Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance Accelerates Chassis Development with Altair SimSolid

Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance, a strategic partnership between Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors, was facing a significant challenge in reducing the weight of their vehicles to stay competitive in the automotive industry. The company aimed to decrease the mass on chassis components by combining new, lighter material Alu with topology optimization. However, the traditional simulation methods such as finite element analysis, while helpful in developing lighter and affordable cars, were time-consuming. The company needed a new, easy-to-use simulation tool that would enable non-experts, part-time analysts, and designers to gain insights and accurate results in the early design phases of Renault vehicles chassis projects and projects for production line tooling/conveyors. The challenge was to find a solution that could reduce the lead time on the development of its products, aligning with the corporate initiative “FAST” (Future-Ready At-Scale Transformation).

Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance is a strategic partnership between the automobile manufacturers Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors. The alliance has 122 manufacturing plants worldwide with nearly 450,000 employees controlling ten major brands: Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Infiniti, Renault Samsung, Dacia, Alpine, Datsun, Venucia, and Lada. The ambition of the alliance is to offer autonomous drive, connectivity features, and services on a wide range of affordable vehicles. The Renault Chassis Le Mans plant, which is building car-to-ground connecting components for the Renault Group and for the Alliance, houses the CTC Chassis Technical Center, a CAD engineering center where 350 engineers and technicians focus on testing and validation.