Taiwan’s most influential E-Mobility trade show, 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan, is set to kick off from April 12 to 15 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1. Presenting a comprehensive E-Mobility ecosystem, 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan features 6 main categories: Electric, Autonomous, Connected, Interaction, Shared, and EVs, showcasing cutting-edge solutions from electric vehicles, EIC system (battery, motor, and electric control), ADAS, Internet of Vehicles to smart cockpit. The trade show presents a complete sourcing platform for electric and autonomous vehicle solutions.
2035 E-Mobility Taiwan is Taiwan’s most influential trade show focusing on the E-Mobility Ecosystem.
The ‘2035’ in the trade show’s name signifies that the future of transportation is anticipated to be dominated by electric and autonomous vehicles by 2035. In the last few years, driven by the severe impacts of climate change and global warming, the shift toward electric and self-driving vehicles in the automotive industry is showing an unstoppable momentum. The world’s major automobile markets such as the United States and Europe are taking steps to phase out gas-powered vehicles. This month, the European Parliament formally approved a law to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars in the European Union starting in 2035. Amidst the trend of smart mobility, Taiwan is ready to provide total solutions for global buyers in 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan. Here’s why you shouldn’t miss the exhibition.
Drive Smart, Drive Sustainability
With Taiwan’s strong backbone in semiconductor, ICT and advanced manufacturing, the scale of Taiwan’s automotive electronics industry has grown rapidly over the years. Taiwanese companies have supplied parts and components to some of the world’s top EV makers including Tesla. Based on the strong supply chain and corresponding to the global trends, user needs, and challenges in the future mobility sector, 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan will revolve around the two themes: Drive Smart, Drive Sustainability.
Drive Smart
To provide better driving experience, improve road safety, and enhance traffic efficiency, 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan brings innovations that provide vehicle connectivity, real-time data on traffic and road conditions, collision avoidance, driver behavior monitoring, ADAS, In-Vehicle Infotainment system.
With a growing focus on reducing CO2 emissions and reaching a sustainable future, 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan showcases EV batteries, charging systems and stations, energy storage, and technologies that optimize the use of energy and manage charging demand. At the same time, EVs and e-buses are also exhibited.
The concepts of smart mobility and sustainability bring infinite possibilities and inspire many startup companies to develop solutions and products that turn these concepts into reality. Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Epoch Foundation hold the ‘E-Mobility Global Demo Day’, to scout new solutions for future mobility and foster business collaborations. After 2 rounds of selection, 12 startups are selected from the U.S., Canada, France, UK, Israel, Vietnam, and Taiwan to exhibit in the trade show this year. They will showcase technologies such as edge AI chip solution, automotive AI, human machine interface, imaging sensor chip, voice-AI technology, autonomous last mile delivery, and repairable battery for bikes and scooters.
One-Stop Shop for Automotive Solutions
This year, 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan will be held concurrently with TAIPEI AMPA and Autotronics Taipei, offering global visitors a one-stop industry collaboration and sourcing platform for automobile and motorcycle spare parts, automotive electronics, and electric vehicles solutions. This all-in-one mega show has attracted nearly 900 exhibitors, making it an ideal platform for car manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, IT experts, fleet managers, government officials to source total solutions and explore new business opportunities.
Visitors can source the latest technologies from suppliers across the automotive supply chain.
Be Inspired by Various Activities
During the four-day trade show, the E-Mobility Forum brings together industry leaders and visionaries from around the world to discuss the most impactful developments that have taken root across automotive industries. Moreover, top-industry companies will unveil innovations that address challenges in the electric vehicle revolution at New Product Launches. There are also onsite guided tours led by industry KOLs that take you around the show floor and get a first-hand look of the latest mobility solutions.
Series of events such as E-Mobility forum, New Product Launches and guided tours are planned during the trade show.
2035 E-Mobility Taiwan is organized by Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and will be held in Taipei from April 12 to 15, 2023. Its virtual platform E-Mobility DigitalGO runs through April 10 to 23, allowing global visitors to easily source products and connect with suppliers. Overseas visitors can register here and visit the hybrid shows for free. Visit e-mobilityshow.com.tw and follow on social media to get updates from 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan.
American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) has identified what it calls “one of the largest known lithium deposits in the United States” at its Tonopah Flats Lithium Project in Big Smoky Valley, Nevada.
The ABTC Tonopah Flats Lithium Project encompasses 517 unpatented lode claims covering approximately 10,340 acres. ABTC began surface sampling of these claims in 2021, and subsequently performed multiple subsurface drilling programs totaling 12,000 feet of exploration covering approximately 65% of its property.
ABTC has presented an inferred resource report, as such things are called in the argot of the mining industry. This includes an independent analysis of the data performed by the third-party firm RESPEC, classified by geological and quantitative confidence in accordance with SEC regulations.
The ABTC Tonopah Flats inferred resource represents an estimated 15.8 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, and the company says there is potential to significantly expand the resources with further drilling extending to the north and south property boundaries and at greater depths.
ABTC’s analysis indicates that the resource should support a processing rate of at least 200,000 tons of claystone per day. The company carried out leaching trials which demonstrated that over 90% of the lithium can be extracted from the Tonopah Flats claystone within a few hours. The project is strategically situated close to infrastructure and the town of Tonopah.
