In the eyes of an EV driver, the success of the battery is measured in a completely binary way: does the battery last the life of the vehicle, or not? In fact, the best praise you can give any battery – whether in your laptop, phone, or EV – is not to have to think… Read more »
Power Factor Correction (PFC) used to be something that electronics manufacturers only grudgingly added to a product – usually because of complaints about breakers tripping prematurely, or to meet regulatory requirements in the EU – but these days PFC is showing up in more and more products. While one should never underestimate the ability of… Read more »
When you see the name Pi Innovo, your first thought might be of the famous mathematical constant that begins with 3.14. If you read it too quickly, you might be reminded of Pinocchio, the delightful tale of a physically deformed puppet. But from now on, when you see Pi Innovo, here’s what you should think… Read more »
Electric motors are everywhere: in household appliances, in hand tools, in buildings, in consumer electronics, and increasingly in automobiles. Motors are used in windshield wipers, power windows, throttle controllers, and, more and more, in the drivetrains of electrified vehicles. Electric motors abound, and Odawara Engineering knows how to make them. Charged spoke with Odawara’s Chris… Read more »
When many people think of electric vehicles, they imagine sleek passenger EVs like the near-quintessential Tesla Model S. However, EVs are by no means restricted to consumer use. As more and more industries move towards electrification, more and more industrial EV solutions will be needed. Bel Power Solutions is a power conversion product provider that… Read more »
Wire is not the most glamorous of components, but it is the enabler of our modern society – especially of our even more modern mode of transport, the EV – and a surprising amount of technology and engineering goes into making, selecting and using wire. How wire is made The modern method of manufacturing copper… Read more »
Rare earth magnets have gotten a lot of coverage in the EV press over the years for being expensive – especially back in 2011 when a supply disruption in China sent the prices up anywhere from fivefold for neodymium to 20-fold for dysprosium over the course of a few months – yet they are still… Read more »
Much as humans need a heart to distribute energy throughout our bodies, EVs need a heart to transfer energy from their batteries to their motors. This “heart” of an EV is called a power module, and it’s responsible for driving the vehicle’s propulsion unit as efficiently as possible. Considering the critical importance of power modules,… Read more »
Alta Motors claims that its dirt bikes have a battery pack with energy density that’s among the highest of any production vehicle. With help from Scheugenpflug’s custom production equipment and Wevo-Chemie materials, the motorcycle builder says its thermal design was the key to achieving that. Seven years ago, a group of motorcycle and off-road dirt… Read more »
When it comes to EVs, every pound matters. There is a direct relationship between a vehicle’s weight and the requirements of its expensive battery back, so automotive engineers will explore every possible measure to reduce vehicle mass. However, one of the ways that engineers have traditionally achieved desirable properties in the domain of Noise, Vibration,… Read more »