Introduction
The architecture according to which a vehicle’s electrical system is designed forms the foundation for all subsequent development work. It defines the technical framework, system integration boundaries, and directly influences the weight, cost, and overall complexity of the solution. For many years, the traditional approach – based on multiple control units responsible for individual functions and communicating with one another – was sufficient. However, with the continuous expansion of onboard systems and increasing requirements related to cost, weight, and environmental impact, this architecture has ceased to meet current needs.
A shift in architecture appeared to be a natural direction, yet in engineering there is no room for decisions based on assumptions alone. It was necessary to verify which solutions offer real implementation potential and deliver measurable benefits. The objective of the project was to provide objective data that would support decisions regarding the further development of the vehicle’s electrical architecture.
As part of the project, a comparative analysis of three architectures was conducted. To ensure reliable results while avoiding the need to redesign everything from scratch, the team used an existing vehicle project based on a traditional architecture as a baseline. Based on this reference, two additional variants were developed and modified to reflect backbone and ring architectures. Each of the three variants provided identical vehicle functionality, enabling a direct and reliable comparison in terms of wire lengths, costs, harness weight, and consequently CO₂ emissions.
Work scope
The scope of our work included:
- Selecting and extracting a defined configuration of the main wiring harness from an existing project based on a traditional architecture.
- Planning and assigning all vehicle functions within the context of the new architectures – backbone and ring
- Developing new drawings using the LDorado tool, including:
- placement of new ECU units
- rerouting of wiring
- removal of redundant control units
- Calculating harness mass and wire lengths for each variant
- Data analysis and preparation of comparative results
- Preparation and presentation of the project results.
Results
- Three conceptual vehicle designs with identical functionality, each based on a different electrical architecture
- Data enabling direct comparison of the architectures in terms of wire length, harness mass, costs, and impact on CO₂ emissions
- Developed analysis results demonstrating clear differences between the evaluated solutions
- A summary presentation supporting further engineering and architectural decisions.
Summary
The comparison of the three architectural concepts delivered clear and reliable results. The differences between the solutions were sufficiently significant that the conclusions remained unchanged even when assuming a substantial margin of error. The project execution approach adopted by our team enabled a rapid analysis with a relatively low engineering effort.
The successful completion of this task confirmed that our team is capable of delivering conceptual designs and performing data analysis within a short timeframe – providing tangible support for engineering decisions at an early stage of product development.