“Having identified one of the largest premier lithium deposits in the US is exciting,” said ABTC CEO Ryan Melsert. “However, the identification of an inferred resource in and of itself is not enough to address our critical challenges of increasing our domestic production of critical battery metals, reducing the costs of manufacturing and decreasing environmental impacts. The development of a resource needs to be paired with the development of targeted technologies for the extraction of these metals, and we have spent the past several years developing technologies specifically targeted at these Nevada-based claystone lithium resources, and have been recognized by the DOE through our selection for a competitive R&D-scale grant in 2021 and for a competitive grant to construct a commercial-scale claystone lithium hydroxide refinery in 2022.”
Mining experts warn us that establishing domestic production of battery raw materials will be a long process, and it’s plain to see what they mean when we consider the list of steps that ABTC must now take to bring its Tonopah Flats project to production. The company will: perform a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) to analyze the potential viability of the resource; perform additional infill and extension drilling to further expand the mineral resource; publish an updated mineral resource report based on the additional drill data and continued metallurgical test work; evaluate the performance of the field pilot plant that is being constructed as part of the current DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office grant; and perform a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) to quantify the impacts of developing this resource and constructing the commercial-scale lithium hydroxide refinery.
Revel aims to promote EV adoption in cities by solving two interrelated problems: The company’s rideshare fleet generates demand to justify the cost of installing DC fast chargers, and its charging Superhub ensures that the fleet stays charged, while also offering charging to the public.
Public charging and rideshare charging tend to take place at different times, so combining the two allows a charging provider to maximize its station utilization. And vehicle-to-grid technology offers alternate revenue streams for its vehicles.
A large charging site can perform AC-to-DC rectification in a central location and share power among individual chargers. This enables more efficiency in terms of grid connections and capital investment.
Q&A with Revel COO Paul Suhey.
New York-based Revel is riding two timely trends. Because rideshare vehicles log so many miles, electrifying them can deliver outsize emissions reductions—and drivers for the likes of Lyft and Uber will need strategically located urban charging hubs. Meanwhile, millions of drivers in dense cities like New York live in locations where, unlike suburban drivers, they don’t have the possibility of installing chargers at their homes.
It’s easy to see that there’s a connection between ridesharing and urban public charging, but as Revel COO Paul Suhey recently explained to Charged, the synergies run much deeper than are apparent at first glance—and Revel’s approach could prove to be a model for advancing EV adoption in cities around the world.
Charged: You’re doing three different things in New York City—you have fleets of electric scooters and Tesla rideshare vehicles, all in highly visible blue, and you also have a large public charging station called the Superhub in Brooklyn, with ambitious plans for more around the city. What’s the overarching business plan that ties all these related activities together?
Paul Suhey: The primary challenge that we’re focused on is enabling EV adoption in cities. All of the challenges and opportunities, technology, regulatory issues, business model issues that are associated with enabling EV adoption at scale in major urban markets, that’s where we’re focused. From there, every business line sort of ladders up to that core mission. I think the two most important things that we’re doing right now are: enabling the build-out of fast charging in major urban markets; then, as we build out that infrastructure at scale, thinking about how we ensure that EVs can actually be integrated into that infrastructure in a way that enables or supports a reliable grid.
“You have a certain level of utilization to justify the CapEx of putting those expensive chargers in the ground.”
Sort of a dual challenge: How do you execute and put chargers in the ground today? Then, how do you think three, four or five years ahead to the time when EV adoption really starts to pick up, and the types of innovation that we’ll need to see, and how can we be on the ground floor of driving that innovation today? As that relates to our general business models, I think one of the things that makes us different is we’re not just an infrastructure company and we’re not just a mobility company. We think it’s important at this stage in the industry that we’re integrated under the same roof. We’re very familiar right now with building fast charging, but to make a business case for that, you have to be confident that you have a certain level of utilization to justify the CapEx of putting those expensive chargers in the ground.
So having this infrastructure business integrated with our rideshare business, that gives us confidence that we have this captive source of demand, and if we build out this infrastructure, we have confidence in the level of utilization that we’ll see from our rideshare fleet. We build out that infrastructure, utilize it with our rideshare business, but then also make it completely publicly accessible. So if you’re a consumer, or if you’re another business such as a rental car company, you start to have confidence that there’s infrastructure available for you to charge. So that sort of solves the initial business model challenge of building infrastructure and then, whether it’s vehicle-to-grid or dynamic smart charging, beginning to pilot various elements that we think will be essential as this industry continues to grow to ensure that we’re supporting a reliable grid.
Charged: The chargers themselves are Revel-branded chargers, but who’s the equipment manufacturer?
Paul Suhey: We have a strong partnership with an OEM called Tritium. We work closely with the charging market, sourcing chargers from various vendors. If you really focus on fast charging, there are probably five or six major players.
Charged: What’s the advantage of having a Superhub as opposed to distributing public chargers in ones and twos around the city?
Paul Suhey: I think one of the key differences with the types of sites that we’re building compared to what’s been common in the industry is building sites at scale. Typically, outside of Tesla, the normal fast charging station maybe has two plugs on average. We’re building sites that have 10 to 25 plugs.
