Lotus Designed Their Own Computer-Aided Engineering Tools

So, lotus designed their own computer-aided engineering tools that closely monitor the high voltage tray and cooling system within the battery. Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) is when you use software to simulate the effects of different conditions on a given designer product. So, you can play with simulated loads and constraints to find breaking points, flaws, any variable you want to test, you can do it.

These virtual prototypes are called digital twins. In fact, I have an actual twin, and I absorbed him in the womb. Lotus's virtual innovation isn't limited just to figuring out how their battery works. Oh no, they've even gotten into digital casting. They've used this digital twin to model casting processes. They've determined all the material properties and structural performance of the castings under crash conditions, extreme loading conditions.

All of that with just a computer. As you can imagine, going this route as opposed to building real-world prototypes is saving Lotus a lot of time and money. Which makes sense right? Because everything is in the middle now; nothing is real. We're all just a bunch of ones and zeros now. Thanks, Zuck!

The L in LEVA stands for Lightweight. Let's get into the meat potatoes here. Where is Lotus looking when it comes to shedding pounds? The rear subframe of LEVA uses a high-strength, high-ductility aluminum alloy. This means that the metal is very, very strong but still able to be molded into unique shapes without worry or failure.

And it's manufactured via a revolutionary low-pressure die-casting process designed to produce higher-quality metal. So, in traditional casting, liquid metal is poured into a mold and allowing gravity to do the work. In die-casting, the metal is ejected via pressure rather than gravity.

The advantage of that is having a higher quality part. If you want to know more about the casting process, we did a whole video on it. Click right here now. Because that metal is injected under pressure, it's more uniform throughout the cast. Resulting in low porosity and reduced oxide formation. So, you have less microscopic holes and cavities throughout the piece.

Meaningless chances for corrosion and impurities that would lead to failure when it becomes stressed. Thank you, science! Even better, Lotus is making this new setup commercially available. Alpine and Renault are already on board, and more manufacturers are likely to follow suit.

Many electric and hybrid vehicles still roll on retrofitted platforms, old gasoline vehicle chassis that have been modified to accept the electric drivetrain. This is less than ideal from an engineering standpoint. Sure, it can be done; oh, you can do it. But it'll never be as good as when you just design it from scratch.

So, this means that in the future, upgrading your electric vehicle's batteries or Edu could be faster than putting a new engine in your old Volkswagen. Last night, I had a dream. I was on this ranch, and there were horses everywhere. Not just regular horses, big, beautiful, sturdy buff horses.

That place is called Buff Horse Ranch. Unfortunately, that was just a dream. But these shirts we made are 100 real and 100 cotton. Available now at Donut Media.com.

Thank you guys so much for watching this episode of B2B! If you want to see more nerdy science content, click that like button and the subscribe button. If you've got any ideas for some beta bees that you want to see us kind of nerd out on, leave a comment down below. I read the comments still; I go through those; I see what you guys are saying.

