Development of Vehicle Concepts

This chapter provides information on activities that take place during the development of a vehicle concept. The process formally begins with the formation of the core team to begin the vehicle program. The team members begin the work by gathering additional information by conducting detailed surveys in areas such as trends in technologies, automotive designs, and government regulations. They also benchmark competitive vehicles, visit auto shows, meet and interview customers, and create lists of issues to understand the customers and their needs, market segments, competitors, new materials, manufacturing processes, and capabilities of their existing production and assembly plants. The vehicle concept development work involves creating vehicle sketches, drawings, CAD models, and physical properties illustrate how the proposed vehicle would be configured, its appearance, and functioning. Various specialized engineering teams review the drawings and properties and conduct their analyses to determine if the vehicle concept is feasible. The vehicle concepts are typically evaluated in market research clinics to determine if the new vehicle development program should be continued and what vehicle concept or concepts should be selected for further development.