Issue link: https://te.mouser.com/i/1450779
TE AUTOMOTIVE /// TREND PAPER /// Electrifying a Movement Page 2 CHARGING A BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE Today's available fast chargers, providing between 50 to 200 kilowatts of power, typically can add just under 200 miles of driving range in an hour's time. Currently the in- dustry is developing High-Power Charging (HPC) to pro- vide the same amount of charge (200 miles of range) in 10 minutes or less, producing an experience similar to filling up your gas tank in your internal combustion en- gine (ICE) vehicle. Compared to a typical cell phone, this means that the requirements for charging an electric ve- hicle is 1000 times more demanding (today) and anoth- er order of magnitude (10,000 times) more demanding tomorrow. These demands are driving the industry to focus on a broad range of solutions to challenges never before seen in the automotive industry. Charging inlets are needed that can handle 10-20 times the power of the current gen- eration of electric cars. Trying to push up to 500 kilowatts of power through an inlet sized to handle 50 kilowatts is likened to someone drinking from a firehose. Connections, cables, and switches / contactors must be able to intel- ligently manage this power transfer, dealing with heat, arcing, and safety issues. New thermal modeling and sim- ulations techniques need to be developed, allowing for optimized design of components and subsystems that can be stressed by the high charging voltage and current needs. STORING POWER IN A BEV The demands placed on an electric vehicle's battery are tremendous compared to that of a typical smartphone. It needs to have on the order of 200X the capacity and operate at 100X the voltage, making an electric vehicle's battery quite complex. If that's not tough enough, auto- motive battery packs must fit within the dimensions of the car and safely operate in an extremely harsh environ- ment. Thanks to the demand for more and more battery powered devices and green energy technology, there is a tremendous amount of investment taking place to dra- matically improve battery technology in order to store the energy that is needed to operate the car. Key challenges are doing so safely, reliably, and in small packages. This drives the need for high voltage, physically compliant, battery module contacts and connection in- terfaces for cell-to-cell and module-module connections enabling battery pack scalability. To keep size down, sub-assemblies with integrated sens- ing capabilities are under development to enable smart control for battery management (state-of-charge and state-of-health). Automotive manufacturers and system suppliers therefore need solutions for miniaturized and compliant interconnect technology enabling small, robust packaging for high capacity battery packs. ELECTRIFIED AND CONTROLLED PROPULSION Maximizing driving range on a single charge is critical. We've already discussed one half of the challenge – bat- tery capacity. The second and equally critical part of the story is efficient operation of the car. How do we get from point A to point B using as little power as possible? Intelligent control of the electric motor (not over-driving nor under-driving the e-motor), and regenerative braking (recovering and storing energy during a vehicle slowing event) are key approaches for energy-efficient operation. Additionally, car manufacturers are looking at ways to bring more and more outside data into the vehicle to help with the efficiency. One simple example is traffic manage- ment information. If my vehicle can route me most effi- ciently (avoiding traffic, road closure, etc.) I can minimize the energy consumed. Another example could be my vehicle "talking" to intel- ligent traffic signals. Less "full stops" leads to minimized energy consumption. All of this drives the need for a new suite of sensors to enable control of EV's to ensure op- timized power management and control. With this high