ROHM Semiconductor has announced an expanded selection of its EROM (Embeddable BCI-ROM) thermal simulation models for shunt resistors, now accessible on ROHM’s website and included as standard in Siemens’ Simcenter Flotherm electronic thermal design software (version 2510 and later). Shunt resistor models serve critical roles in automotive and industrial equipment, supporting high-accuracy current detection and operational reliability.
The EROM simulation lineup now includes the PMR series, in addition to the existing PSR series. ROHM reports that EROM models deliver high simulation fidelity, with measurement deviation within plus or minus 5 percent for both surface temperature (delta T) and thermal resistance. This increased accuracy is designed to enable thermal analysis closely matching real-world conditions, which the company claims will improve simulation reliability at the design stage and enhance development efficiency for engineers.
ROHM says that integrating EROM models as a standard feature within Simcenter Flotherm allows component and systems manufacturers to share precise thermal analysis data more efficiently, while maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive design information.
Electromobility is evolving rapidly. New vehicle concepts, complex E/E architectures, and increasingly powerful battery systems are pushing developers to their limits. At the same time, the pressure to shorten development cycles and reduce costs is growing. In this dynamic environment, one method is gaining significant traction: Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) testing.
What Is Software-in-the-Loop Testing?
SIL testing refers to the virtual validation of ECU functions using simulation models—without any physical hardware. The ECU software runs in a virtual environment and interacts with a digital twin of the vehicle or subsystem. This allows engineers to test functions early, identify errors, and reduce development risks.
Why SIL for Battery Electric Vehicles?
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are particularly complex: battery management systems (BMS), charging functions, thermal management, and energy management must work seamlessly together. SIL testing enables:
Early validation of control algorithms, such as for energy management, charging, and thermal management.
Simulation of charging infrastructure and smart charging, including communication protocols like ISO 15118-20.
Testing ofBattery Management Systems (BMS), Simulation of cell behavior and fault conditions to validate safety and efficiency algorithms.
Integration of new E/E architectures, such as zonal controllers or centralized vehicle computers.
Advantages Over Traditional Testing Methods
SIL testing is especially powerful in early development phases. It supports parallel testing, automated regression testing, and seamless integration into CI/CT pipelines. Its scalability allows teams to run thousands of test cases across multiple virtual environments simultaneously, while virtualization enables testing of entire software stacks—including middleware and operating systems—without the need for physical ECUs. The full potential of SIL unfolds through its scalability in cloud applications, which enables the parallelization of tests and thus increased test coverage and speed.
New E/E Architectures: Challenges and Opportunities
Modern vehicles increasingly rely on zonal architectures, where functions are centralized rather than distributed across individual ECUs. This brings benefits in terms of weight, cost, and update capability—but also introduces new validation challenges like modelling the hardware dependencies of ECUs.
SIL testing offers:
Modularity: Individual software components can be tested in isolation.
Flexibility: Architectural changes can be quickly simulated and evaluated.
Reusability: Models and test scenarios can be reused from SIL to HIL, where up to 80% of tests can be executed before the first physical ECU exists.
Virtualization support: Enables testing of containerized applications and service-oriented architectures.
Integration into the Development Workflow: From Code to Feedback in Seconds
One of the key strengths of SIL testing lies in its seamless integration into modern development pipelines. With a powerful API, the entire process—from creating a virtual ECU (VECU) to executing automated tests—can be fully scripted and embedded into existing toolchains.
This means developers can trigger tests directly from their development environments or any CI/CT system. Artefacts generated from source code are automatically built, deployed, and tested—providing instant feedback on whether the implementation behaves as expected. This feedback loop can be part of a pull request, ensuring that every code change is validated before integration.
Even more compelling, OEMs can extend this approach to their supplier networks. Whenever a supplier submits an update, it can be uploaded as an artefact to the cloud and automatically tested within the full virtual vehicle context. This cloud-based validation workflow enables scalable, distributed testing across organizational boundaries—without requiring physical infrastructure or manual coordination.