The main difference from a technical perspective is that when you have two plugs, it’s what I refer to as an all-in-one unit. You have AC-to-DC conversion happening within that one unit. It’s 50 kW, 75 kW, that’s it. With bigger sites, you’re able to do that AC-to-DC rectification in a central location, and then power-share across dispensers, so you can be much more intelligent around what charger is getting what speed at what time. It allows you to be more efficient with grid connections, and it allows you to be more efficient with your CapEx costs.
“With bigger sites, you’re able to do that AC-to-DC rectification in a central location, and then power-share across dispensers… It allows you to be more efficient with grid connections, and…your CapEx costs.”
Charged: At your Superhub, you have several companies involved in managing the chargers, including AMP Control and EV Gateway. Sometimes it’s a little hard to sort out exactly what these different companies are doing. Can you explain how the pieces of the puzzle fit together?
Paul Suhey: Maybe one way to describe it is just the different components of the general ecosystem. On the Amp Control side, it’s really about load. We’re able to look at what vehicles we have due out at certain times, how much energy we expect them to use, what constraints we have on how we want to manage our peak load, and then how we ensure that we intelligently charge our fleet at the right speed to ensure that vehicles can make it out for their shifts on time—that they have enough energy and we minimize costs as much as possible. It allows us to minimize our electricity costs without impacting system reliability at all.
EV Gateway is more about connectivity to the chargers themselves—ensuring that you can connect the vehicle, initiate a charge session, authorize charge sessions—the backend system that enables that connectivity is where that comes into play.
Because this industry is so new, there’s a lot of interesting upstart companies. It’s a very disaggregated space. You have a lot of companies in the software space, some working in hardware, and there’s a lot of exciting technology development happening.
Charged: Your Superhub in Brooklyn powers your own rideshare vehicles and also is open to the public. Do you have different chargers designated just for your drivers?
Paul Suhey: All the same chargers. All of them have either Tesla connectors or CCS connectors, and we also have a few remaining CHAdeMO chargers. But all 25 chargers are completely open to the public as well as to our fleet.
That’s one of the interesting synergies with our use case of combining these two different demand profiles—combining public charging with rideshare charging—because it allows us to interplay those two profiles to maximize the station utilization. General public charging, you’ll have certain demand profiles throughout the day. Maybe you have a peak in the morning, it goes down in the afternoon, you have another peak in the evening. We can control when and where our vehicles are charging, so when we know that we have more dead time at chargers, whether it’s overnight or it’s early in the morning or in the afternoon, that’s when we will charge our vehicles. Combining those two demand sources really allows us to maximize our station utilization more than just being a standalone public charging business.
“Combining public charging with rideshare charging…allows us to interplay those two profiles to maximize the station utilization.”
If you take the very simple use case of overnight, that’s when there’s very little, if any, demand for charging. That’s also when there’s very little, if any, demand for rideshare, so then we can take those vehicles off the road, charge them primarily overnight, then during the day, that’s when they’re doing rides. When they’re doing rides is when the public is primarily using the site. So that gives you one example, but there’s a lot of blocks in the middle of the day when there’s less demand on the road for rideshare vehicles, and you can charge your vehicles.
That’ll change over time as well, because the demand profile of a station in a residential neighborhood might be different than the demand profile you might get on a major thoroughfare that’s connecting between a residential and a primary commercial district. So it really will depend on the site that you’re looking at.
Paul Suhey: Yes. If you take a step back and think about V2G, I think the primary focus to date has tended to be on residential V2G or school buses. Both use cases make sense. School buses, you have a vehicle that is utilized nine months out of the year, not really utilized during the summer when the grid tends to be more stressed.
Residential, one of the primary challenges has been that it’s confusing enough to convince consumers to go electric and teach them about charging and everything that goes along with it. So try doing that at the same time that you’re trying to teach them about selling energy back into the grid, why they should care or how it should work. It’s complicated. With us, I think we see a big opportunity.
A: We’re focused in major urban markets, and those tend to be environments where the grid is more stressed and there’s more opportunity to participate in grid services and provide a valuable service to the grid.
And then B: We’re talking about operating a fleet that we own and operate and control. It’s much easier for us as a business to make these strategic decisions and investments when we control the vehicles. You don’t have to worry about individual consumers making individual decisions.
But the use case that we see is participating in V2G operations the five to ten times a year when the grid is most stressed. So, unlike a school bus where you’re exporting energy every single day of the summer for weeks at a time, what are the ten times throughout the year when we can get a signal from the utility that there’s an opportunity for us to export energy back into the grid for a four-hour period? What that allows is at scale, as we control these EVs, we can make the determination: should this vehicle be doing rides via our rideshare business or should it be dispatched to a certain station at a certain time to send energy back to the grid?
Charged: So you might take a vehicle out of rideshare service if it’s more profitable for it to act as a battery for the grid at a particular time?
Paul Suhey: Correct. And then it’s important to keep in mind that the times that we’ve wanted to do that is maybe ten times a year—certain locations on the grid, certain networks will have signals at different times. So maybe at one location there’s a need from noon to 4:00 PM. At another location it might be 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. So the number of vehicles that we need to take out of our service to provide a lot of value to the grid does not materially impact the quality of our rideshare service.
