E-Mobility Engineering 017 l ECE Doosan electric excavators dossier l In Conversation: Matt Faulks l Battery testing focus l Battery Show North America 2022 report l Ariel Hipercar digest l Cathode materials insight l Thermal management focus

to be at the same SoC or voltage before connection and that, after a few cycles, the batteries become increasingly unbalanced. Lithium Power has also addressed this issue through its BMS. Chan explained that the GC2/GC8 can be connected at different SOCs, such as 20% and 100%, and the battery with the higher voltage will not charge the ones at lower voltages. “If batteries were to charge each other it would be a major safety hazard, as there would be a large in- rush of current. Our pack balancing means we can connect a brand new battery with a set of old batteries that have experienced numerous cycles.” Rather than using a third-party product, the company owns its BMS technology and therefore has full control of the batteries, enabling it to provide adjustable protection parameters to accommodate different applications and operating conditions, Chan said. “Our batteries can be set to different sleep mode timers,” he noted. “User settings can be customised, battery status information and history data logs are accessible, and batteries can be programmed to preheat before charging in below-freezing environments.” AMP engineers refer to as a power wall on wheels. As a charger it can accept three-phase AC at 320 V to 415 V or single-phase AC at 97 to 265 V at the input, and currents of 48 and 24 A respectively, with output power of up to 11 kW at 270 to 465 VDC. Efficiency at full load is quoted at more than 92%, and it can deliver its maximum 500 A fast charge for 10 minutes, says the company. In DC-DC converter mode it can accept 270 to 465 VDC and put out 9 to 16 VDC and up to 3 kW at more than 94% efficiency. Connected to the company’s ampCloud, the EMU forms an end-to-end system for energy management, charging and cloud-based analytics, diagnostics and maintenance. Now deployed on more than 11,000 road vehicles, the EMU is also scalable for different platforms, Paryani said, adding that it can be integrated into applications as diverse as passenger cars, large commercial vehicles and even hypersonic air vehicles. “Efficient, intelligent and connected” are characteristics Paryani expects of future energy management technology as applied to EVs, mobility and beyond into many other aspects of life, particularly clean energy. “Engineers at AMP have developed an operating system for e-mobility to harness this energy on the vehicle and through the vehicle to the grid.” Lithium Power presented its new GC2/GC8 battery range, which is designed for drop-in replacement of lead-acid batteries in light EVs, materials handling equipment, marine applications, recreational vehicles, back-up power and solar energy storage systems. It comes in 12, 24, 36 and 48 V forms. With drop-in replacements, it is very important that the new lithium iron phosphate batteries are fully compatible with the lead-acid applications and chargers, so the proprietary BMS works with existing controllers and a variety of chargers, Stan Chan said. He added that a parallel connection capability allows the battery packs to remain small and easy to maintain and transport. “Traditional lead-acid packs are connected in series to reach a certain voltage: for example, eight 6 V batteries create a 48 V system,” he said. “However, the overall capacity is limited, and a failure of any battery reduces the overall voltage, causing the whole system to fail.” That, he explained can be solved by connecting batteries in parallel, with two 48 V, 30 Ah batteries connected this way offering 48 V and 60 Ah. “We have an EV customer who connects thirty-six 48 V 30 Ah batteries in parallel. If any of the batteries fail, the capacity is reduced but the overall system maintains 48 V,” Chan said. This parallel connection capability is facilitated by the comms protocols the company offers, including CAN bus, SM bus and Bluetooth. “When they are connected in parallel, they communicate with each other and work together. When you turn one battery on, all will turn on,” Chan said. He added that while some competitors’ systems can also connect batteries in parallel, they require them Lithium Power’s GC Series lithium iron phosphate batteries are drop- in replacements for lead-acid units 48 January/February 2023 | E-Mobility Engineering