India’s Top Automotive Testing Institutes and Labs: ARAI, iCAT, GARC

The automotive industry is highly progressive and competitive all across the globe. To survive in the market for a long period, these need to be constantly innovative in terms of quality durability, etc.

Also, the manufacturers of the vehicle must ensure that the systems and components of automobiles must function properly throughout their working life.

With the increasing production rate of automotive components, the risk also increases with the manufacture of products which introduces warranty issues for the products and increases the importance of testing at every stage of production whether it is research, development, raw material inspection, or product manufacturing.

With the increasing demand for automotive testing, many have started considering the standards that are used to test automotive components efficiently such as ISO, BIS, ASTM, and many more.

These standards are considered to design high-quality testing machines to perform various types of tests that measure the characteristics, properties, and features of vehicles and related components.

Compared to other sectors, the test process in the automotive industry consists of a set of test solutions that are very articulated within the production line. Great attention is placed in the organization of the test sequence, to achieve the 0ppm goal (0 faulty parts per million of products).

Importance of Automotive Testing Organizations

Automotive testing organizations make things promising for manufacturers to provide a comfortable, safe, and high-performance vehicle to customers that can work efficiently for a long period.

This is the largest and one of the most significant initiatives in the Automotive sector so far by the Govt. of India.

The project aims at creating core global competencies in the automotive sector in India by facilitating seamless integration of the Indian Automotive industry with the world, through setting up state-of-the-art, four greenfields automotive testing, homologation, and R&D infrastructure facilities and up-gradation of two existing facilities with new technology and equipment.

As part of NATRIP (National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project), the following test centers have been set up for the detail of test facilities:

Automotive Testing Institutes and Their Availability of Testing Labs

Testing Agencies	iCAT (Haryana)	GARC (Tamil Nadu)	NATRAX (Madhya Pradesh)	ARAI (Maharashtra)
Electronics & Electrical Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Infotronics Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NVH Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Photometry Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Passive Safety Lab	Yes	Yes	–	–
Test Tracks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Safety Component Lab	Yes	Yes	–	Yes
Fatigue Lab	Yes	Yes	–	Yes
Powertrain Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	–
Electric Vehicle Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CAD/CAE Lab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EMI/EMC Lab	Yes	Yes	–	Yes
Electric Vehicle Battery	Yes	Yes	–	–

Labs	Parameters
Fatigue Test Lab	Structural Durability Vehicle Simulation with Road Load Data
Electrical & Electronics Lab	ECUs, batteries, speed limiting devices, vehicle alarm systems, vehicle tracking systems, GPS devices
Infotronics Lab	Testing and validation of existing ECU control functions.
NVH Lab	Vehicle interior and exterior noise analysis Squeak & rattle analysis Sound Transmission Loss, Sound Absorption Coefficient Modal Testing on components, sub-assemblies, and vehicles
Photometry Lab	Testing high-end products like intelligent lighting systems, light signaling devices (AIS, ECE standards)
Passive Safety Lab	Crash Tests, Pedestrian Protection Tests & Sled Tests as per various Indian, International, and NCAP regulations, Airbag Testing Lab Dummy(ATD)
Test Tracks	OVAL Track, ABS Track, Hill Track, Comfort Track, Water Track, Dynamic Track High-Speed Test Track, Braking Surfaces Test Track, External Noise Track, Steering Pad
Safety Component Lab	Seat, Seat Belt, Dash Board, Bumper, Hydraulic Brake Hose, Non-plastic & Plastic Fuel Tanks, Wheel Rims, Control Cables, Pneumatic Coupling, Retention And Release Of The Windows, Wheel Guards, Wheel Nuts, Wheel Disc
Powertrain Lab
EMI/EMC Lab	Electromagnetic interference & Electromagnetic compatibility
Electric Vehicle Lab	High-speed AC/DC Chargers, vehicle test bench, battery cycling, battery destructive testing, electrical power analysis

Automotive Testing Institutes & Testing Labs in India Under NATRIP

1) International Center For Automotive Technology (iCAT) at Manesar (Haryana) in northern India.

2) Global Automotive Research Center (GARC) at Oragadam near Chennai (Tamil Nadu) in southern India.

3) National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) at Pithampur near Indore (Madhya Pradesh) in central India.

4) Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)

International Center For Automotive Technology (iCAT)

ICAT is India’s premier Homologation and Testing center developed under NATRiP by Govt. of India.

It is one of the agencies for issuance of “TYPE APPROVAL CERTIFICATE (TAC)” and “CONFORMITY OF PRODUCTION (COP) Certificate”. Component Test Lab (CTL) provides services related to the Certification & Homologation of Automotive Components as per Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR).

The certification services include Type Approval & Conformity of Production (CoP) of safety components identified in AIS:037.