The ability to run full-vehicle simulations in the cloud also opens the door to on-demand compute scaling, remote collaboration, and continuous integration across global teams. These capabilities are essential for modern development organizations looking to accelerate innovation while maintaining quality and compliance.
SIL Across the Development Lifecycle
While Software-in-the-Loop testing is often associated with early-stage development, its benefits extend across the entire lifecycle of vehicle software. With dSPACE’s SIL solutions, teams can:
Validate software updates continuously, even after SOP, by integrating SIL into over-the-air (OTA) update pipelines.
Support variant management, by testing multiple configurations and feature sets in parallel.
Perform integration testing, by combining multiple VECUs and FMUs into a full system simulation.
Enable long-term regression testing, ensuring that new features do not break existing functionality.
This lifecycle coverage is especially valuable in agile development environments, where software is delivered incrementally and must be validated continuously. With VEOS and its cloud-native capabilities, these tests can be executed at scale on-demand, across teams, and without hardware bottlenecks.
System-Level Integration with VEOS: Beyond Function Testing
While SIL testing is often associated with function-level validation, the dSPACE VEOS platform goes far beyond that. It enables system-level integration by supporting a wide range of abstraction levels. The abstraction level of a V-ECU provides information about its development status. When it comes to simulation, the following applies: The further the development of the V-ECU progresses, the more details have to be taken into account.
Level 0 and level 1: In the early phases of development, the focus is on validating individual application components. The exact type of signal transmission between V-ECUs is secondary and is usually not yet fully specified.
From level 2: Bus communication and the integration of the V-ECU into an overall simulation are becoming increasingly important. From here, basic software for bus communication must be integrated into the V-ECU. For easier integration and faster creation of the V-ECU, simplified basic software that only includes the communication (COM) module is usually used in earlier development phases.
Level 3: These V-ECUs come very close to the real ECU and ideally only differ in terms of the hardware-dependent driver modules. All basic software located above these modules is part of the test object here and is therefore fully integrated into the V-ECU.
This layered approach allows developers and integrators to select the right level of fidelity for their use case, and to gradually evolve their virtual test environment as the software matures. VEOS supports all these levels and enables their combination in mixed configurations, ensuring flexibility and scalability throughout the development lifecycle.
VEOS is designed to be open and interoperable. It supports integration with third-party simulation and testing platforms, making it possible to build hybrid environments that combine dSPACE tools with external solutions. Whether you’re working with proprietary models, open standards, or commercial software, VEOS provides the flexibility to bring everything together in one cohesive simulation.
VEOS also supports cloud-native deployment models, making it possible to run simulations and tests in scalable cloud environments. This enables organizations to shift from local, hardware-bound setups to flexible, cloud-based validation platforms that support remote access, elastic compute, and global collaboration.
This openness is a key differentiator: it allows OEMs and suppliers to collaborate across tool boundaries, validate across domains, and scale testing across platforms—without being locked into a single ecosystem.
Open Standards and Toolchain Compatibility
dSPACE SIL solutions are built to integrate seamlessly into heterogeneous toolchains. VEOS supports industry standards such as:
FMI (Functional Mock-up Interface) for model exchange and co-simulation.
ASAM XIL for standardized test automation.
AUTOSAR Classic and Adaptive for ECU software integration.
This standards-based approach ensures compatibility with third-party tools and allows customers to leverage existing investments in modeling, testing, and automation infrastructure.
Scalable Deployment: From Desktop to Cloud
One of the key differentiators of the dSPACE SIL ecosystem is its scalable deployment model. Whether running locally on a developer’s workstation or in a high-performance cloud environment, VEOS adapts to the needs of the project and organization.
Local execution is ideal for debugging, and interactive development.
Cloud-based execution enables large-scale regression testing, parallel scenario validation, and global collaboration.
