Vicor's 48V power architecture can support 12V systems

Tesla 's new CyberTruck completely eliminates the traditional 12V low-voltage power supply network and instead adopts an all- 48V configuration. This may be the ultimate goal for most automakers, but the power module can help make the transition to 48V power immediately and easily , allowing automakers to continue to use all reliable traditional 12V devices while planning for future 48V vehicles .

New 48V cars do not require a separate 12V battery to power low voltage systems

Power module supplier Vicor Corp. noted that automakers can gain the benefits of 48V power systems in vehicles without having to immediately replace many of the common 12V devices currently used in cars .

Tesla's new CyberTruck completely eliminates the traditional 12V low-voltage power network and adopts a 48V configuration. Greg Green, global marketing director of Vicor Automotive , said that this may also be the ultimate goal of other automakers, but these companies hope to have a certain buffer time to gradually phase out the 12V equipment that has proven to be very reliable .

Green pointed out that there are more than 100 12V devices in a car , and replacements for all of them need to be tested. "To replace a 12V device with a 48V device would require thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in testing costs , " he said .

Vicor ’s 48V area power modules enable automakers to reduce the wire gauge in cars to 10 gauge while providing high-voltage power to devices that require 48V power . But they can also provide 12- volt power to those legacy devices that automakers want to continue using until they test and develop a final 48V replacement, Green said .

Some automakers solve this problem by installing a 12V battery to run a separate 12V power network, but Vicor 's power modules convert the power from the electric vehicle's high-voltage battery to low voltage, eliminating the need for a separate 12V battery . This can reduce the weight of the vehicle by 29 pounds, eliminating the concern that electric vehicles are too heavy due to traction batteries .

Vicor 's power modules convert the high voltage from electric vehicle batteries to the lower voltages required by onboard devices.

" Our DC-DC conversion equipment works very fast, allowing us to create a virtual battery instead of a 48V battery , " Green explained . " We can convert power at 8 million amps per second , which is as fast as or faster than most batteries can deliver power . "

Those who have been in the automotive industry for a while remember that people were saying 20 or 30 years ago that cars would be 48V , but it never happened . “ In the early 2000s, we heard that 48V was the next trend that was going to be popular , ” Green recalled.

But the inertia of 12V devices, as well as their low cost and reliability, has become a barrier to the popularization of 48V power supplies , limiting the application of this technology to isolated subsystems such as engine start-stop systems, rear-wheel steering and active suspension.

Green noted that the shift to electric vehicles means that power generation no longer relies on the familiar 12V alternator, making the transition easy and smooth for automakers . Now we use high-voltage batteries, whose voltage must be converted to a voltage that can be used by a variety of devices . " When the power from the high-voltage battery must be stepped down , 48V is the natural first intermediate voltage , " he said .

This is because its voltage is below the threshold that would cause harm to a person if someone came into contact with the power supply component , while providing an appropriate power level for applications that require a low-voltage power supply .

For applications that do not require 48V power , automakers do not have much motivation to rush to switch to 48V power , and Vicor's ability to provide 12V power in real time can retain some of the traditional 12V system , which makes this idea more attractive.