Global Automotive Research Center (GARC)

Advanced Passive Safety Lab in GARC is the state-of-the-art testing lab planned in India as of date. This Centre of Excellence is designed to cater to almost all the testing concerning passive safety on vehicles. This lab also has the potential for testing EuroNCAP and FMVSS standards. This lab will help in setting the standards for passive safety in India.

1. Electric Vehicle Lab

2. High-Speed AC & DC Chargers

• GARC Charging Stations support all international & Bharat EV-EVSE communication protocols.
• GARC is equipped with the following Charging Stations
• 3 Numbers of Bharat AC001 – 3.4 KW
• The 3 Numbers of Fast Charger Bharat DC001– 15 KW
• The 3 Numbers of Ultra-Fast Charger GB/T – 120 KW
• 3 Numbers of Ultrafast CCS/ CHAdeMO charger – 150 KW
• Ultra high-speed charging stations like GB/T, CCS type 2, Chademo, and AC type 2 can charge the vehicle in less than one hour. Fast charging stations like Bharat DC 001 can charge the vehicle in about one hour and slow charging stations like Bharat AC001 take more charging time. The chargers can be cloud-monitored for consumption, SOC & internal parameters.

3. Vehicle Test Bench

• Electrical Vehicle level performance tests for 2W, 3W & 4W can be carried out in a chassis Dynamometer with a temperature soak room facility.
• Tests like Electrical Energy consumption, Vehicle Range, Net Power, SOC-based Gradability, Regeneration, and Component Efficiency Evaluation can be carried out.
• Vehicle Certification & Standard endurance drive cycle testing can be carried out according to different regulations or customer-defined drive patterns.
• Real-time data logging of electrical parameters like voltage, current, power, and the temperature of all EV components (battery, controller, and motor) during chassis dyno drive conditions.

4. Battery Cycling & Programmed Load banks

• GARC is equipped with Programmable AC / DC loads, suitable for carrying out life cycle testing of battery modules, battery packs, and different models of AC / DC sources

Equipment:

• 1 number of Programmable DC Load 600V / 1400A / 20KW with USB Interface
• 1 number of Programmable DC Loads 1200V / 960A / 24KW with USB Interface.
• 3 number of Programmable AC/DC Load 350V / 45A / 13.5W with PC Interface with GPIB to USB Converter cable

Features:

• The equipment can be operated in Constant Current, Constant Voltage, Constant Resistance, Constant Power, Constant Current Dynamic, Constant Resistance, and Dynamic operating modes.
• Programmable slew rate, load levels, load periods, dynamic loading, and conduct voltage.

5. Battery Destructive Testing

• Safety tests for batteries can be carried out in GARC to determine the thermal runaway caused in battery cells, modules, and packs due to excessive charging, peak discharging, puncture in the battery (cell or module) casing, terminal short circuits, and different hazardous operating conditions.
• Types of equipment include
• Battery overcharge tester: Upto 96 V
• Battery Short circuit tester: Up to 96V
• Penetration test Rig

6. Electrical Power Analysis

• Power Analyzer up to 12 channel measurements of different signals, ranging from different wiring conditions, enabling them to accommodate a variety of measurement functions.
• Some of the features include:
• High accuracy for measurement reproducibility.
• Wide voltage and current bandwidths (current DC, 0.1Hz to 2Mhz).
• High-resolution sampling capacity.
• Harmonic analysis for all channel measurements.
• Waveform observation is on par with that of an oscilloscope.
• Robust motor (torque & speed) analysis function capability.
• Equipment details
• Voltage probe up to 1000V measurements.
• AC/DC Current probe up to 1000 A measurements

7. Electrical Protection against Voltage Contact & IP Ingress

• GARC is equipped with Voltage Contact Probe B & Probe D to check the protection against electric shock if passengers are exposed to any direct electric contact in the vehicle.
• Similarity IP Ingress water guns (IPX 3 & IPX 5) are utilized to simulate heavy rainstorm conditions and vehicle water wash conditions in electric vehicles & to check if any insulation failure occurs in the EVs when components are exposed to water ingress.
• Also is available a water wade track to simulate road flooding conditions. Accordingly, when the vehicle is driven in flood conditions, the vehicle’s insulation is monitored to meet safety standards

National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX)

NATRAX is one of the state-of-the-art automotive testing and certification centers under NATRiP, a flagship project of the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Govt of India planned under the Automotive Mission Plan launched by the Government of India.

Vehicle Testing Tracks At National Automotive Test Tracks NATRAX

 

The two existing facilities ‘Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI-Pune) and Vehicle Research & Development Establishment (VRDE – Ahmednagar)’ have been upgraded with new technologies.

Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)

ARAI offers comprehensive certification and homologation services for an entire range of automotive vehicles, systems, and components. ARAI also assists vehicle manufacturers in export homologation activities.

ARAI is also establishing a comprehensive infrastructure and facilities for testing, certification, and development of electric and hybrid vehicles ARAI assists the Government of India in the formulation of automotive industry standards and harmonization of regulations.