Schaeffler and Cidi to cooperate on development of all electric, autonomous mining trucks
Electric and hybrid powertrain technology supplier, Schaeffler, and Chinese autonomous haulage tech major Cidi, have formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement, which they say will focus on all electric smart mining trucks and logistics trucks. The cooperation will focus on distributed electric drive systems and the electrical and electronic architecture of the whole vehicle, plus distributed control of the vehicles. The two companies will also jointly promote the electrification and intelligent transformation of vehicles in both the mining and commercial sectors.
Schaeffler is a leading global supplier of automotive and industrial products. With more than 75 years of technology development, it has top level engineering and service capabilities in the fields of electric drives, mechatronics, chassis application, and vehicle system integration, and CiDi says can provide efficient and reliable distributed electric drive solutions.
CiDi is one of the world’s leading smart driving hardware and software technology companies, focusing on self-driving mining trucks, logistics vehicles and V2X connected cars. Intelligent sensing technology has been developed and has matured in closed scenarios such as those found in mining and logistics.
CiDi stated: “With commercial implementation experience, the two sides have highly complementary strengths. According to the agreement, the two parties will each be a strategic supplier and preferential customer for the Chinese market, promoting the rapid transformation of technological results, improving product competitiveness and market responsiveness through joint research and development, joint creation of programmes, resource sharing and industrialisation implementation.”
The two sides will use all electric smart mining trucks and logistics trucks as core application scenarios, with four key technical cooperation areas based around distributed electric drive systems to build complete technical solutions:
- Vehicle electronics and electrical architecture development: Establish an efficient, reliable and scalable electronic and electrical architecture to support the intelligent upgrading of vehicles
- Whole vehicle distributed control development: Study distributed control technology to improve vehicle dynamic control accuracy and operational stability
- Whole vehicle health management development: Establish a full life cycle health management system that covers real-time monitoring of vehicle status, early warning of faults and full lifecycle management
- Whole vehicle system integration and testing: Conduct full-process system integration and validation to ensure the compatibility and reliability of relevant technologies and solutions
The agreement is rooted in foundations laid in CiDi’s home city of Changsha, Hunan Province. In 2019, Schaeffler Smart Driving Technology (Changsha) Co Ltd and Schaeffler’s second R&D centre in China opened in Changsha, focusing on automotive mechatronics, intelligent mobility, and electric drives. Building on the advantages of local industrial clusters and scientific and technological innovation, both sides have developed smart chassis solutions.
Dr Yuen Liu, Chief Technology Officer for Schaeffler China, said: “As a technology company focused on driving technology, Schaeffler has always maintained innovation as its core driving force. Building on the wave of commercial vehicle electrification and intelligentisation, Schaeffler will make full use of its deep technology accumulation and excellent system capabilities, jointly promote the innovation and upgrading of commercial vehicle intelligent driving technology, and contribute to the high-quality development of the industry.”
CiDi Co-Founder Dr Ma Wei said: “The electrification and intelligentisation of commercial vehicles has become an inevitable trend with a rigid need for industrial development. Relying on mature, full-stack autonomous driving technology, as well as experience in mines, and with the ability to commercialise large-scale scenarios such as ports and industrial parks, CiDi will deeply integrate the resources and advantages of both parties, and continuously create high-impact and core value for customers, plus fully contribute to safer commercial vehicles, with more efficient and reliable operation and more reliable operation.”
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