This flexibility allows teams to start small and scale up as needed—without changing tools or workflows. Combined with containerization and orchestration support, VEOS can be integrated into enterprise-grade infrastructures, supporting DevOps practices and continuous validation pipelines.
By bridging the gap between desktop simulation and cloud-native testing, dSPACE empowers organizations to build resilient, scalable, and future-proof validation environments—ready for the demands of next-generation vehicle development.
Conclusion: Virtual Validation as a Key to Scalable, Collaborative Development
Software-in-the-Loop testing is more than just a tool—it’s a strategic enabler for electromobility. It allows for faster innovation, higher quality, and lower costs. Especially for battery electric vehicles and new E/E architectures, SIL testing is an essential part of modern development workflows.
With VEOS, dSPACE offers a powerful, open, and scalable platform that supports full system integration, cross-tool collaboration, and cloud-based validation pipelines—empowering developers and organizations to shape the future of mobility together.
dSPACE empowers developers worldwide to unlock these benefits—with powerful tools, deep expertise, and a clear focus on the future of mobility.
Motiv Electric Trucks builds medium-duty electric trucks and buses. Now the company’s products will be available to public sector agencies through Sourcewell, thanks to a partnership with National Auto Fleet Group (NAFG).
Sourcewell, a self-funded governmental organization established in 1978, administers a program that harnesses the collective purchasing power of more than 50,000 participating agencies. By streamlining procurement with pre-negotiated, competitive pricing contracts, Sourcewell enables government, educational and nonprofit organizations to purchase products and services through a streamlined procurement process with preferred pricing.
Motiv’s partnership with NAFG enables municipalities, school districts, transit agencies and other public sector and nonprofit organizations to procure Motiv’s Class 4-6 electric step vans, buses and trucks.
Motiv has deployed electric step vans, box trucks, shuttles and buses for the last 15 years, putting nearly 450 vehicles on the road. Customers include Purolator, Vestis (formerly Aramark Uniform Services), Cintas, Bimbo Bakeries and other North American fleet operators.
Motiv recently delivered a second order of battery-electric stake-bed trucks to the city of Los Angeles, bringing the city’s Motiv fleet count to seven vehicles. Built on Motiv’s EPIC 4 platform, each truck feature 127 kWh of battery capacity which delivers up to 115 miles of range.
“Cities, counties and states across the country are recognizing the significant health, environmental and operational benefits of electric trucks and buses,” said Scott Griffith, CEO of Motiv Electric Trucks. “Our partnership with NAFG now gives public fleets an efficient and cost-effective way to purchase Motiv electric vehicles through Sourcewell.”
“We are seeing increasing demand for electric work trucks and buses across our portfolio, and the addition of Motiv vehicles will make it easy and efficient for our customers to electrify their fleets,” said Randy Lester, Fleet Sales Director at National Auto Fleet Group. “Motiv’s reputation for quality and dependability is well known in the industry and we look forward to offering their vehicles to our customers.”
EV charging provider Blink Charging has been awarded a Sourcewell contract for EV charging equipment and related services.
Sourcewell, a self-funded governmental organization established in 1978, administers a program that harnesses the collective purchasing power of more than 50,000 participating agencies. By streamlining procurement with pre-negotiated, competitive pricing contracts, Sourcewell enables government, educational and nonprofit organizations to purchase products and services through a streamlined procurement process with preferred pricing.
Blink’s inclusion in Sourcewell’s portfolio enables municipalities, school districts, transit agencies and other public sector and nonprofit organizations to procure the company’s EV charging hardware, software and services with minimal paperwork, speeding up the procurement process.
“This contract reflects our commitment to supporting the important development of EV charging infrastructure nationwide, making it easier for government, education, and nonprofit organizations to deploy reliable, scalable charging solutions,” said Chris Carr, Senior VP of Sales and Business Development at Blink Charging.
Australian EVSE provider Autel Energy recently launched a next-generation liquid-cooled charging system and all-in-one smart energy solution.
