Development process

Styling development cycle

Several manufacturers have slightly varied development cycles for designing an Automobile, but in practice these are the following.

• Design and User Research

• Concept Development sketching

• Class A surfaces

• Clay modeling

• Interior Buck Model

• Vehicle ergonomics

• Class A surfaces

• Colour and Trim

• Vehicle Graphics

The design process occurs concurrently with other product Engineers who will be engineering the styling data for meeting performance, manufacturing and safety regulations. From mid-phase, back and forth interactions between the designers and product engineers culminates into a finished product be manufacturing ready.

Apart from this the Engineering team parallelly works in the following areas. Product Engineering (Body In White Sheetmetal Design and Plastic engineering), NVH Development team, Prototype development, Powertrain engineering, Physical Vehicle validation, Tool and Die development and Manufacturing process design.

Development team

The styling team for a specific model consists of a chief designer and an Exterior as well as interior designer. In some cases all three roles are done by one designer. Several junior designers are involved in the development process as well who make specific contributions all overseen by the chief designer. Apart from this the Color and trim designer works closely with other designers. The Clay model team and Digital model team works closely with the styling team all located within the studio. Apart from this there would be studio head, studio managers and prototype engineers who would work across all teams in the studio. The total team size for developing a full sedan usually ranges from 25 to 40 members and the development time lasts for more than 24 months till signed-off for tooling and production. Thereafter a smaller team would be working until vehicle launch.

Components

Integration of an automobile involves fitting together separate parts to form a monocoque body or units and mounting these onto a frame, the chassis.

An automobile chassis basically comprises the following:

1. The body shell, which forms the skeleton of the vehicle.
2. The engine, is the power unit of the vehicle; which in the past has been in large part, the internal combustion engine.
3. Transmission system, which aids in transferring the drive from the engine to the wheels. Its main components are the clutch, gearbox, final drive, and differential.
4. Suspension system, which is used to connect the wheels to the body or chassis frame.
5. Steering
6. Brakes
7. Electrical equipment

The chassis is complete in itself as a road vehicle. It can drive and control itself just as in case of a complete car and therefore, in many motor works, the chassis is usually tested on the road before the complete body of the vehicle is attached as the chassis alone can behave as the propulsion means.