For the last month our vehicle testing programme has gone virtual. 

The really tricky area has always been the power electronics. Almost everyone agrees that we are on the brink of a revolution in vehicle design. Amidst divergent and robust opinions on the powertrains and fuels that will replace the conventional fossil-fueled combustion engine, there is a surprising level of agreement on one step change in technology – a shift from a mechanical platform to an electrical platform.  Ever since this modern trend started, the power electronics have been notorious for being the trickiest area of all in getting a new vehicle off the drawing board and on to the road. Light, efficient and robust electronics are tough to get right. 

However, we'd succeeded in getting enough real results before Christmas at the Cranfield test bed to validate the current network electric model. In other words, we know we really do have a power train that works through a regulatory duty cycle. Since then, it has been a matter of developing our knowledge – and our confidence – on how we can get the best performance from the system, and how it will stand up to being driven harder and harder.  We're dealing with high voltages and currents here, and both large and rapid changes and reversals of current. And the consequent voltage spikes are, of course, what is most prone to damage sensitive components. Happily, it's possible to simulate these conditions very accurately in a computer model, rather than necessarily testing everything to actual destruction. Not only possible, but a lot quicker, less costly, and generally more efficient. So that's what we've been doing. The virtual model we built over Christmas has been getting a really thorough work-out ever since in the labs in Oxford. 

Meanwhile, we've been building everything into the actual car, so that when the computer model tells us we are ready to run to the limits of our design envelope without fear of failure, the vehicle will be ready to put that into action.

I'll get back to this blog shortly to report on progress. 

Hugo