Leading international engineering service provider FEV and Japanese technology company Nature Architects (NA) have agreed on a strategic collaboration. The goal is to jointly develop novel vehicle structures that set new standards in lightweight construction, functionality, and development dynamics through innovative design methods using artificial intelligence (AI).
Both companies are contributing their respective strengths to the collaboration: FEV has extensive experience in vehicle development and provides platform data and benchmark models. Nature Architects complements this with a proprietary design platform based on AI-supported form finding, metamaterials, and origami engineering.
An initial joint project to optimize a side impact structure has already been successfully completed. This resulted in a weight reduction of up to 51 percent in the sill reinforcement while maintaining the same energy absorption and thus the same level of passenger safety. The results of this innovative approach, which shortens development times and thus opens up considerable cost-saving potential, were then successfully validated in the overall vehicle model.
“With Nature Architects, we are gaining a partner whose unique design platform ideally complements our portfolio,” says Michael Hog, Group Vice President Vehicle at FEV. “Together, we are creating the basis for a completely new, functionally and weight-optimized component design for our customers, regardless of whether the underlying requirement comes from the areas of deformation, vibration, acoustics, heat transfer, or flow.”
“Our platform allows us to develop new structural concepts beyond human intuition,” says Mr. Tomoya Hayashi, Project Manager at Nature Architects. “Combined with FEV’s engineering expertise, this creates a space for innovation with high customer value.”
In the first year, the focus will be on the German market, where FEV will leverage its strong presence among local OEMs. At the same time, NA will intensify its activities with Japanese automakers. In the medium term, the exclusive cooperation plans to establish the jointly developed technologies worldwide and open up new markets.
The cooperation underscores FEV’s leading AI expertise across the entire development chain – from strategy and data governance to agentic LLM workflows, accelerated simulation and testing, and data-driven diagnostics, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance. This measurably reduces development efforts and significantly shortens time-to-market.
SOURCE: FEV
