Jaguar Land Rover has taken another step towards a new era of electrification and connectivity by opening a facility to test the next generation of vehicles for electrical and radio interference.

The Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) laboratory at Gaydon in the UK, will ensure future vehicles meet current and future legislation and quality standards for connectivity and electronics. New Range Rover Sport, which launched in May, was the first vehicle to undergo a bespoke testing program at the in-house facility.

A critical aspect of vehicle performance, EMC is the ability of electrical equipment and systems to function correctly in their electromagnetic environment. It works by limiting the unintentional generation, propagation and reception of electromagnetic energy to reduce the risk of unwanted effects such as electromagnetic interference.

Jaguar Land Rover’s new vehicle laboratory features two anechoic chambers: an electrically quiet rolling road that enables engineers to test vehicles at speed, as well as equipment to assess the performance of individual components, such as batteries or electric motors. Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, 4G, 5G, adaptive cruise control, wireless charging and blind spot monitoring are all examples of vehicle services and features that the facility will test for EMC.

With industry advances set to increase the number of electric powertrains and the range of digital and cloud-based services on vehicles, from Software-Over-The-Air updates to autonomous technology, testing for EMC is crucial to delivering quality, legal, and customer satisfaction, the company said.