating environments enables engineers to validate system models against mission-level requirements rather than waiting to perform validation in the lifecycle when physical systems are available. Using Moxie, engineers also gain the unique ability to virtually assess their systems against potential new use cases — a task that would be too expensive or impossible to complete with physical systems.

Ford Joins IRMA

Ford has become the first American automaker to join the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, or IRMA, an expansion of the company’s commitment to safeguard human rights, communities where such work is done, and the broader environment.

The membership is another step towards the company’s human rights aspiration to responsibly source all raw materials used within vehicles globally – a journey Ford has been taking steps toward for over 20 years.

Ford has also committed to lead the electric vehicle and sustainable mobility revolution and nearly doubled, to $22 billion, what it will invest in developing EVs and create solutions.  That work will increase the company’s reliance on mined material, particularly related to production of electric vehicle batteries.

SolarEdge for E-Eucato

SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. announced that the Company has been selected and will begin to supply full electrical powertrain units and batteries for the production of the Fiat E-Ducato light commercial vehicle.

“We are excited to be a part of this significant moment for Stellantis as they introduce an electric version of the very popular Fiat E-Ducato light commercial vehicle to the European market. In combining our full electrical powertrains with Stellantis’ expertise, we are able to offer the market a best-in-class LCV e-mobility solution that responds to the needs of commercial customers and helps meet city centers’ carbon neutral goals,” said SolarEdge Chief Executive Officer, Zivi Lando. “We are honored to have been qualified as a tier 1 supplier of Stellantis and the sole supplier of full electrical powertrain units and batteries for the first production series of these vehicles.”

SolarEdge e-Mobility division is based on an acquisition made by SolarEdge in January 2019. The e-Mobility division develops end-to-end solutions for electric and hybrid vehicles, including innovative high-performing powertrains and software for electric vehicles. The acquisition has brought technological synergies to both companies and is part of the Company’s execution plan to expand its product offering beyond solar at a time when the world is undergoing a clean energy transformation and e-mobility revolution.

Vodaphone Tests Tracking

Autonomous trucks need to warn e-bikes of their presence to avoid accidents, first responders need to know the position of critical medical drones with pinpoint accuracy, and operators need to precisely locate precious cargo. Vodafone customers will have applications that do all that and more thanks to a new technology it is testing.

Vodafone has successfully used new precision positioning technology to remotely track a vehicle to within just 10 centimetres of its location, an improvement of more than three metres compared with current standard satellite based systems.  It did this in partnership with leading global positioning provider Sapcorda, using Vodafone’s global Internet of Things (IoT) platform – the largest in the world with 118 million connections.

Pinpoint accuracy is critical to the acceptance and mass adoption of autonomous vehicles not just on the road but in factories, airports, dockyards and any site where machines are in motion. A matter of centimetres could be crucial to ensuring the safety of passengers on a driverless bus, or knowing the precise location of a medical drone. It will also allow an autonomous truck to mind other road users, including cyclists, whose e-bikes can automatically transmit their position and intended direction of travel.

Vodafone Business Platforms and Solutions Director Justin Shields said: “We might not be able to locate a needle in a haystack yet, but we are getting close. What we can do now is take new digital services like this one, integrate it with our global IoT platform and fast networks, and offer it securely at scale to many millions of customers

Hyzon Motors Expands Ops in NY

Hyzon Motors Inc. the industry-leading global supplier of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell powered commercial vehicles, plans to further grow its operations in the Village of Honeoye Falls in , creating up to 100 new jobs over the next three years.

This follows Hyzon’s announcement on February 9, 2021 that it plans to go public through a merger with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: DCRB) in a deal that values the fuel-cell truck company at $2.7 billion.

Toyota Expands TMMWV

-To help meet customer demand, Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia (TMMWV) will invest $210 million to upgrade existing engine production and add 100 new jobs to increase assembly capacity of its four-cylinder engine line. Once complete, TMMWV’s total investment will be more than $1.8 billion and total employment will exceed 2,000.