All of the backend ride operations, the determination of where vehicles should be used is our in-house software. Just the one-to-one V2G tech is what we’ve partnered with Fermata on.
Charged: You have plans to open five more of these Superhubs in New York City over the next few years. I spoke to another company recently, called Beam Global, and they told me that it can take up to two years in New York City to get through the whole process: permits, environmental impact, getting the power hooked up. Does that sound about right or are they exaggerating?
Paul Suhey: It’s spot-on. There’s a big window of uncertainty depending on the nature of the site, how much power you’re bringing, a lot of different factors. But it can be anywhere from a year, if you’re lucky, to three years. Two years is a safe average.
Each site that we look to build, before we sign a lease, we’re working with the utility, we’re going through the engineering process to understand the estimated timeline to bring power to the site. That’s what gives us the confidence of where we’re focusing, depending on how long we’re projecting those development timelines to be.
“A utility taking two years, that’s not a major constraint in the general construction and operations of a building, but this is a major constraint for our [charging] site going live.”
One thing to keep in mind when you’re dealing with the amount of load that you would have for a typical fast charging site at scale, that’s the type of load that usually goes in a major commercial building. The utility is used to working on much longer timeframes because if you’re working on a massive ground-up development process, that’s a four- or five-year build process. A utility taking two years, that’s not a major constraint in the general construction and operations of the building, but this is a major constraint for our charging site going live. So working through the process that typically takes two years or three years and trying to say, “Hey, we need this done faster,” you’re kind of working in a way that the utility hasn’t really done before. It’s a kind of new time crunch.
We definitely have a very strong relationship with Con Edison, the utility here in New York City. They’ve been very open and transparent about their process, how things need to improve, what they’re working on. We give them suggestions. But the reality is on both sides, whether it’s the customer or the utility, we’re working through these issues together for the first time. This is new, so until you actually go through the process and do it, it’s going to be difficult to say how long it takes to bring power to a site. I think each side gets more efficient as we work together.
Charged: At the moment, your Superhubs are just planned for New York?
Paul Suhey: Just in New York, but definitely looking to expand that network to other major cities soon. Our primary focus is on New York City. That’s where we’re based, that’s where we’re founded. That’s the market that we know the best, where we think there’s a massive gap in opportunity. But infrastructure, you have to think in a time scale of years, so if we want to build infrastructure in X City in 2027, you almost have to be thinking about that now.
Charged: Tell me about the other users of your Superhub besides your own rideshare vehicles. Have you also partnered with some other rideshare providers or fleets?
Paul Suhey: Yeah, of the third-party users that we get, meaning non-Revel usage, I’d say about maybe 50% tends to be from other taxi or rideshare customers—EV drivers that are driving for Uber and Lyft, or driving a yellow taxi that are going electric. And I think that’s a trend that we’ll continue to see because those are the drivers that are putting the most miles on their vehicle, can see the most benefits of going electric and operating cost savings versus an internal combustion engine. And then the remaining 50% is general consumers looking for somewhere to charge, leaving the city for a weekend, coming back, doing small trips. We’ve also seen a lot of people that are buying an EV or leasing or renting an EV because we’re in their neighborhood, they’re confident that they actually have somewhere to charge. That’s also our hope as we build infrastructure, make it more publicly accessible, you start to give consumers more confidence that they can make the switch to electric because they will have somewhere to charge.
Charged: When it comes to public chargers, a lot of people are appalled at how often they’re out of order. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this and nobody seems to know exactly what the problem is. Why can’t companies keep those darn things working?
Paul Suhey: A lot of answers to that. And it depends on if I’m talking fast charging or Level 2 charging. First and foremost, it’s hard. The technology is new, hardware is new, things break, growing pains. But I think there are a couple of challenges at play.
For Level 2 in particular, there can be differing business models on how those charging installations get installed. Oftentimes you might have a municipality or a grocery store, a location that wants to install that charger as an amenity. Charging company comes along, sells the hardware, and that’s it. They make money on the hardware sale, but they don’t really have to worry too much about ensuring utilization. And you’re bringing revenue through that utilization. You don’t have the right incentives—the store operator or whoever owns that real estate, they don’t care too much, they’re not making a bunch of money off of it. So no one’s really incentivized to ensure the uptime of that charger.
Then from a fast charging perspective, I think one of the challenges that we hope to solve is that, when you have two or three chargers, if one charger is broken, that means that half or a third of the chargers in that site are down. But if you have 10 or 20 chargers, if one charger goes down, two chargers go down, you’re able to fix that without materially impacting the customer experience and the reliability experience.
As we focus on building out a dense network within one location or one city, that allows us to concentrate our service and our spare parts network in that location. As opposed to if you’re a company where you have chargers here, a hundred miles over here, it can be difficult to stand up the service network, the spare parts network, to really support that operation, especially when you’re dealing with new technology where you’re not always certain which part is going to break.
We want to be the largest and most reliable fast charging network in major cities. The major component of that is thinking really hard about the maintenance in cities, spare parts operation, warranty with the manufacturer, timeline of getting things fixed, communication. It’s a whole operation to ensure that you understand when you have issues, which is a problem in and of itself, and then you pinpoint the root cause of those issues and fix them on a timeframe that keeps that experience where it needs to be.
