Applications of Advanced High-Strength Steels for Automotive Structures – Haulage Load body for EV

To develop a Light weight Load body structure for Electric haulage vehicle application without affecting strength & durability of the product. Conventional haulage Load body given for diesel vehicle application weight is approximately 20% of vehicle Kerb weight. Payload carried by customer does not get affected much. Electric vehicle Kerb weight is comparatively higher than diesel vehicle, due to battery packs & its mounting structures. So the payload carried by customer is getting affected. Hence Load body weight must be reduced to 10-15% of Kerb weight. By considering past field failure data, customer loading pattern, durability trials & CAE static structural analysis, light weight Load body is designed with optimized sections & HSS material. To delight the customers, Number of Floor cross members & sideboard pillars not reduced which is their first impression before buying any haulage vehicle. Multiple iterations & design failure mode effective analysis was done before finalizing the design. During design of Load body, care was taken to address Packaging challenges due to EV architecture. Final arrived weight & BOM cost of Load body was well within the target and met the requirement. To improve design confidence, strain measurement & fatigue life estimation carried out at critical locations like sub frame, panel, mounting brackets & cross members and the results were satisfactory.