Electric Vehicle News

Qorvo says its new SiC FET product line has best-in-class figures of merit for on-resistance

Radio frequency technology company Qorvo (formerly UnitedSiC) has announced a new SiC Field Effect Transistor (FET) product line, which it says has best-in-class figures of merit for on-resistance. The FET is designed for the 800 V bus architectures in the onboard chargers of EVs as well as industrial battery chargers, industrial power supplies, DC/DC solar inverters, welding machines, uninterruptible power supplies and induction heating applications.

The UF4C/SC is a 1,200 V FET product line. “Expanding our 1,200 V range with higher-performance Gen 4 options allows us to better serve the engineers who are moving their bus designs to 800 V,” said Chief Engineer of Power Devices for UnitedSiC/Qorvo Anup Bhalla. “In electric vehicles, this move to higher voltages is inevitable and these new devices, with four different RDS(on) classes, help designers select the best possible SiC choice for every design.”

The new FETs are available in 23-, 30-, 53- and 70-milliohm RDS(on) versions. Each is housed in a 4-lead kelvin source TO-247 package, and the 53- and 70-milliohm versions are also available in a TO-247 3-lead package. The company says, “This series of parts have excellent reliability, based on their well-managed thermal performance, which is a result of an advanced silver-sinter die attach and advanced wafer-thinning process.”

The new line is included in the company’s FET-Jet Calculator online design tool, and all versions are currently available from authorized distributors.

New research looks at the economics of aluminum for EVs

Research commissioned and funded by The Aluminum Association’s Aluminum Transportation Group has studied the content and economics of aluminum in EVs.

In a White Paper, authors from FEV Consulting, Novelis and Constellium found that current BEVs have a higher aluminum content than comparable ICE vehicles and that aluminum content rises as EV size and performance rise.

“Despite expected improvements in battery cost and storage density, aluminum lightweighting solutions are expected to remain economically attractive for at least the next decade,” the authors write. “Lightweighting battery-electric vehicles with aluminum provides additional economic benefits when the entire sales fleet is considered, creating additional economic benefit and further increasing the economic viability of aluminum lightweighting.” To examine this, the researchers pieced together a cross-section of current vehicles, including a small city vehicle, a midsize family crossover vehicle and a large pickup truck.

“The new data quantifies and reaffirms that as battery-electric vehicles become more widely available, reducing mass through the application of aluminum, at optimized levels, offers significant net cost savings,” said study co-author Blake Zuidema.

Mercedes-Benz’s ultra-efficient VISION EQXX electric car traveled 750 miles (1,200 km) on a single charge

Mercedes-Benz’s ultra-efficient VISION EQXX electric car completed a 750-mile (1,200 km) trip on a single charge between Germany and the UK.

more…

The post Mercedes-Benz’s ultra-efficient VISION EQXX electric car traveled 750 miles (1,200 km) on a single charge appeared first on Electrek.


Source: Charge Forward

GM adds Plug and Charge service to its Ultium Charge 360 program beginning with EVgo

This is big. General Motors (GM) has announced that it is adding Plug and Charge capabilities to its Ultium Charging 360 network of charge providers across North America. To begin, drivers with an EVgo account will be able to utilize the convenience of Plug and Charge before GM expands the technology to additional charging networks across its Ultium Charge 360 family.

more…

The post GM adds Plug and Charge service to its Ultium Charge 360 program beginning with EVgo appeared first on Electrek.


Source: Charge Forward