January/February 2026 | E-Mobility Engineering 28 The control systems can also be optimised for a wide range of other aspects – everything from thermal management to prioritising hill-hold and creep torque. Thermal management has been an area of particular interest during the development, with the aim of optimising it to minimise parasitic loads and make the best use of the onboard heat sinks and sources. Temperature sensors are used to dialin the efficiency of the thermal system. They are also crucial to maximising life and reliability, and monitoring and controlling the temperature seen by the power electronics, rather than simply picking a temperature and trying to maintain inlet or outlet, which is not sufficient to ensure long life. The number of driver-influenced performance options has been minimised for more simple operation, with efficiency and performance modes such as external inputs for regenerative braking – which are offered on some of BAE Systems’ other vehicles – missing on this one. There is, however, the option to tune the throttle and regen during initial development. Matthews explains: “Some systems use a driver-selectable High/Medium/ Low setting for the regen braking, but this doesn’t account for changes in the vehicle weight and it can create different driver feel based on the payload. It can also allow the driver to inadvertently leave it in the low setting and miss out on more battery range. “Instead, we have a dual set-up for regen braking that allows for liftthrottle regen or one-pedal driving as well as a progressively higher regen level when the brake pedal is used. The system is set up to start initially with full regenerative braking, blending in foundation brakes as needed for harsher stopping situations. “We use the accelerometer to automatically optimise the efficiency of the motor/gearbox combination and maximise the regenerative energy Gradability was key to the BAESystems electric drive design, with the target to achieve a minimum of 20% start at full GVWR The low-weight and highly efficient solution developed by BAE-Systems offers plenty of capacity for heavy payloads and workloads
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