Ricardo is working with Ford Otosan (www.fordotosan.com) — a public company in which Ford and Koc Holding (Turkey’s largest industrial conglomerate) have an equal stake — on the design and development of a ‘state of the art’ family of transmissions, to be manufactured in-house by Ford Otosan for use in future versions of Ford Trucks.

Both companies’ engineers are working in close collaboration, with Ricardo providing a technical consultancy service.

Ian Penny, Ricardo’s director of commercial and off-highway vehicles (www.ricardo.com), said: “Ricardo is honoured to have been selected by Ford Otosan as its heavy-duty transmission family development partner.

“This work underscores the impressive driveline and transmission track record of Ricardo, which ranges from motor-sport to the largest off-highway equipment and heavy commercial vehicles.

“We look forward to seeing the results of this work in the continued success of Ford Trucks in the coming years, and also to a continuing and mutually beneficial engineering partnership with Ford Otosan.”

Meanwhile, Ricardo has won a quality award from China’s PATAC (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Centre) for 48V powertrain control software.

PATAC commissioned Ricardo to assist with the development and demonstration of 48V powertrain technology, commencing in 2015.

Ricardo’s responsibilities included 48V systems requirements specification and design, hybrid control unit algorithm development and software testing, vehicle system testing, functional safety compliance and development for China 6 emissions OBD (on-board diagnostics) compliance.

The project work was initially managed out of Ricardo’s UK technical centres, then ‘transitioned’ to local project management and delivery from the Ricardo Shanghai Technical Centre as the project progressed.