The Ultimate Analysis

The analysis of competitor vehicles is part of the new vehicle development process for all vehicle manufacturers; it provides valuable data to classify one’s own product against the competition. Benchmarking can provide further insight regarding the design criteria used by competitors in the development of their own vehicles. FEV is a long-term automotive industry partner regarding the benchmarking of vehicles and combustion engines.

Over the last 25 years, standardized processes have been developed for the measurement of various assessment criteria for both complete vehicles and individual components, allowing FEV to compare client products to those of the competitors under the same boundary conditions and to classify them with regard to a wide range of assessment criteria. For example, standards for measuring a fuel consumption map for an engine on the test bench can be precisely defined and scatterbands can be developed for assessment.

Individual Analyses

The measurement technology equipment of vehicles and components is very different in the various disciplines and adapted to the requirements of the particular project. This ranges from the simple measurement of relevant temperatures and pressures to complex energy management analyses in complete vehicles. This analysis includes, for example, complete cylinder pressure indication, torque and speed measurement at the transmission inlet and outlet, detection of mass flows of all relevant media, and the electrical energy flows in the electrical system.

Evaluation with the Help of Scatterbands

At FEV, scatterbands are used in the evaluation of vehicles and engines in all areas of benchmarking. This ranges from the simple assessment of fuel consumption as a function of vehicle mass in both certification and real driving cycles through friction scatterbands for individual components such as the valve train or oil pump. Also design parameters of components which have been measured in the parts analysis can be classified with respect to the competition. These are, for example, bearing diameter or the stroke / bore ratio.

Synergy and Cost-Efficient Collaborations

At FEV GmbH, benchmark testing can be carried out either as specific projects for individual clients or summarized in the form of programs that involve several clients, in order to reduce cost and share the collected measurement data. “Therefore, it is often possible to buy individual measurement data from completed benchmark testing or to participate in ongoing testing in order to keep the costs reasonable for all involved parties,” explains Peter Schmitt, Project Manager Benchmarking at FEV. “One example of this is our most recent benchmark analysis of an Audi A4 2.0 TFSI Ultra with the new Miller cycle combustion process.”