Okay, you don't catch me in the comments; dm me on Instagram; Jeremiah Burton. Follow me there. Follow us on Donut Donut Media, yeah! Thank you guys so much and until next week, bye for now!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhate them or love them evs they're fun they tingle your insides just as good as any dyno juice power car but if we look at all the pluses associated with electric cars there's one thing that they are not that is light too bad i don't like my cars like i like my moms heavy but what if you could take all the good things that come with an ev and pull the poundage down a little bit well that's exactly what the engineers at lotus have been thinking and today we're gonna figure out how they're putting electric cars on a diet no more cookies for you lotus huge thanks to nordvpn for sponsoring today's video that's right sir everyone watching is signed up bye-bye all right that was mr nord on the phone and he's so happy you all downloaded nordvpn wait what what do you mean you're not taking your online safety seriously guys if he finds out i'm in big trouble please you gotta protect your online privacy today by downloading nordvpn it's easy to use and keeps your browser safe behind a wall of high powered encryption stay hidden by choosing from over 5200 lightning fast servers in 60 countries and don't worry nordvpn isn't just another vpn they've got a new feature called threat protection to give you even more comprehensive security against malicious ads harmful websites and it even blocks trackers speaking of trackers nordvpn doesn't collect share or do any tracking whatsoever so you can safely google are jeremiah and job the same person without anyone ever knowing so don't wait download it today on windows android ios mac os and even linux the best part is it's all risk-free thanks to mr nord's 30-day money-back guarantee get our exclusive nordvpn deal by visiting nordvpn.com donutnordvpn now let's get back to the show lotus recently announced its plans to roll out an all-new electric lineup starting in 2026 but for a company whose entire ethos is built upon adding lightness electric cars are putting their belief system to the test evs ain't no skinny boys like my boy nolan oh no they're freaking honkers and even sporty electric cars like the model s weigh in at about 4 500 pounds that's a thousand pounds heavier than nolan's mustang but thankfully for lotus they aren't new to the electric game tesla's roaster that's the car that elon musk literally put in space was built on a lotus elise platform and lotus's new experiment the lotus evaya via is intended to be the world's fastest election production car with four electric motors producing a total of 1970 horsepower 1972 that's a year that shouldn't be a horsepower and of course it is light while electric cars like the rimac navera tip the scales at a burley 4 700 pounds the aviya comes in at a relatively small 3 700 pounds the problem is is that's still not light enough for lotus so what's the solution solution is lego or the automotive version of lego in this case leyva that stands for lightweight electric vehicle architecture and it's aiming to change the way we look at electric cars so in typical lotus fashion they've taken every aspect of what makes an electric vehicle special the huge amounts of power the weight distribution and the unique layout possibilities and they well they simplified it the leva project is lotus's take on an ev chassis a modular design that incorporates several wheelbases battery layouts and electric motors and it's based around a rear subframe that lotus claims is 37 percent lighter than its last internal combustion car amira so the purpose of the leva system is to allow for multiple configurations by having the ability to swap in and out various parts to meet the car's needs you want more motors yeah sure throw an extra motor in there you need a longer wheelbase to add an extra seat not a problem you want to change up the battery location or you can have a traditional chest battery behind the seats or you can have a slab battery underneath the floor viva allows for a more simple approach to building multiple models and that's a pretty big deal for low volume manufacturers like lotus and alpine it gives them the ability to design and build multiple entirely different models without having to independently develop a platform for each now on the flip side this system necessitates some pretty wild changes to standard ev design that we may see take over how the big boys in the ev market make cars aka tesla gm ford even you know the big the big boys now it's no surprise that existing ev batteries would get in the way of a system that's modular if you're moving your battery all over the place you can't just use any old battery so lotus has designed an all-new battery pack to be used with this platform that allows for both flat and stacked configurations meaning that you can use the same battery for both a two-seater sports car configuration or a longer wheelbase suv at 400 volts and at 800 volts with minimal changes lotus says this new battery maximizes gravity metric and volumetric energy densities through advanced integration there's a lot of words right there that is just an over-the-top way of saying it makes better use of the amount of energy the system contains in relation to its mass and volume thanks to how efficiently it's put together now with a fancy new battery like this you can imagine that a whole new method of analyzing battery health will be needed so lotus designed their own computer-aided engineering tools that closely monitor the high voltage tray and cooling system within the battery computer-aided engineering or cae is when you use software to simulate the effects of different conditions on a given designer product so you can play with simulated loads and constraints to find breaking points flaws any variable you want to test you can do it these virtual prototypes are called digital twins i in fact have an actual twin and i absorbed him in the womb lotus's virtual innovation isn't limited just to figuring out how their battery works oh no they've even gotten into digital casting they've used this digital twin to model casting processes they've determined all the material properties and structural performance of the castings under crash in extreme loading conditions all with just a computer so as you can imagine going this route as opposed to building real world prototypes is saving lotus a lot of time and a lot of money which makes sense right because you can do everything virtually these days you can buy mansions that cost more than actual mansions lots of land art currency clothing for your digital self cars for your digital self so why not have digital crash tests you know because everything is in the middle first nothing is real we're all just a bunch of ones and zeros now thanks zuck you that's all great and futuristic but the l in leva stands for light weight so let's get into the meat potatoes here where is lotus looking when it comes to shedding pounds the rear subframe of leva uses a high strength high ductility aluminum alloy this means that the metal is very very strong but still able to be molded into unique shapes without worry or failure and it's manufactured via a revolutionary low pressure die casting process designed to produce higher quality metal so in traditional casting liquid metal is poured into a mold and allowing gravity to do the work in die casting the metal is ejected via pressure rather than gravity the advantage of that you have a higher quality part if you want to know more about the casting process we did a whole video on it click right here now because that metal is injected under pressure it's more uniform throughout the cast resulting in low porosity and reduced oxide formation so you have less microscopic holes and cavities throughout the piece meaning less chances for corrosion and impurities that would lead to failure when it becomes stressed thank you science even better lotus is making this new setup commercially available alpine and renault they're already on board and more manufacturers are likely to follow suit many electric and hybrid vehicles stay roll on retrofitted platforms old gasoline vehicle chassis that have been modified to accept the electric drivetrain and this is less than ideal from an engineering standpoint sure it can be done oh you can do it but it'll never be as good as when you just design it from scratch so this means that in the future upgrading your electric vehicle's batteries or edu could be faster than putting a new engine in your old volkswagen last night i had a dream i was on this ranch there were horses everywhere not just regular horses big beautiful sturdy buff horses that place it's called buff horse ranch now unfortunately that was just a dream but these shirts we made are 100 real and 100 cotton available now at donutmedia.com thank you guys so much for watching this episode of b2b if you uh you want to see more nerdy science content click that like button and the subscribe button if you've got any ideas for some beta bees that you want to see us kind of nerd out on leave a comment down below uh i read the comments still i go through those i see what you guys are saying okay you don't catch me in the comments dm me on instagram jeremiah burton follow me there follow us on donut donutmedia yeah thank you guys so much and until next week bye for now and it's based around a real subframe that lotus claims is 37 percent lighter than its last internal combustion car the evisia oh god damn it i should have taken that class i should i wish i wasn't born with stupid jeans i wish i wasn't born with the dummy pronunciation gene thanks dad maybe i got it from my mom though who knows