How to promote the development of electric vehicles towards safety and efficiency

According to Gartner data, electric vehicle shipments will reach 6 million in 2022, up from 4.5 million in 2021, and will reach 36 million by 2030. In addition, various policies issued by countries around the world to achieve low-carbon and environmental protection are also driving the development of the electric vehicle industry. For example, in the European Union, cars and trucks sold from 2035 must achieve zero emissions, and the medium-term goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (compared to 2021 levels) by 15% by 2025 and 55% by 2030. This is the largest market for electric vehicles, and there are even regulations requiring electric vehicles to account for 40% of all sales by 2030.

For automakers, they need to avoid being affected by the automotive supply chain as much as possible to achieve faster production. In addition, they also need to continue to improve their electric vehicles, attract more sellers to switch to the electric vehicle market, and compete with new automakers entering the market.

Intelligent battery

The two most important competitive factors for electric vehicles are the charging speed of the car and the driving range. Both the driving range and charging time are closely related to the car battery and its surrounding battery management system (BMS). In fact, the battery is the most expensive part of the electric vehicle and also the component that provides the greatest differentiation.

Giving a car a bigger battery would increase its range, but that would also significantly increase the overall cost of the car, while increasing its weight and taking up more space.

Instead, we can make better use of existing batteries by fully understanding their limitations. Cloud-connected smart batteries are a concept that holds great promise. A digital twin of a battery is built in the cloud, combining physics, machine learning, and AI algorithms to use data not just from a single car but from an entire fleet.

The concept of connected batteries and data collection is not new. However, the type of data you collect, how you collect it, and what you do with the data offers a lot of potential for innovation and differentiation.

The benefits of this smart battery include the ability to extend the prediction range, thereby improving the efficiency of the battery and extending the battery life. It can achieve faster charging speeds and assess the remaining power of the battery, which helps reduce overall costs.

Data from smart batteries that model battery behavior enables automakers to predict the battery’s state of health and state of charge. It can also be used to optimize battery life by recommending charging and driving strategies, predictive maintenance, and identifying possible problems before they occur, thereby improving reliability and safety.

To create smart batteries, semiconductor suppliers are enablers, providing chipsets for data acquisition, communication and processing. Data acquisition in cars should be based on accurate, safe and reliable local sensing capabilities, as well as flexible and secure connections to the cloud.

The data collected must be accurate, relevant, and the data collected must meet the requirements of the battery model, the data refresh rate of the battery system, and meet the highest functional safety standards, even under very harsh electromagnetic and environmental conditions.

But to realize the full potential of smart batteries, close collaboration is needed among all players in the value chain: automakers, system integrators and Tier 1 suppliers, battery manufacturers, software and service providers, and semiconductor suppliers.

Together, we can build an efficient ecosystem to reduce time to market and ensure interoperability. By building strong partnerships, we can encourage service providers to create new use cases and applications.

High-speed charging

But how do the charging infrastructure and BMS electronics in the vehicle facilitate fast charging?

When designing a charging system, there are several factors to consider, such as speed, but OEMs also need to consider safety, reliability and accurate measurement of power output.

Everything needs to be coordinated to provide a simple system for drivers. Interoperability is another moving target - how do we ensure that drivers can use chargers from multiple vendors and be billed directly and transparently?

Today’s DC fast chargers typically take 30 to 45 minutes to charge a battery to 80 percent. That’s acceptable, but still too slow for drivers in a hurry. Improving charging speeds therefore presents daunting technical challenges, including the high currents generated by the charging cable’s internal resistance.

What is possible is to increase the system voltage of electric vehicles from the 400 V most common today to 800 V. Doubling the battery voltage would theoretically allow charging to be twice as fast, perhaps in as little as 15 minutes, and the cables could be kept to a manageable size and weight. By 2025, 800 V is expected to become mainstream technology in the electric vehicle market; with faster charging, consumers may accept cars with less range.

However, the move to 800 V also creates some issues. Higher voltages bring a greater potential for arc damage, so isolation requirements are more stringent. In addition, components in automotive traction inverters must be rated for 800 V.

Compared to a 400 V architecture, an 800 V BMS needs to monitor twice as many cells, and while performance is the same, the electromagnetic compatibility challenges are increasing. Overall, all of these changes increase system cost, after all, faster charging comes at a price.

Accelerating change

With so much change happening in the coming years, speed of innovation will be critical for automakers. The automotive industry has traditionally had longer design cycles and has been slower to adopt new technologies than the consumer industry, and to remain competitive they must reduce time to market and find ways to accelerate product development.

Some companies have already shown that they can soon go from conception to production of a new design in as little as 12 months, and such compressed development cycles will become more common.

To meet this challenge, we are seeing changes in the way automakers design and produce, with many adopting modular approaches, such as Volkswagen's MEB (Modular Electric Drive Matrix) platform, which helps reduce costs and accelerate development. Volkswagen uses NXP's BMS in its MEB platform to increase vehicle range, extend battery life and enhance safety.

Regardless of the source of power in the drivetrain, the amount of electronics in today’s cars continues to increase. Moving from a vehicle defined by hardware to one where software determines its functionality and performance.

Semiconductor suppliers need to move from just providing components to providing complete system solutions with pre-validated hardware and software. These solutions should handle the low-level and mid-level software of connected cars, allowing automakers to focus on adding value through high-level software and more easily reuse software across multiple models.

By working together, semiconductor suppliers and their ecosystem partners can create the solutions that automakers and Tier 1 suppliers are looking for – making the electrification of vehicles a positive experience for consumers. Not only can semiconductor suppliers provide solutions that improve the environment, but they can also ensure that cars are safer, more efficient, and easier to drive.