Ricardo LLC

Ricardo LLC, a foreign-owned for-profit consulting firm headquartered in Van Buren Township, Michigan, delivers automotive engineering and vehicle systems analysis to federal agencies as a prime contractor, competing under full and open (non-set-aside) procurement across the Department of Transportation, Department of the Navy, and Department of Defense. The company operates across 61 recent federal awards with a combined potential value of $5.35 billion, though only $67.2 million has been obligated to date — a signal that the company holds positions on several large ceiling-value IDIQs that generate periodic task orders rather than steady revenue flow.

Ricardo's capability portfolio centers on cost, weight, and lead-time analysis of vehicle safety systems and components, supported by specialized automotive engineering and transport-technology expertise. The company's core federal work involves detailed technical assessments of vehicle subsystems including electronic control units, lane-keeping-assist systems, sunroof and seatback assemblies, tire-pressure-monitoring systems, and pediatric-heat-stroke mitigation technologies. Representative prime work includes a $1.7 million single-award IDIQ with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) running through March 2027, which generates recurring task orders; a $318,675 delivery order from NHTSA on May 18, 2026, for ECU cost and weight analysis (due May 17, 2027); a $324,681.79 task order for lane-keeping-assist analysis (awarded October 2025); and a $246,601.10 delivery order for pediatric heat-stroke technology and seatback analysis. The company also holds federal grant work as a prime recipient — an $3.1 million cooperative agreement with the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy awarded August 2024 for development of an innovative integrated 3-in-1 inverter/on-board-charger/auxiliary-DC-converter for electrified vehicles. A recent $55,400 definitive contract from the Securities and Exchange Commission for expert witness services (awarded September 29, 2026) represents minor non-core work.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward Navy submarine programs and NHTSA surface-vehicle safety. The Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command anchors 2 awards with $5.28 billion in combined potential value — a concentration spike driven by large-ceiling-value indefinite-delivery contracts — while NHTSA dominates by award count with 33 awards totaling $11.5 million in combined potential value. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contributes 3 awards worth $50.4 million. The top five customer agencies account for 100% of combined potential value across the portfolio, indicating narrow customer concentration. Ricardo places task orders under multiple NHTSA IDIQs: 14 task orders under IDIQ DTNH2216D00037 ($3.1 million combined potential value), 7 task orders under IDIQ 693JJ922D000006 ($1.8 million), and 4 task orders under IDIQ DTNH2210D00197 ($725 thousand), plus one task order under the SeaPort-e GWAC.

Activity has declined in recent years — two awards in 2022, three in 2023, two in 2024, one in 2025, and two in 2026 — and only one award with an ultimate completion date in the next twenty-four months carries a combined potential value of $365 thousand, indicating minimal recompete exposure in that window. Ricardo operates 100% as a prime contractor with no subcontract footprint in the visible award portfolio. Work is performed at facilities in Van Buren Township and Sumpter Township, Michigan. The company's federal contract classification reflects testing-laboratory and engineering-services work (31 awards under Testing Laboratories and Services NAICS; 18 awards under Equipment and Materials Testing Vehicular Equipment Components PSC), positioning it as a technical resource for vehicle safety regulatory development rather than a systems integrator or program-support vendor.