Integrated circuit manufacturer Power Integrations has unveiled a 900 V gallium-nitride (GaN) addition to its InnoSwitch3 line of flyback switcher ICs. The company says the new ICs deliver up to 100 W with 93% efficiency, eliminating the need for heat sinks and simplifying space-constrained application design.
The new 900 V InnoSwitch3-EP and InnoSwitch3-AQ off-line CV/CC flyback switcher ICs use synchronous rectification, valley switching, and DCM/CCM flyback controllers. FluxLink communication technology lets the IC package bridge the isolation barrier, increasing efficiency and eliminating the need for optocouplers. InnoSwitch3-EP devices are designed to protect against line over- and under-voltage, output over-voltage, and over-current and over-temperature shutdown. Automotive InnoSwitch3-AQ devices can produce 100 W from a 400 V bus, and offer performance and protection similar to the popular 1,700-volt silicon-carbide ICs used in 800-volt EV systems.
“The dominant bus voltage for EVs is 400 V,” stated Peter Vaughan, Power Integrations Automotive Business Development Director. “EV manufacturers are optimizing their new generation of 400 V systems and re-engineering various power stages in the vehicle, such as the on-board charger. The 900 V PowiGaN switch is extremely beneficial because it easily accommodates inductive noise spikes and operates from as low as 30 V DC.”
Emerging international standards call for the use of proper measurement equipment for high-voltage EV applications.
Join this free webinar, presented by CSM at our Spring Virtual Conference on EV Engineering, to learn about the various measurement technologies required, applications for different components of EVs, and when high-voltage safety equipment must be used.
Other sessions at our Spring Virtual Conference include:
High Efficiency Battery Test Labs: Reducing Your Facility Power Needs With Intelligent Test Systems
Typical battery test systems are sized for the maximum power needed for all test cases. In addition, the test facility has separate test systems for pack, module, and cell without any benefit of sharing power between them. This then forces multiple, high power feeds provided from the facility to support all the test equipment, often in the orders of megawatts.
Join this webinar to learn about how Unico’s new modular battery test system platform can combine multiple channels of pack, module, and cell testing into single systems, providing isolation between all the channels, and allowing the circulation of power inside the system which significantly increases the power utilization factor for the systems. In addition, synchronizing test cycles to cycle power from one battery to another is possible to additionally reduce the facility power needs.
Broadcast live April 17 – 20, 2023, the conference content will span the EV engineering supply chain and ecosystem, including motor and power electronics design and manufacturing, cell development, battery systems, testing, powertrains, thermal management, circuit protection, wire and cable, EMI/EMC and more.
Electric vehicles produce far lower greenhouse gas emissions over their lifecycles than legacy vehicles, and this fact has been demonstrated by dozens of studies over the past decade (regardless of what you might read on Facebook). EVs are also expected to deliver benefits in terms of human health, but this has not been extensively studied.
Now a team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC have begun to document the actual respiratory impact of EV adoption in a study that uses real-world data to link electric cars, air pollution and health.
The team compared data on total ZEV registrations, air pollution levels and asthma-related emergency room visits across the state between 2013 to 2019. They found that, as ZEV adoption increased within a given zip code, local air pollution levels and emergency room visits dropped.
“When we think about the actions related to climate change, often it’s on a global level,” said study co-author Erika Garcia, an assistant professor at the Keck School of Medicine. “But the idea that changes being made at the local level can improve the health of your own community could be a powerful message to the public and to policy makers.”
To study the effects of EV adoption, the research team compared four different data sets. First, they obtained data on ZEV sales (including BEV, PHEV and fuel cell cars) from the California DMV and tabulated the total number registered in each zip code for every year between 2013 and 2019. They also included data from EPA air monitoring sites on levels of nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant related to traffic, and zip code-level asthma-related visits to the emergency room. Finally, they calculated the percentage of adults in each zip code who held bachelor’s degrees, in order to assess a neighborhood’s socioeconomic status.
On average, the number of ZEVs in the region studied increased from 1.4 to 14.6 per 1,000 people between 2013 and 2019. At the zip code level, for every additional 20 ZEVs per 1,000 people, the team found a 3.2% drop in the rate of asthma-related emergency visits and a small but suggestive reduction in NO2 levels.
ZEV adoption was significantly lower in zip codes with lower levels of educational attainment. Past research has shown that underserved communities, such as lower-income neighborhoods, tend to face worse pollution and associated respiratory problems than more affluent areas. Thus, replacing fossil-powered cars with ZEVs in those neighborhoods could deliver outsize health benefits.
“Should continuing research support our findings, we want to make sure that those communities that are overburdened with the traffic-related air pollution are truly benefiting from this climate mitigation effort,” Garcia said.
A team of researchers from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) has demonstrated a new fast-charging technique that promotes Li-ion intercalation of active material through the use of a novel binder material.
According to the studies, the binder material improves desolvated Li-ion transport through the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) and within the anode material, delivering high conductivity, low impedance and stability. Boron compounds such as the tetracordinate boron in the binder and the boron-rich SEI decrease the activation energy of Li+ desolvation from the solvent sheath at the SEI. The suggested method also utilized caffeic acid biopolymer, a sustainable and ecologically safe substance.
