Everrati - Electrifying Classic Cars

EVERRATI: GIVING CLASSIC VEHICLES A NEW LEASE OF LIFE THROUGH ELECTRIFICATION

It’s no secret that fossil fuels are being replaced with newer, more sustainable technologies, but many companies are looking to release new vehicles, designed, and manufactured from the ground up. Everrati however is taking existing cars, classic and iconic vehicles and converting them retrospectively. We took the opportunity to speak to the team about why they chose to move into such a unique area of the electric vehicle movement.

“We all love cars. We all have an instant grin when we see an old classic or hear the roar of a V8. In the reality we live in fossil fuels are being phased out and we all must play our parts to achieve a sustainable future.” Explains Ryan Worthington, Mechanical Design Engineer at Everrati, “So, for the guys like me who want to keep these vehicles on the road this is what we have to do to be responsible in today’s times.”

When it comes to passion for classic cars, Everrati has the biggest fans you could find, so much so that their top priority is ensuring that throughout this conversion process, they don’t lose or hinder any of the existing core characteristics of the vehicles.

Everything from the interiors, down to the way the ocar itself handles and feels to the driver, is a process they take very seriously.

“The most important consideration to Everrati when converting a classic car is making sure that we produce a quality product that drivers will enjoy. A lot of this enjoyment factor comes from preserving the original characteristics of the car as much as possible.” Explains Ryan. “One of the ways we seek to achieve this is by taking original corner weights of the car, establishing its original centre of gravity and replicating this in SOLIDWORKS.”

Once Everrati has decided where within the vehicle they’re going to mount the units from their technology package, they will then tweak the positions of the units to ensure the centre of gravity is as close to the original as possible. This allows the team to create a product that feels and drives as the car should.

SCANNING & SIMULATION – THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Before agreeing to take on a project, the first thing Everrati do is carry out a feasibility test, this involves taking a 3D scan of the entire vehicle before analysing it in SOLIDWORKS.

“We then utilise this (the 3D Scan) within SOLIDWORKS to package our existing technology that we have validated to understand how we can best utilise the spaces within the vehicle.” Mike explains.

One of the largest challenges that Everrati faces when taking on a project is working out whether the original subframes can sustain the loads generated by an electric engine. To do this, they rely on the ability to simulate and analyse peak powers and torque using SOLIDWORKS Simulation.

“We use SOLIDWORKS Simulation in the design of our cars predominantly to ensure the safety and useability of our vehicle.”, Elaborates Ryan, “Electric motors produce far more torque than the original combustion engines, so we use Simulation to double check and ensure that the mounting positions are going to be robust enough to sustain the extra power.”

In addition to this, the team at Everrati also use Static Simulations to carry out crash loading tests to ensure that the vehicle is as safe as possible and complies with modern day safety standards.

UNLOCKING COLLABORATION WITH THE CLOUD

As Everrati begins its expansion, the collaboration between sites and departments has never been more crucial. To help enable this, Everrati has been implementing the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform; a single, unified environment for all business activities, from design, engineering and operations to sales and marketing.

“As Everrati grows and we expand into new markets, such as South America, having a cloud-based system like 3DEXPERIENCE will allow our teams to work much more easily.” Explains Alex Hedges, Mechanical Design Engineer at Everrati, “This [3DEXPERIENCE] will help everybody see one version of the car we’re working on and be able to work from wherever they are to get the job done.”

Using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables Everrati to ensure that no matter where their engineers are based, they’re all working off the latest versions of CAD data. It also allows the team to work on project data anytime, anywhere and from any device, making it perfect to support business continuity in the age of the new normal.

“3DEXPERIENCE is helpful for a cloud storage space for its meaning, any of us can access the files wherever we are. It’s also a really good tool for allowing the rest of the company not just to engineers and designers to see the files. It means they can log on and see reviewer parts through something like 3D play without having to have SOLIDWORKS.” States Alex.

Supported by the Business Transformation Team

Everrati is a customer of Solid Solutions's Business Transformation team. This team is comprised of experienced members from Solid Solutions, Desktop Engineering ltd. and Design Rule ltd. and is uniquely positioned to deliver Dassault Systèmes portfolio of products and solutions, including: CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA, SIMULIA and the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. If your business is looking to expand beyond the typical SOLIDWORKS portfolio into enterprise level solutions then the Business Transformation team is here to assist. Find out more about our Business Transformation solutions.