Volvo Cars Uses Ansys and NVIDIA GPUs to Boost CFD Simulations

Ansys announced at NVIDIA GTC 2025 a breakthrough in aerodynamics simulations in collaboration with Volvo Cars and NVIDIA. Using the combination of eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs for the solver and CPU cores for meshing, the companies reduced total simulation run time from 24 hours to 6.5—enabling multiple design iterations per day, and facilitating more optimization studies for battery electric vehicles. 

Volvo Cars relies on advanced computing and CFD to drive innovation and improve electric battery performance. Simulations are necessary for reducing aerodynamic drag—a factor on EV range. 

Volvo Cars and Ansys scaled Fluent to eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, enabling an optimized end-to-end workflow. The technology combination can allow Volvo Cars to run multiple CFD simulations per day, evaluating a range of design variants to enable a step change in design optimization.

“Using Ansys simulation has the potential to help our teams obtain favorable designs and carry out virtual testing in much less time than traditional approaches allow,” says Torbjörn Virdung, technical leader CFD, at Volvo Cars. “To make our products more efficient, we must first take stock of the tools and solutions we're using to get there. In this case, the capability of Ansys Fluent can allow us not only to perform extremely high-fidelity analyses, but the added NVIDIA infrastructure supercharges the computation, so we can consider a greater number of design possibilities and reach an optimal car design faster.”

This accelerated process has potential to help Volvo Cars meet critical emissions, range, and efficiency standards, such as Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) requirements.

“This breakthrough underscores how GPU-accelerated simulation can drive innovation and get products to market faster,” says Shane Emswiler, senior vice president of products at Ansys. “The combination of high-fidelity modeling and extreme solver speed empowers customers to run more simulations and maximize the results to develop more performant products.”

“The efforts of Ansys and Volvo Cars showcase the exceptional performance and scalability of our latest Blackwell infrastructure offerings and its applicability to engineering simulation,” says Tim Costa, senior director of CAE, EDA and quantum at NVIDIA. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

More Ansys Coverage

More NVIDIA Coverage