60 Second Spotlight on Ben Gale, HORIBA MIRA
Ahead of the Instrumentation, Analysis and Testing Exhibition at Silverstone on 26 March we caught up with Ben Gale to hear his thoughts on the Drive to Net Zero.
Please briefly explain your current role and involvement with net zero engineering.
I’m a senior technical sales lead for Net Zero and Vehicle propulsion group. I now specialise in Thermal energy management and Vehicle Control software but during my 7 years at MIRA have led generically over many areas such as battery development, battery validation, electrical design reviews, energy benchmarking. Across all vehicle types from ICE, Hybrid and BEV (H2 is my colleague)
How would you say your industry has evolved over the past 5 years?
The last 5 years has seen huge change. The competencies of the OEMs has grown and the start ups have made big strides to get vehicles to market. Even during Covid it was incredibly busy, obviously the physical development stalled but we are now in the bow-wave of catch up. Saying that, 2024 looks like the start of a totally new era with an explosion of new developments (and thermal finally feels like a priority!)
What is the main challenge facing your industry at the moment?
It depends on your outlook I guess.
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- Adoption of EV by the masses looks to be excellent (albeit reported as “slowing”).
- “Range anxiety” is dwindling and being replaced, rightly, by “charge anxiety”… even now the number of chargers you can see on main trunk roads/service stations is exploding so charge anxiety will soon dwindle.
- The ever fierce debate on BEVs being “zero-emissions” is fighting on… There is an appropriate “fuel mix” needed here, Electric, bio-fuel, H2, diesel all have their place.
- Resource scarcity – the semiconductor drought is seemingly over but it still feels like battery supply, electronic supply, raw materials supply is on a knife-edge and the balance can quickly tip
What developments are going on in your industry that could have an impact on the ability to achieve net zero ambitions?
Focus on sustainability is a prime new focus in the industry. OEMs and suppliers are having to demonstrate their commitment not only to make sustainable vehicles whilst in use but also:
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- Using recycled materials
- Developing/testing the systems/prototypes without shipping them half way around the world.
- Using green energy (e.g. MIRA is putting a 7MW solar farm in to generate green hydrogen and power my climatic wind tunnels)
- Develop intelligently – for example conduct “system level” development using virtual series rather than physical tests.
In light of technological advancements and industry changes, how do you foresee the future of net zero engineering evolving?
Personally I think the “battery-race” is slowing. A few years back there was a huge number of new chemistries and uncertainty that you could back the wrong horse. It feels like the major players are pretty established now and the focus is pushing these forward and optimisation of other systems. Long-term there will be new tech but the focus will be heavier on AI, autonomy and cyber security.
What will you be presenting at the I,A&T exhibition and how will this benefit visitors?
I’ll be presenting the methodology and approach to range improvement via thermal efficiency. Such a huge amount of energy is used by the thermal system that it is quickly becoming the “hot” topic (sorry couldn’t resist) where major gains can be found to alleviate the range/charge anxiety without major overhaul of the vehicle architecture. Virtual development is key and doing this at system level with the correct tools saves a huge quantity of time/cash and CO2!