For more than 25 years, Australian manufacturer Premcar has engineered, enhanced and electrified products for several automotive marques.
The Victorian engineering company has added a global defence brand to its roll call of clients.
With assistance from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC), Premcar embarked on a $1.53 million program to engineer and enhance the powertrain, offering a globally relevant land-based military vehicle and opening the potential for exports from Australia.
The program tasked Premcar with designing, engineering, fitting, and testing a significantly more advanced drivetrain for an existing vehicle while ensuring it met or exceeded taxing quality, reliability, durability, and performance metrics for local and global defence use.
Starting with a rolling chassis, the Premcar team developed new intake and exhaust systems, engine charge air cooling systems, engine mounts, lubrication systems, electrical wiring (including integration into the existing vehicle communications (CAN-bus) systems), engine control, cooling systems, and fuel systems.
Additionally, the team handled total packaging and transmission calibration for the drivetrain.
Upskilling and continuously learning throughout the program, the Premcar team and its industrial partner, Cummins, completed the program in under two years. The project culminated in a defence and OEM partner field trial at the Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC) in Victoria – with Premcar’s work exceeding expectations.
“Programs like the defence powertrain project are transformative for manufacturing and engineering businesses like Premcar,” Premcar chief executive Bernard Quinn.
It is one thing to be trusted with consumer products and another to work alongside the defence industry to deliver something as critical as a drivetrain,
“As a result of the AMGC project, we are now a diversified business operating in the defence sector, employing more staff and equipped to pursue opportunities in the rail and road infrastructure sectors, thanks to the skills and certifications gained along the way,” he says.
Six new roles were created during the two-year project, and 11 existing staff members were upskilled at the manufacturer’s headquarters.
Successful certification and testing of the Premcar drivetrain now opens export opportunities for defence vehicles from Australia, and other nations are understood to be evaluating the vehicle’s use.
“Capability and diversity are the keys to manufacturing success in Australia, and Premcar excels at both,” AMGC managing director Jens Goennemann says.
By taking the knowledge they have built over a quarter century in the automotive industry and applying it to the defence industry, Australia ends up with a more resilient manufacturer and a better product for defence – it is a win-win.”
“Premcar shows that if you view manufacturing through a capability lens, then anything is possible, with knowledge, skills and expertise the bridge to greater sovereign capability, capacity, and prosperity,” he says.
