How safety, emissions, noise, electronics, performance and manufacturing specialists turn a concept into a car that can be built and sold.
Automotive engineering combines mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety work to design, build and test cars, trucks and motorcycles. It runs in three main functions: development, production and manufacturing. Specialists handle crash safety, emissions, noise, performance and quality control.
Automotive engineering brings together mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering to design, build and run motorcycles, cars and trucks. It covers the whole life of a vehicle, from the first concept to the production line, and it relies heavily on mathematical models and testing. The discipline sits alongside aerospace engineering and naval architecture as a branch of vehicle engineering.
What is automotive engineering?
Automotive engineering is the branch of vehicle engineering that deals with the design, development, fabrication, testing and production of motorcycles, automobiles and trucks, along with their subsystems. It also includes modifying existing vehicles. The field is research intensive, and its work depends on direct application of mathematical models and formulas that predict how a design will behave.
Three major functions define the field: production, development and manufacturing. Development turns a concept into a design that can be tested, production covers the wider process of bringing a vehicle to market, and manufacturing makes the parts and assembles them. Engineers move a project through each stage, and each stage places different demands on the team.
A car is only as good as the trade-offs its engineers manage between power, fuel economy, noise, safety and cost.
Which engineering disciplines apply to a car?
Automobile engineering teaches the manufacture, design and operation of vehicles, and it draws on mechanical, electronic, software and safety engineering. The attributes that matter most to an automotive engineer include safety, fuel economy and emissions, noise and vibration, electronics, performance, durability, drivability and cost. Each one has its own testing methods and specialist teams.
Vehicle electronics has grown into one of the most important of these areas. A modern car employs dozens of electronic systems. Some control the throttle, brakes and steering, while others manage comfort and convenience features such as heating, ventilation, infotainment and lighting. Without electronic controls, a vehicle could not meet current safety and fuel economy requirements.
How does safety engineering test a car?
Safety engineering assesses how a vehicle behaves in various crash scenarios and what those crashes mean for occupants. Tests are carried out against demanding government regulations. Requirements include seat belt and airbag functionality, front and side impact performance, and rollover resistance. Engineers use computer crash simulation based on finite element analysis, along with crash-test dummies and partial or full vehicle crash tests.
Sled tests reproduce parts of a crash without destroying a whole vehicle, which makes them useful for development work. Full vehicle crashes confirm that the simulations and component tests add up to protection in the real world. The combination of methods lets engineers refine a design long before the first production car is built.
How are fuel economy and emissions measured?
Fuel economy is the measured efficiency of a vehicle, expressed in miles per gallon or kilometres per litre. Emissions testing measures what the vehicle releases into the air. That includes hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, along with evaporative emissions from the fuel system.
The two goals often conflict. A larger engine delivers more power, while a smaller one saves fuel, so engineers balance the two when planning a vehicle. Fuel economy also depends on factors other than engine size, including weight, aerodynamic drag, transmission gearing and emission control devices, all of which must be traded against each other.
What does NVH engineering do?
NVH stands for noise, vibration and harshness, and it concerns how a vehicle feels and sounds to its occupants. Customer feedback can be tactile, such as seat vibration or a buzz through the steering wheel, or audible, such as a rattle, squeal or hum. This feedback is usually produced by components rubbing, vibrating or rotating against one another.
NVH work falls into several groups, including powertrain NVH, road noise, wind noise, component noise and squeaks and rattles. The engineer's job is to remove bad noise and vibration, or to convert them into good ones. Exhaust tones are a familiar example of a sound that engineers deliberately shape rather than simply suppress.
How is performance and durability tested?
Performance is a measurable and testable value of a vehicle's ability to work in various conditions. It usually includes how quickly a car accelerates, measured as a 1/4 mile elapsed time from a standing start and as 0-60 mph. It also covers top speed, how quickly the car can stop from a set speed, such as 70-0 mph, and the g-force it can generate without losing grip.
Lap times, cornering speed and brake fade are also measured, as is the amount of control available in snow, ice and rain. Durability engineering checks how long a vehicle will last. Engineers accumulate mileage, subject it to harsh driving and run corrosive salt baths, which reveal how it will age in service.
| Test | What it measures | Example result |
|---|---|---|
| Acceleration | Standing start performance | 1/4 mile elapsed time and 0-60 mph |
| Braking | Stopping from a set speed | 70-0 mph |
| Durability | Life of the vehicle in service | Mileage accumulation and severe driving |
| Corrosion | Resistance to salt and damp | Corrosive salt baths |
| Drivability | Response to everyday conditions | Cold starts, stalls, idle response and launch hesitation |
What is shift quality and why does it matter?
