Global tech giant Siemens today announced that Mazda Motor Corp. is using its model-based generative engineering tools to help maximize innovation.

Mazda is adopting the Capital Electrical Design Software suite from Mentor to boost innovation in designing the next generation of electric vehicles. Dubbed a “pioneer in electric design automation,” Mentor is an expansion of Siemens Digital Industries Software, a Siemens business unit that’s headquartered in Plano.

Siemens Digital Industries Software (also known as Siemens PLM Software) is a leading provider of software solutions that drive digital transformations for manufacturers. Parent company Siemens AG, headquartered in Munich, is one of the largest energy technology and manufacturing companies in the world.

Digitalization is the foundation for Siemens Digital Industries Software. With customers across the globe, Siemens Digital Industries Software helps transform “the way ideas come to life, the way products are realized, and the way products and assets in operation are used and understood.”

Martin O’Brien, SVP of Integrated Electrical Systems at Siemens Digital Industries Software, said Mazda is a long-standing Capital customer that has proven to be a fast adopter of new capabilities in electrical, electronic, networking, and embedded software disciplines. He said Mazda is a company that continuously is challenging what seems impossible—which leads to innovation.

“As a growing number of Japanese automotive OEMs [original equipment manufacturer] adopt Capital,” he said, “Mazda has established its reputation as a forward-thinking early adopter, with a long track record of leveraging our sophisticated technologies from their ‘customer first’ point of view.”

As the automotive industry shifts toward large scale systems, the development of safe and efficient electrical designs is more crucial than ever.

Capital integrates data across multi-discipline domains for unified, collaborative automotive design. Siemens said Mazda, specifically, uses Capital for “model-based generative design for the electrical and electronic systems of the entire vehicle platform.” The software minimizes errors and reduces costs by helping Mazda manage design complexity and changes across the whole vehicle platform.

Siemens said that Capital also delivers real-time feedback, allowing engineers to explore alternative approaches when dealing with those larger scale systems.

Kazuichi Fujisaka, technical leader at Mazda Motor Corp., said the company set out to build a development environment that is consistent and connected all the way through to the manufacturing phase.

“[Mazda] aim[s] to shift to a development methodology that allows us to optimize the vehicle as a whole, with all possible variations being considered in the early development stage,” he said. “To make this happen, we needed a development environment to visualize the entire vehicle circuitry and standardize our language, tools, and processes without compromise, creating standard models across the company. Mentor’s Capital technologies provide this environment and make Mazda’s electric development much more efficient.”