Honda on Monday announced the opening of a new $124 million wind tunnel facility that could help in the development of future electric automobiles.
Located at the independent Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, Ohio, the Honda Automotive Laboratories of Ohio (HALO) facility was made for testing each aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, Honda mentioned in a press release.
Both components are incredibly essential to EVs. Aerodynamic optimization helps maximize highway range, whilst aeroacoustics addresses the wind noise that would otherwise be drowned out by internal-combustion engines and their exhaust systems. At the HALO facility, an array of microphones and cameras enable regions to pinpoint regions on a automobile causing wind noise, Honda mentioned.
Honda wind tunnel facility in East Liberty, Ohio
The wind tunnel utilizes a single 26-foot fan with 12 carbon-fiber blades. The fan is powered by a six,700-horsepower electric motor and spins at up to 250 rpm, Honda mentioned. At that rpm, it creates wind speeds of more than 190 mph.
Honda plans to completely phase out internal-combustion engines from its North American lineup by 2040, replacing them with a mixture of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell autos. It sees these two groups creating up 40% of its sales by 2030 and 80% by 2035. Honda is also jointly developing EVs with Sony for 2025, even though it really is unlikely that the HALO wind tunnel is associated to that project.
In the meantime, Honda plans the Prologue, a General Motors-primarily based and GM-constructed SUV due by 2024. A preceding report mentioned Honda was targeting 70,000 annual U.S. sales for the Prologue, which will be the automaker’s 1st U.S.-market place EV considering that the discontinuation of the Clarity Electric following the 2019 model year.
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Keyword: Honda plans quieter, more efficient EVs with lots of wind-tunnel development