“Our current strategy of using a bio-derived lithium borate polymer as an aqueous polyelectrolyte binder to enhance charge transfer within electrodes such as graphite anodes exhibits fast charging capability,” stated JAIST Professors, Noriyoshi Matsumi and Rajashekar Badam.
Volvo has supplied the first batch of 20 FM Electric trucks, out of a total order of 125, to Danish integrated shipping and logistics company DFDS in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Fourteen vehicles from the new fleet will be used to transport goods to and from Volvo’s heavy truck assembly plant located outside the city. According to Volvo, the delivery is part of Volvo Trucks’ sustainability target of achieving a 100%-fossil-fuel-free supply chain by 2040. Moreover, the deployment of the zero-emission trucks is part of DFDS’s goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
Intensive testing of EV batteries is crucial. It is not only about the test; it is about how to test! EV manufacturers, suppliers, and test facilities must use their battery test labs equipment to ensure fast and efficient battery development.
In this free webinar, presented by Keysight at our Spring Virtual Conference on EV Engineering, we will highlight ways to improve efficiency in designing and operating your battery test lab and getting insights into the cell and battery pack faster. Join in and learn more about how we at Keysight approach innovations in battery tests to face future test challenges.
Other sessions at our Spring Virtual Conference include:
The Role Of Testing In Ensuring The Functionality, Quality And Reliability Of Battery Management Systems
Testing plays a vital role in ensuring the quality and reliability of battery management systems (BMS) during the design validation and manufacture stages. The purpose of testing is to verify that the BMS meets the specified requirements and functions as intended under various operating conditions.
During the design validation stage, testing is used to evaluate the performance, safety, and reliability of the BMS design and its controlling firmware. This includes thermal and environmental testing, which verify that the BMS can operate within the specified temperature and humidity ranges, and electromagnetic compatibility testing, which verifies that the BMS does not generate electromagnetic interference that could affect other electronic systems and is not subject to electromagnetic interference from other sources. As part of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation test strategy, the BMS is tested for reactions to faulty signals.
During the manufacturing stage, testing ensures that each BMS unit is built to the correct specifications and is free from defects. This includes functional testing, which verifies that the BMS operates as intended, and quality control testing, which verifies that the BMS meets the specified quality standards.
By performing these tests, the manufacturer can identify and correct any issues before the BMS is put into service, ensuring its high quality and reliability.
Join this session, presented by Pickering Interfaces, to learn how industry-standard, modular PXI-based switch and simulation products can be used in BMS functional testing to simulate correct battery voltage, current and temperature readings, as well as HIL and fault insertion testing to verify correct BMS operation under a range of real-world conditions and fix potential issues before the systems are deployed in the field.
Other sessions at our Spring Virtual Conference include:
Battery Modeling with COMSOL Multiphysics
Detailed understanding of battery technology and the underlying physics processes is necessary to design high-performance, durable, and safe batteries. Physics-based modeling is being used for building accurate simulations of batteries, incorporating different aspects through predefined physics-based interfaces, from detailed structures in a battery’s porous electrode to the battery pack scale, including thermal management systems.
In this webinar, we will discuss and demonstrate how COMSOL Multiphysics® and the Battery Design Module provide different features and functionalities for battery design and analysis, which can help in the development of the next generation of batteries and facilitate the integration of these batteries into final electrical devices.
Broadcast live April 17 – 20, 2023, the conference content will span the EV engineering supply chain and ecosystem, including motor and power electronics design and manufacturing, cell development, battery systems, testing, powertrains, thermal management, circuit protection, wire and cable, EMI/EMC and more.
Truck leasing and rental company PacLease recently provided its first electric trucks, two Peterbilt Model 579 EV Day Cabs, to Dallas-area trucking company Truck King, which will use them for local line-haul operations of approximately 100 miles round-trip.
To meet growing demand for electrics, the company says it has invested in charging infrastructure, certified technicians, and Kenworth and Peterbilt medium- and heavy-duty electric truck models at its US-based PACCAR Leasing stores.
“The truck is only part of the equation,” said PACCAR Leasing President Ken Roemer. “Grants, infrastructure, chargers and qualified/trained support at our service facility are all part of PacLease’s investment in this new technology.”
Roemer said that, in addition to building charging stations at some of its locations, PacLease is “actively working with local utility companies to come up with the right power plan,” and is helping customers secure grants to offset the higher cost of electric trucks.
First Student, a major provider of student transportation services in North America, has selected Bechtel to design and build charging stations for one of First Student’s electrification projects. The two companies intend to partner on more EV deployments in the future, for which Bechtel will provide engineering, procurement and construction services.
Bechtel provides a range of services in the electrification market, including feasibility studies, site selection, front-end engineering design, procurement, construction and project management.
“Bechtel provides electric vehicle charging infrastructure to fleet customers so they can focus on their core business, whether it is safely moving students or delivering packages,” said Bechtel’s Catherine Hunt Ryan. “Bechtel will help First Student advance their electrification goals by being a one-stop partner through design and build.”
