Cost Optimization of Product Families Using Solution Spaces: Application to Early-Stage Electric Vehicle Design

Companies offer products in different variants to reach more customers. This increases internal variety and cost. However, reducing those cost is difficult due to complexity. Complexity arises from: combinatorics; many design variables interacting with each other; coupling of technical and economical perspectives. This paper presents an approach based on (1) building a complex system model of modular models; (2) identifying the potential for standardization from a technical perspective; (3) cost-optimizing the degree of standardization. A product family of electric vehicles was optimized.