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Inverter enables fast prototyping

Semikron and Silicon Mobility have developed a low-voltage inverter design (writes Nick Flaherty). The 24-96 V inverter platform is aimed at battery-powered and industrial off-road vehicles using a powertrain between 10 and 50 kW. The design combines the SKAI 3LV inverter system from Semikron and the OLEA electric motor...

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New tyre boosts range of solar EV

Bridgestone has designed a tyre specifically for solar-power EVs (writes Nick Flaherty). It has been designed for Netherlands based solar car designer Lightyear and its Lightyear One car to reduce the weight and rolling resistance and so increase its range compared with the regular production tyre. The Lightyear One has a range of 450 miles...

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Nanotech cells process

Nanom in Iceland has developed a nanotechnology process that can turn carbon fibre structures into solid-state batteries (writes Nick Flaherty). The company says this can provide a more than nine-fold increase in performance for lithium-ion batteries, and that it is talking to a wide range of transportation...

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Aluminium batteries advance

Researchers in the US have taken a key step forward towards using aluminium for rechargeable batteries that have far higher capacity than current lithium-ion cells (writes Nick Flaherty). The team, at Cornell University, coated the metal with carbon fibres to improve the performance over more than 10,000 charging cycles and 3600 hours when cycled at a charging rate...

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Note: electric version now available

Nissan has developed an electrified version of its Note vehicle using a gasoline engine as a generator, as well as its first full EV since the Leaf (writes Nick Flaherty). The Note e-Power uses a three cylinder IC engine to charge a small, 1.5 kWh lithium-ion NMC battery pack that drives dual electric motors in a four wheel-drive hybrid design. This allows the 60 kW/103 Nm engine...

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IGBT-SiC chip cuts inverter costs

Infineon has launched a 650 V hybrid silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon transistor for inverter designs (writes Nick Flaherty). The CoolSiC Hybrid Discrete for Automotive combines a 50 A fast switching IGBT and a CoolSiC Schottky diode to reduce the cost compared to a pure SiC part but provide the high reliability needed...

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High-efficiency inverter

Pre-Switch has developed a 200 kW inverter architecture that achieves more than 99% efficiency with silicon carbide (SiC) transistors (writes Nick Flaherty). The 100 kHz CleanWave200 evaluation inverter uses three discrete, low-cost 35 mΩ SiC MOSFETs from UnitedSiC per switch location...

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Hybrid approach to safe transport

Horizon Aircraft has developed a hybrid electric vertical take-off (eVTOL) aircraft with safety at the heart of its design (writes Nick Flaherty). The Cavorite x5 eVTOL fan-in-wing platform is designed with a redundant gas/electric powertrain to enable safety certification for carrying up to five people. The high-wing canard design has six motors in each wing...

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Virtual AC system controllers

Curtis Instruments has launched a series of programmable AC motor controllers for vehicle traction designs from 24 to 96 V and up to 425 A continuous current (writes Nick Flaherty). The 1238SE series uses the Curtis Vehicle Control Language (VCL), which allows vehicle developers to write powerful logic functions...

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Combined approach to HV tests

Vector and CSM have combined their measurement technologies to validate e-mobility platforms up to 800 V (writes Nick Flaherty). The layouts of the powertrain, the charging components and the HV elements present new requirements for test and validation, which vary from vehicle to vehicle depending on the electrical system topology...