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DiL system cuts physical testing

Horiba MIRA has opened a driving simulator centre in the UK with driver-in-the-loop technology (writes Nick Flaherty). The £4 million centre aims to help established car designers, start-up vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers to develop new vehicles.

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Structural carbon fibre research

Researchers at Chalmers University in Sweden have shown how the manufacturing of carbon fibres can be tailored for developing structural batteries (writes Nick Flaherty). They worked with Carbon Nexus at Deakin University, in Australia, to build a

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Detectors do more using less

Nisshinbo Micro Devices has launched two voltage detectors that are designed to provide higher accuracy in ECUs and BMSs using fewer components (writes Nick Flaherty). When monitoring high voltages, it is crucial to consider the drawbacks of using traditional low-voltage detectors with an open drain output. The NV3600 and...

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Grounded G2 electric RV offers 250-mile range with 165 kWh battery

US start-up Grounded has developed a modular electric recreation vehicle (RV) with a range of 250 miles (writes Nick Flaherty). The G2 increases the range from the 100 miles of the original version, the G1, by using a larger and more efficient battery pack.

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Solar PV system powers electric boats in Gambian village

A start-up is working in Africa to electrify fishing boats (writes Nick Flaherty). VoltaViewAfrica was set up by a professor from the Fraunhofer research institute in Germany. Photovoltaics generate electricity, which is stored in mobile, portable lithium batteries that local residents can use as an individual power source which includes powering local fishing boats.

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Solar supplement for hybrid truck

Scania has shown a prototype of an electric truck that uses solar panels to provide additional power for propulsion (writes Nick Flaherty). The truck is a regular 100 kWh Scania plug-in hybrid connected to a trailer with 200 kWh of additional batteries as a power bank. These are connected to the solar panels. “When we first

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Graphene-free liquid cooling

Researchers at Samsung have developed a design for a liquid-cooled thermal management system (TMS) for large lithium-ion battery packs (writes Nick Flaherty). They first built a coupled 3D electrochemical/thermal model of a battery pack that avoids the use of materials such as graphene. Simulation showed that

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Moulding method for pack covers

Materials firm Sabic has successfully moulded an EV battery pack top cover using low-pressure injection moulding (writes Nick Flaherty). The trial of the process is part of Sabic’s Bluehero initiative to show the manufacturability of large EV battery components using thermoplastic injection moulding. This specific form of...

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Reliability boost for aluminium cells

Researchers in the US have developed a high-power solid-state battery using aluminium that avoids previous reliability issues (writes Nick Flaherty). The team, from the Georgia Institute of Technology (GATech), worked with Novelis, which manufactures aluminium and is the world’s largest aluminium

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Cheaper, more efficient MOSFETs

iDEAL Semiconductor has developed a technology that can improve the efficiency and cut the cost of power MOSFETs for e-mobility applications (writes Nick Flaherty). The SuperQ process technology can also be applied to SiC MOSFETs and GaN transistors in the future, said Mark Granahan, CEO and founder of iDeal Semiconductor.