As the automotive industry enters the era of electrification and intelligence, many innovative features have emerged. However, these features cannot operate properly without a reliable chassis, no matter how cool and intelligent they are. Especially for heavy-duty trucks that transport containers in closed environments like seaports, land ports, and factories, their chassis must be stable enough to support evolving smart features and withstand various extreme operating conditions.

 

How did Westwell design the advanced chassis for trucks? We provide a tried-and-true solution.

 

 

Q-Trucks, autonomous heavy-duty trucks from Westwell, are operating at the Laem Chabang Port, Thailand

 

Designed for extreme conditions, ensuring over 10 years of reliable operation

 

In closed environments, container logistics primarily involves short-haul trucking or transporting materials for production lines in factories. This is characterized by "high frequency, short distance, low speed, and heavy duty". During container handling, truck chassis experience more severe wear than during open road transportation due to frequent loading and unloading impacts, as well as stop-start operations. Additionally, operational stability is challenged by unpredictable extreme weather conditions. To ensure proper operation under these circumstances, truck chassis must be robust enough to protect themselves.

 

Q: Why is container transport more complex in closed logistical environments?

 

A: These environments are often non-standardized, lacking uniform standards for truck dimensions, profiles, and speed limits. Additionally, in production settings like factories, workers and trucks may operate simultaneously. Therefore, transport trucks need to be maneuverable, durable, and safe, and may even require customization for specific environments.

 

Q: What adjustments has Westwell made to the chassis for new energy commercial trucks in different environments?

 

A: We have optimized the chassis' acceleration, steering, and braking performance to ensure stable control, flexible steering, smooth driving, and responsive braking across various environments. This allows the trucks to withstand low-speed, heavy-duty, and frequent stop-start operations effectively.

 

Our chassis for new energy commercial trucks is specifically tailored in terms of materials, processes, and design to address various scenario challenges. The chassis is primarily constructed from steel, offering excellent resistance to corrosion and wear. Its main beams are made from steel with enhanced bending resistance, which boosts the chassis' robustness and extends its expected service life to over 10 years. Additionally, the chassis paint and components undergo high-grade rust-resistant and anti-corrosion treatments, effectively withstanding salt corrosion, high humidity, high temperatures, and aeolian erosion.

 

 

Q-Trucks, autonomous heavy-duty trucks from Westwell, maintain efficient and safe operations in all weather conditions

 

In addition to robustness, our chassis is also designed for flexibility. The chassis endures significant impacts from the loading and unloading of heavy containers, as well as from heavy-duty driving. To address this, we optimize the layout of the frame structure to reduce stress and stress concentrations. Additionally, we employ an all-road suspension system with enhanced shock resistance to mitigate impacts from the road and during loading and unloading. With these protections in place, the truck body remains undamaged even if a container is dropped from a height of several centimeters during loading.

 

Reinforced impact resistance enhances the durability and reliability of our chassis for new energy commercial trucks. In August 2024, Ricardo, a globally recognized engineering technology assessment agency, conducted a rigorous examination of the Q-Truck's chassis, an autonomous heavy-duty truck developed by Westwell. The CAE analysis results demonstrated that the Q-Truck's chassis fully meets safety requirements under various complex working conditions. E-Trucks, which are manned heavy-duty trucks utilizing the same chassis as Q-Trucks, are also capable of overcoming high-intensity safety operation challenges in all extreme weather and working conditions. 

 

 

Source: Ricardo tailored a rigorous CAE assessment program specifically for the Q-Truck 

 

Fully expandable to remain up-to-date for 10 years

 

With the rapid iteration of new energy vehicles, feature development is often constrained by vehicle hardware. If the chassis has a service life extending over 10 years, will it lag in features or even become obsolete?

 

 

Q-Truck, The Cab-less Electric Autonomous Commercial Vehicle, Independently developed by Westwell

 

 

E-Truck, The Updatable Autonomous Intelligent Connected New Energy Heavy Truck, Independently developed by Westwell

 

As an upgradable by-wire chassis, our chassis for new energy commercial trucks was designed to meet subsequent hardware upgrade needs. Through careful research of hardware interfaces and software adaptability, we designed this chassis to be easily upgraded through its standardized, universal interface. Therefore, you can easily add sensors or upgrade electrical components to more mature ones available on the market, minimizing the costs of keeping the chassis up to date.

 

 

 

 

E-Truck, an upgradable autonomous heavy-duty truck with the same chassis as Q-Trucks

 

To better support autonomous driving applications, we also designed a brand new electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture for the chassis. In this way, trucks with our chassis are stable and safe to control, and support deep integration with our self-developed autonomous driving algorithms. To further enhance the safety of autonomous driving, we have innovatively improved the autonomous driving system in safety redundancy, enabling the trucks to autonomously control safety in emergencies. For example, when a truck loses power due to battery pack failure, its safety system will immediately bring the truck to an emergency stop to avoid the risk of losing control.

 

Q: What innovative software and hardware technologies are applied to Westwell's new energy truck chassis? And what improvements do these innovations bring to practical truck operations?

 

A: We have been committed to innovation in two aspects: enhanced safety redundancy and improved smart level. We have solved the bottleneck in safety redundancy: If a truck loses power due to battery pack failure, causing its steering and braking systems to fail, our safety system will immediately activate the air brake to stop the truck in time. In addition, we have adopted special designs to improve our trucks' smart level. For Q-Trucks, our system analyzes and evaluates their status and faults, and syncs the results to the cloud backend through the 4G/5G network, enabling backend personnel to monitor their status in real time. It also sends risk alerts and maintenance prompts. This system also supports integration with our FMS (Fleet Management System) to achieve flexible and efficient fleet management based on vehicle status.

 

Cost-effective and environmentally-friendly

 

The goals for global logistics customers to promote smart, green transformation are to reduce carbon emissions, enhance energy efficiency, and achieve commercial profitability. These are also the reasons why we developed the chassis for new energy trucks. Taking our Q-Trucks as an example, autonomous driving not only increases efficiency but also uses pure electricity in actual operations. Each truck reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 50 tons annually, promoting the development of green logistics and sustainability.

 

 

Westwell's self-developed autonomous heavy-duty truck Q-Truck and upgradable autonomous heavy-duty truck E-Truck are currently operating at Westports, Malaysia

 

To enable global customers to benefit from the transformation, our chassis for new energy commercial trucks is globally available due to its compliance with various international standards, including EU, ISO, and IEC standards. In an era of rapid evolution, only commercial trucks with solid chassis can perform well and last long. Our chassis developed for new energy commercial trucks is durable, reliable, and expandable, redefining the standard for chassis for new energy heavy-duty trucks and laying a good foundation for future product designs.