“Thousands of our students are already benefiting from riding emissions-free school buses,” said First Student Head of Electrification Kevin L. Matthews. “First Student is on track to convert 30,000 of our buses to electric by 2035, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and positively impacting the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”
“Bechtel offers predictable project outcomes across the electric vehicle value chain,” said Justin Britt, General Manager for Electric Vehicles at Bechtel. “Building a future of vehicle electrification means investing in infrastructure today in everything from raw material extraction, processing plants, battery component manufacturing, final assembly, charging stations and recycling.”
Vacuum impregnation systems and sealant manufacturer Godfrey & Wing has introduced a single-point impregnation process aimed at making EV battery pack assemblies and drive motor case castings safer and more reliable.
This patent-pending process seals porous leak paths that form naturally in metal castings used in battery assemblies. It is applicable in a completed assembly, or can be used for individual castings before assembly.
The company says that sealing these leak paths helps prevent coolant leakage, avoiding defects, recalls and possible failures.
Single-point impregnation eliminates the rigors of traditional vacuum impregnation, as only the leak path is subjected to the process, while the other components remain untouched. The process ensures the leak path is sealed with no risk of contamination or damage, making it ideal for fully assembled EV batteries which contain delicate parts and electronics.
“As the automotive industry evolves quickly to meet consumer demand for EVs, it needs new, proven and effective manufacturing processes,” says Alexander Alford, CEO at Godfrey & Wing.
Battery characterization is the foundation for the design and development of any battery energy storage system and is specifically important for inspection, validation, end-of-line testing, pack assembly, and BMS design purposes.
In this free webinar, presented by Bitrode at our Spring Virtual Conference (April 17-20, 2023), we will introduce some of the industry standard protocols used to characterize battery performance and aging behavior. We will then review the testing equipment used in this stage of battery development and discuss how Bitrode Digital CyclerTM (BTDCTM), which takes advantage of advancements in power electronics, controls, and communications in its design can be considered as the ideal solution for battery characterization and testing.
Other sessions at our Spring Virtual Conference include:
The Goldilocks Problem: Balancing Internal Forces Within An EV Battery Module Or Pack
Li-ion cells often have strong opinions about their clamping pressures, wanting neither too hard, nor too soft. It’s a classic “Goldilocks problem,” with a sweet spot that balances electrochemical performance, cell life, and mechanical retention. Goldilocks also changes her mind, often, as the cells breathe and swell through a lifetime of usage. When designing modules and/or packs, engineers must not only strike this balance at beginning of life, but also over the life of the vehicle, while also protect against thermal runaway.
In this session, presented by Aspen Aerogel, we will explore factors battery engineers need to consider when optimizing performance while meeting safety requirements. Attendees will develop an understanding of how cell-to-cell barriers influence mechanical design. We will also review simplified models for a balanced mechanical design.
Broadcast live April 17 – 20, 2023, the conference content will span the EV engineering supply chain and ecosystem, including motor and power electronics design and manufacturing, cell development, battery systems, testing, powertrains, thermal management, circuit protection, wire and cable, EMI/EMC and more.
Minneapolis-based EVSE provider EvoCharge has launched a new mobile DC fast charging station, which delivers up to 50 kW of power. The charger is available in two versions: a 500 V model, designed for EVs with 400 V battery architectures; and an 800 V model for medium- to heavy-duty vehicles that use 800 V architectures.
The unit is mounted on a pair of wheels and equipped with a 16-foot charging cable for mobility in a service facility or parking lot. It is available in both single and dual charging cable configurations, allowing one unit to charge two EVs in adjacent service bays. The charger’s network connection capability via WiFi or LTE provides charging data and access control in real time, as well as time-based reporting.
Now BYD, the world’s largest seller of EVs, is delivering cars to Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, following a 2021 launch in Norway and a 2022 launch in Sweden.
BYD introduced three models in Germany at the beginning of this year: the Atto-3 compact SUV, the Tang large SUV and the Han sedan. The company plans to introduce several more models in the coming months, and is reported to be planning an assembly plant in Germany.
It may take some time for the Chinese giant to make its mark in a country where domestic automakers already produce 90 electric models, and drivers are famously loyal to their local brands. Jan Grindemann, COO of Hedin Mobility Group, a Swedish firm that handles BYD’s imports into the country, told the New York Times that BYD doesn’t expect to conquer the German market overnight. “We need to build BYD up as a brand, and the way that we will convince people is through quality.”
However, BYD has already established a bridgehead in Europe’s electric bus market. The company has sold over 3,000 e-buses in Europe, including 5 units to Deutsche Bahn. BYD recently inked a six-year deal to sell some 100,000 cars to Sixt, a major European car rental firm.
Production processes, the production environment, and the final packaging all have an influence on component cleanliness. As a result, compliance agreements with limiting values often need to be implemented between the customer and supplier or between product development and production. This means that the cleanliness requirements are not fixed and can be specifically chosen by the customer in accordance with the product geometry function, manufacturability, and verifiability of the component.
Technical cleanliness is attracting increased attention in industry because it promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of individual industrial products. Not only does it begin with the suppliers at the very start of the production chain, it is applicable to all industries – covering implants in the field of medical technology, engine components and assemblies in automotive settings, and even fuels and lubricants in aerospace. Particulate contamination may impair performance in the automotive industry by migrating from previously non-critical areas to sensitive locations such as semiconductors, with metallic and non-metallic particles that gather on these parts causing the car to malfunction or even stopping the engine.
