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Wheel motor test platform

Nissan has developed a test vehicle to evaluate the use of electric motors on each wheel (writes Nick Flaherty). It is based on the Leaf e+ platform, with front and rear motors and what Nissan calls a new chassis control system. New control technology being developed by the company integrates its electric propulsion and four-wheeldrive control technologies...

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Going everywhere for testing

BorgWarner has converted an Aerial Nomad all-terrain vehicle to all electric operation to test its electric motor technologies and other electric components from suppliers at the system level (writes Nick Flaherty). It is the first high-voltage, all-electric demonstration vehicle to be developed by the company’s Corporate Advanced Engineering group. The new technologies in the test platform include traction inverters...

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Cloud control for e-bus systems

Siemens has launched a cloud-oriented charging system for commercial vehicles that supports power levels from 50 to 600 kW (writes Nick Flaherty). The Sicharge UC family is intended for charging electric buses and utility vehicles at the depot and en route using charging plugs and offboard or onboard pantographs. The 1000 V system works with applications...

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No contact with CAN monitor

Hioki has extended its non-contact voltage test technology to allow developers to monitor CAN bus networks (writes Nick Flaherty). The SP7001/7002 CAN sensors can detect the CAN fl exible data (CAN FD) rate that supports higher rates than the earlier CAN standard, as well as CAN...

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Onboard charger gives it 300%

Finepower has developed an onboard charger based on gallium nitride which, at 3 kW/litre, exceeds the power density of conventional chargers by 300% (writes Nick Flaherty). The water-cooled charger measures 210 x 50 x 60 mm without the housing, and converts input voltages from 85 to 264 V AC, with a maximum power of...

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Electric truck mines own energy

Kuhn Schweiz in Germany has developed an electrified mining truck that does not need external charging; instead it powers its batteries using captured energy (writes Nick Flaherty). The company took a 111 tonne mining truck from Komatsu and replaced the diesel engine with a...

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Scoping out motors/inverters

The accurate analysis of inverter waveforms without interference from switching noise is a key part of evaluating the motor drive circuit, driving the need for a class of test equipment called a ScopeCorder (writes Nick Flaherty). Between 16 and 18% of the total power in an electric car is consumed as losses in the...

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Diversity gives pack balance

Williams Advanced Engineering has developed a battery pack that combines different types of batteries to balance out the needs of peak and sustained power (writes Nick Flaherty). The first version of the Adaptive MultiChem design combines lithium-ion nickel, manganese, cobalt (NMC) pouch cells to provide...

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Bike battery spreads the load

Curtiss Motorcyles in the US has replicated a V8 engine with a distributed battery pack to provide higher efficiency for its latest Zeus model (writes Nick Flaherty). The Zeus has a skeletal space frame anchored to the custom powertrain architecture. “With the battery cells packaged inside eight cylindrical towers configured in a flaring radial vee pattern, we’re able to...

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Battery data gets cloud cover

A battery management start-up has developed a cloud-based battery monitoring service that can handle data from millions of electric bikes and cars on the road (writes Nick Flaherty). The Edison management software from Indian company Ion Energy uses a design called FS-XT, developed by a technology company in France called...