Autel Energy’s next-generation high-power charging solution, the MaxiCharger DS600L Liquid-Cooled System, features new liquid-cooled power modules, and delivers up to 3 MW total output per cabinet cluster. It supports both CCS and MCS standards for fleet and depot applications.
The DS600L is compatible with multiple dispensers and terminals, enabling tailored solutions to meet diverse operational requirements.
Autel’s proprietary Energy Management System optimizes energy flow and operational efficiency, and enables seamless integration with battery energy storage systems (BESS) and solar panels.
Autel’s One-Stop Intelligent Charging Network features the new-generation MaxiCharger DC Series, including the DH480 and DT500, and the AC Single Charger for both commercial and residential use. The DH480 supports up to 480 kW dual-port output for simultaneous fast charging, and the DT500 offers up to 500 A for heavy-duty transport and fleet operations. The AC Single Charger delivers 22 kW Level 2 charging, and supports intelligent load balancing for up to 200 chargers.
Autel’s Intelligent Charging Network combines with EV charging and BESS units to form the complete Autel iGreen Charging Solution.
For lithium battery manufacturers, proper moisture control is a critical variable for safety, yield, and cost. And while desiccant dehumidification is the proven way to reach ultra‑low dew points, performance and operating expense also depend on how you design the dry room, and which dehumidifier you select. For success, manufacturers and labs require a tight, well‑engineered dry room envelope plus a high‑performance desiccant system tuned to your loads.
The 150-year-old New York City tradition of a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park may soon be consigned to the history books, as horsepower is replaced by battery power. The battery-electric horseless carriage is a vehicle that hearkens back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mayor Eric Adams threw his support behind animal-rights activists who want to retire the horses and help carriage drivers transition to electric alternatives.
A bill before the New York City Council would have wound down the horse-drawn cab industry by prohibiting the issuance of new licenses for such operations, which are sometimes referred to incorrectly as hansom cabs. (A hansom cab is a horse-drawn, two-wheeled carriage with a distinctive high-backed seat for the driver located at the rear, allowing passengers to sit in a low, two-seat compartment entered from the front.)
This bill would require humane removal of carriage horses, prohibiting their sale or transfer for the purposes of slaughter or use with another horse-drawn carriage.
Currently, there are approximately 1,024 electric yellow cabs in the city, representing about 7% of the total New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission medallions—a figure that hovers around 13,942. Various sources show that there were approximately 800 electric yellow cabs before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, or around 6.5% of the total. That’s far from the percentage of electric taxis the industry had 125 years ago, which was 90% of the total.
The first electric taxis were introduced in the Big Apple in 1897 and by 1900, nine out of 10 taxis were operating on battery power. The technology was not quite ready for widespread deployment and operation, however, and two events led to a resurgence in the use of horse-drawn carriages and internal-combustion engine (ICE) powered taxis became the standard.
One event with immediate effect was a major fire in 1907 that destroyed part of the fleet of the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company, a New York-based electric taxi service that operated the largest electric taxi fleet in the city, leading to its collapse.
The second was the Panic of 1907, also known as the Bankers’ Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, a three-week-long financial crisis that took place in the US in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange suddenly fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year.
Meanwhile, what remained of the electric-taxi industry in New York City lost ground to gasoline-powered taxis. Harry N. Allen famously ordered 65 gas-powered automobiles from France, painted them red and green, and the New York Taxicab Company—which charged passengers based on metered fares—was born. Allen took this action after having to pay a five-dollar (equivalent to $171 in 2024) fare for a quarter of a mile ride in a hansom cab. He painted his fleet yellow a year or so after starting the business to improve visibility, setting a color standard that has endured through the years.
Tourists in coming years might find themselves taking leisurely rides through the park in a horseless carriage, according to industry experts.
“While horse-drawn carriages have long been an iconic fixture of Central Park, they are increasingly incompatible with the conditions of a modern, heavily-used urban green space,” Mayor Adams said. “It has become abundantly clear that these horse-drawn carriages no longer work for our city.”
