Electro-mobility is an increasing trend across the globe. In these vehicles, the passive safety has new and rather specific aspects. Some requirements for passive safety of parts of electric buses have already been set out in the UN/ECE 100.2 regulation. The REESS (Rechargeable Energy Storage System) poses a considerable risk in the event of a collision between a battery-powered electric bus and a massive barrier. Since the testing required for the vehicle approval is very costly, one can expect computer simulations in this field to flourish. This is the task with which authors of this paper have dealt in relation to the development of SKODA battery-powered buses

In the development of a road vehicle such as a bus, the input data for the assessment of the fatigue life of the body and other mechanical parts of the vehicle are gradually refined. In the initial phase of the development of a new vehicle, so-called design stress spectra are used. It is necessary to estimate the design spectrum parameters correctly. At the vehicle's prototype testing phase, the so-called service stress spectra can be evaluated. It is essential to determine the characteristic operating modes of the vehicle and to record representative stress-time histories of the critical sections of the construction nodes and vehicle components. Accelerated driving test of fatigue life can be performed on special test routes. The acceleration of such a fatigue test is dependent on the test track composition. The paper generally describes the methodology of such a process and demonstrates it using unique real-time data acquired during the development of a bus.

At present, due to advanced fatigue calculation models, it is becoming more crucial to find a reliable source for design S–N curves, especially in the case of new 3D-printed materials. Such obtained steel components are becoming very popular and are often used for important parts of dynamically loaded structures. One of the commonly used printing steels is EN 1.2709 tool steel, which has good strength properties and high abrasion resistance, and can be hardened. The research shows, however, that its fatigue strength may differ depending on the printing method, and may be characterized by a wide scatter of the fatigue life. This paper presents selected S–N curves for EN 1.2709 steel after printing with the selective laser melting method. The characteristics are compared, and conclusions are presented regarding the resistance of this material to fatigue loading, especially in the tension–compression state. A combined general mean reference and design fatigue curve is presented, which incorporates our own experimental results as well as those from the literature for the tension–compression loading state. The design curve may be implemented in the finite element method by engineers and scientists in order to calculate the fatigue life.