Leadrive uses software from MathWorks for many aspects of their core business development process listed above. As Yisu Li, R&D Engineer, illustrates, “MathWorks products are simple and easy to operate, with user-friendly attributes, a short learning curve for engineers, and superior expansion performance, making engineering development easier.”

Some of the key areas include:

Leadrive developed and maintains their tool, Scantool, in MATLAB. Scantool is a frequency domain-based system calculation tool developed by Leadrive’s core team. Unlike traditional frequency-domain and time-domain simulation tools, Scantool does not rely on FEM calculations, significantly increasing calculation speed and accuracy. Thereby considerably improving efficiency in solving engineering problems.

Leadrive uses MATLAB as a one-stop shop to evaluate its customers’ desired inverter power capability, voltage level, and harmonic values and then conducts optimization using Leadrive’s existing product families to determine the optimal product solution for its customers. MATLAB helps provide clear criteria for the trade-off of various algorithms used for this optimization. Compared with traditional methods, which require separate conceptual design, coding, testing, and reporting systems, MATLAB is an integrated environment for engineers to develop tools easily and painlessly.

During the software development process, Leadrive primarily uses Simulink. The Simulink system composer enables the specification and analysis of system architecture. Each module uses a test harness for unit testing, centralized code generation, and A2L file generation. Simulink is a UI that allows users to implement code functions through connections between modules to reduce the requirements for engineers and enable them to pay more attention to the algorithm. Simulink is also user-friendly for beginners and supports the integration of multiple third-party simulation toolboxes.

Clutch Simulink model from Leadrive development (Image courtesy of Leadrive)

Growing the Engineering Team

Like most startups, the team at Leadrive began from scratch in 2017. Today they have expanded to more the 200 full-time employees, many working in the R&D labs.

The growing engineering team at Leadrive (Image courtesy of Leadrive)

The Board Secretary, Director of the Market and Strategic Planning Department, Haoshun Shen, explains, “Our company culture emphasizes teamwork… as one group, we always consistently aim to achieve higher success. Our company mission is to become the leading electric drive components supplier for everything electrified and to expand the market worldwide. As the name of Leadrive implies- lead innovations, drive the future.”

An Early Startup Program Member

Although MathWorks Startup Program has been around for around a decade, it has picked up significant momentum within the last 5 years, as it expanded outside of MathWorks’ headquarters in the U.S. and into other regions like China. Leadrive was one of the first members of the startup program in China. Through the partnership, early-stage startups including Leadrive gain access to special pricing on MATLAB, as well as resources like engineering support and training to help enable their development at a quick pace.

“MathWorks has always been at the forefront in undertaking social responsibilities. MathWorks Startup Program has greatly eased the financial pressure on our company in the early growth stages and helped us allocate more resources to R&D and project process,” adds Siwei (Zoe) Yao, senior counsel.

Partnerships Enabling Innovation