The Ricardo and Roke partnership is launching a comprehensive vehicle digital resilience assessment and benchmarking service to help automakers and tier 1 manufacturers assure the security of their products, and to ensure that they meet international cyber security regulations currently under development, as well as existing legislation affecting customer data security.

Across many areas of industry and commerce, fast-paced changes in technology, business models and consumer preferences and expectations mean that access to flexible, relevant and highly informed advice and expertise can be crucial to success. The model of internal talent creation, backed up by specialist consulting support, has served many businesses well over the years.

  An innovative project, ‘DC share’, will develop and trial a solution that shares capacity across existing AC electricity distribution network substations, enabling increased numbers of high power EV chargers to be connected to the network at lower cost.

Mike Bell joins Ricardo as Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) to spearhead the company’s forward plans on future product, technology and service innovation. Bell brings to Ricardo an extremely broad-ranging body of experience, having guided technology development initiatives across multiple sectors - from energy and telecoms to utilities, public sector bodies and the automotive industry, and from major IT systems to IoT concepts.

It has been revealed that Ricardo played a crucial role in the development of JCB’s Fastrac tractor, which Guy Martin was shown powering to a new Guinness World Records speed record with a speed of 135.191mph, on Sunday night’s Channel 4 documentary, Guy Martin: The World’s Fastest Tractor.

  Agreement builds on a successful relationship with DS Performance, including the design and supply of transmissions for last season’s car which won both the drivers and teams championships.

Investment by Ricardo in gear manufacturing machine tools has improved productivity and extended capability, as the recent investment of £1.5m in a Klingelnberg spiral bevel grinder has begun delivering market ready components - underlining the company’s commitment to meeting the needs of its customers for high performance transmissions.

  The 2019.2 release of powertrain design and optimisation software from Ricardo provides enhancements across the entire suite of products, helping customers deliver cleaner and more efficient products faster to market.

In a free webinar to be hosted by Automotive World at 3pm BST (10am EST / 4pm CET) on 24th October, Asif Farooq and Peter Martin of Ricardo will provide an insight into the development of sophisticated vehicle powertrain control systems using a Model Predictive Control approach - saving significant development time and cost over conventional control and calibration methods and technology.

Ricardo has a longstanding reputation for the creation of high quality, cost effective special vehicles for the world’s armed forces, based both on bespoke concepts and on the adaptation of existing automotive platforms to meet the required level of robustness and in-field serviceability. The company was responsible, for example, for the design and construction of a fleet of WMIK light attack Land Rovers and the all-new Foxhound vehicles, b...

  At the Aachen Colloquium, to be hosted on 7-9th October, Ricardo and Geely will present research work into the application of the Ricardo Magma xEV gasoline engine concept into a commercial vehicle series hybrid powertrain, delivering an impressive 45% brake thermal efficiency.

The final programme has been announced for the sixth annual Ricardo Motorcycle Conference - Riding Future Technologies - to be hosted in Milan on 4th November 2019. The Ricardo Motorcycle conference is now firmly established as a must-attend event in the motorcycle industry calendar. As in previous years, it will be hosted in Milan on the day before the start of EICMA, the premier global trade show for two-wheeled transport.

  Early results of an R&D project to develop a scalable Electric Drive Unit (EDU) for future electric vehicles is amongst the highlights of Ricardo’s presence at the CTI’s 8th International Congress and Expo, to be hosted on 24th-25th September 2019, in Shanghai, China.

Pressures to reduce and eliminate emissions, improve urban air quality and reduce the carbon intensity of transportation, mean that the wide-scale electrification and hybridisation of vehicles is becoming a reality. This presents a challenge to the product development process to deliver vehicles which are cost effective, attractive for customers and compliant with international regulations.

Ricardo is to begin manufacture of the latest range of transmission designs for the ABB FIA Formula E Championship 2020. This marks the start of the company’s fourth year of supporting customers in the all-electric street race competition. The FIA Formula E Championship started in 2011; nine manufacturers take part, including Jaguar, BMW, Audi, Nissan, DS and Mahindra.

  The automotive industry is one of the key sectors of Europe’s economy and its largest manufacturing industry, providing over 12 million direct and indirect jobs and representing about 5.6% of the EU workforce. It is also a leading source of technology development, giving rise to innovations that benefit many other sectors.

As the automotive industry seeks to electrify its product ranges, the thermal management of high capacity batteries used for EVs is proving a significant challenge. The performance and efficiency of battery cells can deteriorate - and their ageing can be accelerated - if operating temperatures exceed the upper or lower limits of a comparatively narrow range. In extreme cases, exceeding upper operating limits can risk thermal runaway of cells, lea...

  A Ricardo report for ATIEL - the technical association representing manufacturers and marketers in the European lubricants industry - highlights the direct and indirect contributions that automotive engine lubricants can make to improved vehicle fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions.

The 5StarS consortium - which brings together key research bodies Ricardo, Roke, HORIBA MIRA, Thatcham Research and Axillium Research to address the cyber security threat - has launched its proposed assurance framework for connected and autonomous vehicle cyber security from design to end of life, following a two-year research project funded by Innovate UK.

Ricardo is collaborating with the US Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Intel, Intel Mobileye, Lyft, SAE International, and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, to deliver an industry workshop to evaluate current perspectives on Automated Driving Systems (ADS) safety.