This content specifically addresses particle contamination on a lithium-ion battery. Though this issue is primarily associated with the automotive industry at present, it is also of wider relevance for many other industries.
The quality solution: technical cleanliness. But what is technical cleanliness?
Technical cleanliness is a two-stage procedure that uses a light microscope to examine the number and size of particles present, then deploys an electron microscope to confirm the chemical composition and origin of the particles. It therefore seeks to eliminate system failures that could potentially be caused by these particles. The necessary level of technical cleanliness is determined on the basis of the particle-sensitive points on the system in question. The relevant particles may also differ in character – while combustion engines typically encounter hard and abrasive metallic particles, electronic engines can be susceptible to low- and high-conductivity particles. Most particles are generated during the processing of components and assemblies (approx. 80%) and only a fraction (approx. 20%) are due to environmental influences. Since manufacturers cannot address every possible malfunction and manufacturing process, the aim here is to focus on metallic particles.
VDA 19/ISO 16232 was established as a standard for enabling customers and suppliers to address the risk of potential damage to products across the production chain. In the electronics industry, VDA 19 does not specify any limiting values for component cleanliness. These must be defined according to component function, producibility, and verifiability. When residual contamination is sufficiently low, the system is considered adequately clean.
VDA 19.2: a brief overview
The aim of VDA 19.2 is to prevent critical particulate contamination at sensitive sites, to remove unavoidable particles, and to protect components and assembled systems against the entry of particles from the surroundings. As well as targeting these technical goals, the guideline also helps standardize procedures for planning and optimizing cleanliness-sensitive assembly areas. It is essential for the product development process.
The Illig method, as described in the VDA 19.2 standard, is used to test the cleanliness of a given location based on its environmental conditions – such as air or workbenches. Particle traps make it possible to analyze the number of sedimented particles per time unit (Illig value). The detected particle number per size class is multiplied by a weighting factor, added up, and normalized to calculate the Illig value. This Illig value is generated by normalizing the sum value to an area of 1000 cm2 and a measuring time of 1 h. The calculated Illig value provides the basis for comparing the collected particle contamination at different locations over a certain time period. With the Illig formula, larger particles are more heavily weighted than smaller ones as the former are more likely to have a higher damage potential.
Ion battery structure
All lithium-ion batteries share the same fundamental structure, comprising an anode and a cathode that need to be kept a fixed distance apart. They also feature an electrolyte that lets the charge transfer from one electrode to the other.
Foils act as the separator in such batteries. Not only must this be sufficiently flexible to prevent short circuits by maintaining the necessary gap between the electrodes, it needs to be structured in a way that allows the ions generated in the electrolyte to pass through.
Contamination errors in the manufacturing process of an ion battery
Lithium-ion batteries are very sensitive to contamination in the manufacturing process. Contamination in the form of particulate, ionic contamination, and even water can all cause significant levels of defects in the finished product.
A moisture environment can react with active materials and render them non-functional, which is why the manufacturing process needs to be undertaken in an extremely dry environment. This results in very high static charges during the process and causes the attraction of particles. These particles present a high risk of penetrating the separator foil and thereby causing short circuits. The consequences of lithium-ion battery contamination are only seen when the end customer puts the battery into operation.
Cleanliness – preventing particle contamination
Metallic particles present a higher risk of damaging the battery cell, which can cause lithium dendrite growth, an electrical short, or thermal runaway – a significant safety issue for the lithium-ion battery. These metallic particles can easily be accumulated when transporting the battery or during the manufacturing process, with every metallic particle over the size of 5 μm considered critical for the battery. Since the blade cutter is the main root cause of metal burrs on copper and aluminum, users must make a trade-off between quality and cost in deciding when to change the blade.
Working in combination with the ZEISS Technical Cleanliness Analysis (TCA) software, ZEISS light microscopes provide quantitative particle analysis that distinguishes between the metal, fiber, and non-metal particle types down to a size of 1 µm. Electron microscopes from ZEISS instantly state the chemical composition of each particle. ZEISS technical cleanliness solutions therefore offer ideal imaging for diverse customer groups from R&D through to mass production.
And the intuitive correlative workflow implemented by ZEISS, which ensures perfect interplay between the hardware and software, makes it easy to move from light to electron microscopes.
Electric vehicle battery contamination
Battery cells handle highly complex and electrochemical processes that form the most important part of an electric car. A vehicle battery must withstand many challenges relating to aspects such as its size, the different components from which it is made, and the high voltages transferred by these components. Any particle contamination in the processed part can affect the lifetime and quality of the battery. Iron particles located at the anode, cathode, or separator can cause the battery cell to self-discharge. And since contamination may also cause overheating that leads to the destruction of the battery cell, technical cleanliness within the manufacturing process is more important than ever.
Quality gates during battery development and production
Battery manufacturers cannot take shortcuts on quality if they wish to become serious players in the growing market for new energy vehicles (NEVs).
Quality assurance begins with research and development, continues through every step of production, and even affects how the raw materials are processed for assembly of the battery modules.
