Engineers have been searching for ways to mitigate the risk of fire with Li-ion batteries since the technology was first commercialized. Chemists are creating new cell formulations that are less prone to problems, electronics experts are designing fail-safe battery management systems, and mechanical engineers are building complex cooling and fire suppression systems. A common rule… Read more »
In 2013, Shafigh Nategh completed his doctoral thesis on the thermal management of high-performance electrical machines at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and by 2014, the results of his doctoral work had begun to pique the interest of some heavy hitters in the electric motor industry. For his thesis, Nategh designed… Read more »
The methods that automakers use to join Li-ion cells together are almost as diverse as the sizes and shapes of the cells themselves. EV builders are using spot welding, mechanical fasteners, wire bonding and other joining techniques. It’s safe to say that there is no consensus on an ideal solution, and that there’s a lot… Read more »
Traditional 12-volt automotive batteries are grounded to the metal chassis of vehicles for a few different reasons, mainly driven by cost. Using the metal frame as a common ground essentially reduces the number of wires needed for all of the 12-volt systems by half – saving money and reducing weight. For example, to power a… Read more »
Arbin accelerates testing of production Li-ion cells with ultra-high precision equipment. Automakers are a notoriously conservative bunch. They go to great lengths to test and validate new designs before putting them into production vehicles. And, thanks to their cautious ways, today’s vehicles are more reliable than ever. Recently, however, the addition of advanced Li-ion battery… Read more »
TM4 designs electric powertrains for the most demanding vehicle platforms and duty cycles on the road. Formed as a subsidiary of the public utility Hydro-Québec, the company sells its motor and control products to manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks and buses around the world. In June, TM4 will release an update to its SUMO product line… Read more »
Tuning a vehicle’s aerodynamic features is nothing new. Engineers have been using wind tunnels for decades, and more recently they’ve also employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to reduce drag, minimize noise and increase stability by preventing undesired lift forces. In the expanding world of EVs, car builders are doubling down on efforts to push… Read more »
By Sam Abuelsamid, Senior Research Analyst – Navigant Research If you move, you will die. If you don’t move, you are already dead. There are countless variations on that theme but the gist is that life is full of risk and, sooner or later, it will get you. However, if you plan ahead and prepare,… Read more »
Wire bonding technology – widely utilized in the microelectronics and power electronics industries since the 1970s – is finding its way into interesting new applications in the growing EV industry – in particular, battery connections. We’re quite certain that a few EVs are using wire-bonding technology for production battery pack connections, but Charged was unable… Read more »
Torque vectoring technology is generally defined as a vehicle’s ability to vary the power to each wheel. Quickly controlling the torque applied to the wheels independently of one another allows the driving characteristics of a vehicle to be improved in significant ways – more stability, more responsiveness and more agility. A conventional differential distributes the… Read more »