The automotive industry is rapidly adopting digital twin technology to transform design, manufacturing, and maintenance processes. Digital twins, or virtual replicas of physical assets and systems, are enabling automakers to achieve new levels of speed, quality, and cost-efficiency.
According to recent research, the automotive sector accounted for 15% of all digital twin use cases in 2024. As automakers embrace Industry 4.0, this share is projected to grow significantly in the coming years.^[1]
In this blog post, we will explore the top 5 use cases of digital twins in the automotive industry and how they are transforming the sector.
What are Digital Twins in Automotive?
A digital twin in the automotive industry is a virtual representation of a vehicle that accurately simulates its physical counterpart. It integrates data from sensors, 3D models, simulation tools, and other sources to mirror the vehicle‘s condition and performance in real-time.
Automotive digital twins act as a digital prototype that can be tested and analyzed before investing in physical prototypes and tooling. They continue to sync data throughout the lifespan of a vehicle to enable predictive maintenance, remote diagnostics, and more.
Top 5 Digital Twin Use Cases in Automotive
Here are the most impactful applications of digital twins in the automotive sector:
1. Product Testing
Digital twins are revolutionizing the vehicle design and testing process. Automakers can now create a detailed virtual prototype to simulate a vehicle‘s performance under different driving conditions, climates, and use cases.
For example, Ford used a digital twin to test over 10,000 design variations of a new pickup truck model in just 3 months. This led to faster design finalization while reducing physical prototypes by 80%.^[2]
Volkswagen created a digital twin to test aerodynamics of their ID3 model by simulating air flows. This led to a 100 hour reduction in wind tunnel testing time.^[3]
According to Capgemini research, digital twins can reduce physical testing by up to 40% and cut development time by 10-20%.^[4] The streamlined testing enables automakers to accelerate product launches and frequently refresh vehicle designs.
2. Adding Manufacturing Capacity
Digital twin simulations enable automakers to validate the impact of adding new manufacturing equipment or production lines before any physical changes.
The virtual model considers the company‘s specific product data, materials, historical throughput, required tooling, and other constraints. Automakers can then accurately estimate increases in production capacity from the new equipment.
General Motors reported using this approach to reduce their manufacturing system expansion project duration by over 25%.^[5] Volkswagen created a digital twin of a production line which led to a 30% increase in vehicle throughput.^[6]
3. Employee Training
Digital twins of assembly stations or an entire factory floor facilitates remote employee training. Workers can gain hands-on experience with the virtual environment before the physical systems are in place.
BMW uses VR digital twins to train technicians on maintenance and repair procedures. This immersive learning reduced technician training time by 25%.^[7]
Ford also uses virtual reality digital twins to train employees to build the new F-150 truck. This allows preparing workers faster without relying solely on physical practice. According to Capgemini, digital twins can improve employee productivity by up to 34% through immersive training.^[8]
4. Predictive Maintenance
Digital twins that are constantly synchronizing IoT sensor data from automotive equipment can detect anomalies and predict maintenance needs. By analyzing real-time and historical data, the digital twin model identifies emerging faults before they cause downtime.
Tesla digitally twins its battery production lines at Gigafactories. Real-time monitoring prevents unplanned downtime and enables predictive maintenance.^[9]
BMW implemented digital twin-based monitoring to gain a 36% reduction in one-off production disruptions. The early warning allows optimizing maintenance planning to avoid downtime.^[10]
5. Sales
Digital twins are also transforming automotive sales and marketing. Virtual vehicle test drives allow prospective customers to fully explore new car models through interactive 3D visualizations and simulations.
Volvo created a digital twin of its XC90 model for virtual test drives. It led to a 200% increase in pre-orders in South Korea.^[11]
Automakers like Audi, Volvo, Hyundai and Mercedes are investing in digital twin showrooms and virtual test drives. This allows analyzing customer preference data to tailor offerings to individual interests. According to McKinsey, digital twins can enable automakers to reduce product launch cycles by 3-9 months.^[12]
Challenges in Automotive Digital Twin Adoption
While adoption is accelerating, automakers still face hurdles in scaling digital twins across their organizations:
Data Integration
Constructing complete digital twins requires integrating dispersed datasets – from design models to real-time sensors. Automakers with hundreds of different IT systems struggle to feed data into twins.
Talent Shortage
There is a steep learning curve in building and deploying production-scale digital twins. Most automakers lack the specialized skills to develop twins from scratch.
Reluctance to Change
Some automakers hesitate as digital twins require changing legacy processes and adopting new technologies like cloud, AI, and analytics.
Justifying ROI
Budget pressures make it difficult for automakers to justify upfront investment as some benefits accrue over longer timeframes.
Security Risks
Automakers wary of data leaks are cautious about aggregating digital twin data into cloud platforms for added connectivity.
Key Digital Twin Providers in Automotive
Leading technology and services companies like Microsoft, AWS, Accenture, TCS, and Capgemini are enabling automotive digital twin adoption through partnerships and platforms.
For example, NVIDIA DRIVE Sim is an open, scalable digital twin platform tailored to automotive. It allows accelerated modeling and simulation. AWS also offers IoT TwinMaker – a digital twin builder for the automotive industry and others.
These platforms and collaborations with experienced partners help automakers implement digital twins faster.
Digital Twins: Key to Automotive Innovation
As automakers aim to deliver smarter, safer, customized and electric vehicles, digital twin adoption will be integral to their competitiveness.
Digital twins mirror every aspect of a vehicle digitally – through its development lifecycle and years on the road. This enables automakers to bring new levels of speed, quality, and insight to delight customers.
While still an emerging technology, digital twins are already demonstrating vast potential to transform the automotive industry. Leading automakers are achieving measurable benefits across their vehicle engineering, factory operations and after-sales services from their digital twin initiatives.