Shift quality is the driver's perception of an automatic transmission shift. It is shaped by the powertrain, including the engine and transmission, and by the vehicle's driveline, suspension and mounts. Shift feel is both tactile and audible, and it can be judged in many events, from everyday upshifts to passing manoeuvres.
Engineers evaluate common shifts by name. An upshift during acceleration is a 1-2 event, while a downshift when passing is a 4-2 event. Shift engagements are also judged, for example the move from Park to Reverse. A smooth result in each case contributes to the overall impression of refinement.
How do cost and manufacturing shape a vehicle?
The cost of a vehicle programme is typically divided between its variable cost per vehicle and the up-front tooling and fixed costs of developing the car. Warranty reductions and marketing add further cost, and every new part must fit the development and manufacturing schedule of the model. Programmes are timed with the market and with the production schedules of assembly plants.
Design for manufacturability, or DFM, means designing components that are feasible to make, cost-efficient and capable of meeting specifications and tolerances. It requires close coordination between design engineers and assembly teams. Engineers who ignore manufacturing constraints can create parts that are expensive, slow or unreliable to produce.
How is quality controlled in automotive production?
Quality control is central to production, because high quality meets customer expectations and avoids expensive recall campaigns. The complexity of automotive components means that many tools and techniques are combined. The International Automotive Task Force, a group of leading manufacturers and trade organisations, developed the ISO/TS 16949 standard.
That standard defines the design, development, production and, where relevant, installation and service requirements. It combines the principles of ISO 9001 with regional and national automotive standards, including AVSQ in Italy, EAQF in France, VDA6 in Germany and QS-9000 in the United States. Functional safety for automotive electric and electronic systems is handled under ISO/IEC 17025.
Total quality management has been applied to automotive production since the 1950s. It aims to improve processes continuously, and companies including Ford, Motorola and Toyota have implemented it. The approach treats quality as an ongoing discipline rather than a final inspection.
What do development engineers do?
A development engineer coordinates the engineering attributes of a complete vehicle, whether a bus, car, truck, van, SUV or motorcycle. Those attributes are set by the manufacturer, by government regulations and by the customer who buys the product. The development engineer works like a systems engineer, watching how each system interacts with the rest of the vehicle.
Trade-offs are central to the job. An engine that delivers maximum power wants a large displacement, while fuel economy wants a smaller engine, so a choice between a 1.4 L and a 5.4 L engine is never simple. Development engineers also organise testing, validation and certification at the vehicle level, because interactions between systems only show up when the whole car is evaluated.
What do manufacturing engineers do?
Manufacturing engineers ensure that components and complete vehicles are produced properly. Where development engineers look after how the vehicle works, manufacturing engineers look after its safe and effective production. Their teams include process engineers, logistics coordinators, tooling engineers, robotics engineers and assembly planners.
Manufacturers now play a larger role in the early design stages so that products are easy to build. Once the design is settled, manufacturing engineers design the machinery and tooling and decide how to mass-produce the item. They also raise plant efficiency with lean techniques such as Six Sigma and Kaizen.
What other roles are there in automotive engineering?
Aerodynamics engineers advise the styling studio so that shapes are both attractive and aerodynamic. Body engineers tell the studio whether panels can be made as designed. Change control engineers make sure that every design and manufacturing change is organised, managed and implemented in a controlled way.
NVH engineers, as already noted, test sound and vibration to prevent loud cabin noise and detectable vibration, and to improve sound quality on the road. Their work sits alongside the other specialists, who together turn a design into a finished vehicle.
How are modern vehicles developed?
Studies suggest that a large share of a modern vehicle's value comes from intelligent systems, which account for much of current automotive innovation. Those systems bring mechatronics, the combination of mechanical and electronic engineering, into the core of the vehicle process. Configuration, performance optimisation, system integration and validation must all become a standard part of engineering, alongside structural, vibro-acoustic and kinematic design.
The V-model is one way to manage this complexity. System requirements flow down through subsystems to component design, and performance is validated at increasing levels of integration. Automakers have leaned on it for twenty years or more. Mechatronic systems need two interconnected V-cycles, one for the physical system and one for the control logic and software.
