Electrical steels are soft magnetic materials found at the heart of electric motors. They’re typically manufactured in cold-rolled strips, cut into shapes to make laminations and then stacked together to form the stator and rotor of a motor. These specialty steels are tailored to produce certain magnetic properties, and have a magnetic flux density (key… Read more »
Tesla spends a considerable amount of resources on basic research into EV systems – as well it should. EV technology is very young compared to that of ICE vehicles, so it’s safe to assume that, in a few short years, the aggregate of many incremental technology advances could lead to significantly better EVs. Of course,… Read more »
Comparing the spec sheets from different parts manufacturers is tricky business for engineers in any industry. However, the advanced battery market seems to be uniquely challenged in this regard. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk often points out, when it comes to batteries, the BS factor is outrageous. Even if you assume that every vendor provides… Read more »
Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technologies have attracted a lot of attention and research funding in the past decade. Both public and private institutions around the world have been obsessed with accelerating the evolution of WBG tech into commercial power electronics applications. What’s all the fuss about? WBG materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium… Read more »
One major challenge that the EV industry has had to overcome is figuring out how to test its new products. No matter how great and innovative you think your new design is, if you can’t adequately test it, how do you know it’s truly great? Until recently, there were no standard operating procedures for testing… Read more »
We write about electric buses a lot at Charged. That’s because, as our July/August cover story pointed out, we think that e-buses will inevitably become the top choice for cities and municipalities. This could happen a lot quicker than many people realize, and some have predicted that transit buses will be the first segment in… Read more »
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 »