E-MOBILITY
The high-performance power modules
POWERING UP B
Electric vehicles have a weight problem. Here’s how enhancing converter power density and flexibility can deliver more range and faster charging
ased in Andover, Massachusetts, Vicor has been developing and manufacturing high
performance power modules for crucial industries since 1981, from communications and computing to defence and robotics. Over the last six years, the company has branched into the transport industry as it undergoes an era of electrification to deliver compact, power-dense DC-DC power conversion devices to aid the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). “If you’ve been following automotive, you will know that EVs have a weight
24
www.engineerlive.com
problem,” explains Greg Green, Director of Automotive Marketing at Vicor. “They’re heavier than standard vehicles by 15-33%, which causes a number of issues. So, there is a lot of work ongoing in the automotive segment to lighten the cars. The other thing is that adoption has plateaued for several reasons. One of these reasons is that consumers looking to adopt EVs are really looking for about a 540km range, and the average right now is around 100km or so short of that. So, that’s causing people to second guess whether they are ready to switch to an EV or not.”
However, reducing the weight
of an EV is not an easy thing, as Green concedes. “There are several approaches to taking the weight out of a vehicle: Downsizing or lightweighting the battery pack, eliminating low voltage batteries and downsizing DC- DC converters. Since the mid-sixties, the automotive world has been a 12V world. However, 48V is of interest because electrically you have to get under 60V to be considered safe, but it also gives you room to go over or under voltage. The Tesla Cybertruck was rolled out as the first to have a large amount of 48V power systems
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
