Case Study: Vanderhall Motor Works accelerates all-electric UTV development with MathWorks Model-Based Design

From Virtual Vehicle to All-Electric Off-Road UTV in Less Than a Year

Vanderhall Motor Works, a small automotive manufacturer, faced the challenge of developing an all-electric powertrain and control systems from the ground up for its new UTV. Their initial attempt to integrate a third-party electric powertrain with existing vehicle components failed, as the systems could not communicate, resulting in a difficult-to-drive vehicle. Facing intense market pressure and with a small engineering team, they needed a way to virtually design and test control algorithms to minimize risks and accelerate development. Vanderhall turned to MathWorks and, along with specialized tools like Vehicle Dynamics Blockset and Powertrain Blockset. This allowed Vanderhall's engineers to build a virtual vehicle model to design, simulate, and test control systems for motor control and anti-lock braking. Partnering with NXP, they used Embedded Coder to generate code for automotive processors. As a result, a team of just three engineers designed, simulated, and deployed a working prototype in only eight months, drastically accelerating development and avoiding the need for extensive real-world testing with each code revision.

Vanderhall Motor Works

Christopher Johnson

Chief Technology Officer