Digital Twin in Automobile Industry
Published on : Friday 02-08-2024
Enterprises should readily adopt digital twins and experiment early with multiple use cases of these technologies, says Madhumay.
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Digital Twin technology is the convergence of physical and digital realms where every tangible asset has a virtual counterpart. It harnesses the power of data streams to create a digital doppelganger that mirrors the real-world asset it represents. Through a harmonious fusion of simulation technology and data gathered from various sources – be it sensors, historical records, or other data troves – engineers weave a virtual tapestry that duplicates the physical object or process in detail. Digital twin is a dynamic, ever-evolving entity not just a static replica.
Digital twin technology has applications in various industries including the automobile industry. It is creating digital replicas of vehicles; manufacturers can optimise design, enhance performance, and improve safety features, paving the way for the future of smart and autonomous vehicles.
Digital twin adoption and usage in the automotive industry
According to the Digital Twin Global Survey Report by Altair, 76% of automotive respondents said their organisations already leverage digital twin technology. The automotive sector’s response was seven points higher than the overall survey’s average (69%). 28% of these respondents said their organisation began investing in digital twins within the past six months or sooner; 29% said about a year ago, 20% said about one and a half to two years ago, and 9% said three or more years ago.
Impact of digital twin in automobile industry
To understand the intersection of Digital Twin in Automobile Industry, Let is consider the below automotive product life cycle of the industry. I have categorised the whole life cycle into 3 segments: Product Development Life Cycle; Manufacturing Value Chain; and Vehicle Sales and Service.
Digital twin in product development life cycle
In the target market identification, competitor benchmarking and designing, there are challenges of a lot of scattered data across the organisations. There is a lack of integration for the customer feedback to the integration of those data in modern designs. Development cycle is more centred towards designers than the end user customers. Here, Digital Twin can make a lot of impact by Communicating between designers, stakeholders, and end customers (product clinics) to be more interactive and faster. Digital twin can hold the complete data of product lifecycle. Leveraging digital twins at this stage can bridge this data gap to improve the performance of simulation tests. Reusability of proven models and simulations can enable rapid assessment of change impacts and early discovery of issues.
Digital twin in the manufacturing value chain
Machine down time during production hours (1 minute five of downtime costs $22000 due to unexpected stoppages). Using digital twins, it is possible to first hand predict the failures and stop the unwanted event occurrence on machines and thus potentially save a lot of cost incurred. Skilled manpower which is a major challenge in the industry and going forward many of these talents are retiring in the next 10 years. Digital twin can help in training a large workforce by providing real-time, on-site, step-by step visual guidance on tasks such as product assembly, component design, machine operation, etc.
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Digital twin in vehicle sales and service
There is a need for effective consumer data management in the competitive world both at the retailer and the OEM ends. The customers are now looking for elevated retail buying experiences. Digital twin can bring up insights on driver preferences and attributes to build this view to upsell/cross sell and Sales experience can be enhanced by intricately connecting augmented reality with digital twin.
Enterprises should readily adopt digital twins and experiment early with multiple use cases of these technologies at firsthand. This will also increase their speed to market and thus enhance their competitive advantage. Digital twin will be able to keep multiple segments under a single umbrella which will make it easier for them to outperform their peers.
Sources:
1. https://altair.com/blog/articles/examining-the-data-on-digital-twin-in-the-automotive-industry
2. 2022 Digital Twin Global Survey Report, Altair.
3. Digital Twin in the Automotive Industry, TCS.
Article Courtesy: NASSCOM Community – an open knowledge sharing platform for the Indian technology industry: https://community.nasscom.in/communities/digital-transformation/digital-twin-automobile-industry
Madhumay is Deputy Manager – Research at NASSCOM. His areas of interest include emerging technology, digital twin, Industry 4.0, and deeptech, among others.
Future of Automotive Industry worth 104 million units by 2030 – MarketsandMarkets
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Automotive Industry, encompassing PV, LCV, and MHCV, size is projected to grow from 88 million units in 2024 and is projected to hit 104 million units by 2030, at a CAGR of 2.4%, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The growth of the automotive industry is influenced by various factors such as adoption of electric vehicles, development and manufacturing of long-range batteries along with installation of fast and ultra-fast charging points, introduction of autonomous vehicles, deployment of 5G connectivity and trends related to shared mobility.
The introduction of autonomous cars with enhanced safety features and higher level of automation is shifting the trends in the automotive market. Numerous OEMs are introducing Level 2 (L2) and Level 3 (L3) autonomous vehicles, including Nissan (Japan), Honda (Japan), Audi (Germany), BMW (Germany), and Mercedes-Benz (Germany). OEMs such as BMW and Mercedes have received approval for L3 autonomous vehicles in Germany and the US, respectively. BMW has also received approval to test its L3 vehicles in Shanghai, China. We expect L3 vehicle sales to gain pace in 2024 as these OEMs start rolling out their L3 models. In addition to testing the cars on roads several tech giants and OEMs have adopted acquisition strategies to take over smaller companies that operate in the space of developing driverless or autonomous technology. The number of Level 3 (L3) autonomous vehicles is projected to grow at a CAGR of 86.5% between 2023 and 2030. The Level 4 (L4) autonomous vehicle market is expected to experience limited commercial growth, primarily in select markets.
Asia-Pacific region hold the major share in the sales volume of PV and CV combined. The major factor for this is the intensive manufacturing and export of cars in China. The Chinese market is the world's largest market in terms of vehicle sales as well as production. In 2023, China's sales volume for passenger vehicles was over 25 million units, with a share of around 50% globally. China is the most dominant nation in automotive industry with respect to supplying raw materials, manufacturing as well as its sales. China has the most powerful supply chain of EV batteries. Over 50% of the EV batteries are manufactured in China. Moreover, around 75% of the components of EV batteries are manufactured in China. These Chinese manufacturers are looking to expand their services and acquire additional market share around the world. The Asia region has seen growth in automobile production in 2022 and 2023. Continuing this trend, the Asia region will dominate the market during the forecast period.
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