How Formula E helps ABB develop new e-mobility products

Global electronics giant ABB is involved in many aspects of the electromobility industry, from charging infrastructure to batteries to utility integration to robotics. It’s quite fitting that ABB is the lead corporate sponsor of Formula E, the all-electric racing series that’s now in its seventh season. Charged met with several ABB executives at the recent New York City E-prix.

There are more manufacturers involved in Formula E than in any other form of motorsport in the world, and one reason for this is because it’s an exciting way for companies to promote their electrification efforts. In fact, part of the impetus for creating Formula E was to appeal to sponsors who wanted to green up their images.

Formula E co-founder and Chief Championship Officer Alberto Longo told Charged that, back in 2012, a lot of sponsors were already starting to be concerned about the environmental aspects of gas-powered motorsports. “It wasn’t the right messaging for their companies. I knew that we needed to create a platform that really invited all these big brands that didn’t have a place in promoting [gas-powered racing] because of the sustainability angle.”

And the rest, as they say, is history—Formula E has been a huge success, and the folks we spoke with in New York told us that their partnership with the electric racing series has brought a tremendous amount of public awareness to ABB—which is not exactly a household name to consumers—as well as, of course, to e-mobility in general.

However, for ABB and the many other companies involved with Formula E, it’s not all about marketing by any means—there’s some important product development going on. As the saying goes, “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday.” ABB’s work with Formula E has already led to numerous practical advances.

“A lot of what we do with Formula E, we’ll pull the lessons learned and the improvements to our mass-market chargers or equipment,” ABB Global E-Mobility Executive Stephanie Medeiros told Charged. ABB is currently providing UPS systems for Formula E’s broadcast center, and it provided 50-kilowatt chargers for the Jaguar I-Pace trophy, a racing series that was presented before the main Formula E races for two seasons from 2018 to 2020.

The real action will begin with the 2022/23 season, when ABB will become the official infrastructure supplier for Formula E. The companies are already working closely together to develop a third-generation charging system that will allow the Formula E racers to charge in less than a minute during pit stops, adding a new dimension to the races.

“We’ve been [working] on it for quite a while now—we’re designing the specifications, working on the prototypes,” Ms. Medeiros told us. (Technical specs such as voltage and power levels haven’t been announced yet.)

Charged asked Medeiros and other ABB execs for examples of technologies that were developed for Formula E that could find wider application in “the real world,” and they offered several.

“Formula E is a very unique application, because not only are we taking this equipment and shipping it all around the world, but we’re also connecting it to so many different power sources and different grids,” said Medeiros. “Typically, with electrical equipment, you install it and then you just leave it there for 10, 15-plus years. We’re taking this [equipment for Formula E] and shipping it around the world. You have to make sure that the equipment is robust and reliable enough that it will work when you get to the next destination. That’s a lot of really good data…there’s so much value and data we can take from that.”

“And the same thing with the chargers,” Medeiros continued. “The mobile [generation-3] chargers are going to be wheeled, because you want to maneuver them very easily when we put them in garages. It’s power electronics—you want to make sure that it’s safe, reliable and robust, so that when you plug it in, no matter what kind of rate or energy source, you’re going to get something that’s reliable. We’re going to take those lessons learned, and then put it into chargers.”

The most common theme in our discussions about learnings from Formula E was efficiency. Electric race cars are designed to be ruthlessly efficient, because less weight translates to more speed. In other applications, speed may not be important, but efficiency certainly is. Dan O’Shea, ABB’s Director of Utility Strategy and Business Development, told Charged that lessons learned about efficiency and vehicle weight are directly applicable to commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses.

“When electric transit buses first hit the market, they had an inverter on board, and they charged with alternating current,” said O’Shea. “Now, the general consensus seems to be that having the [AC-to-DC] conversion happen off-board lightens the bus, and makes room for a bigger battery. As the batteries get denser, that bus will have more range, and maybe more flexibility, because the charging will happen with DC. Bringing the charging off-board, to [lighten] the vehicles, you can see that this is happening in Formula E. There’s obviously this technological synergy between what happens in Formula E and what makes it to the commercial model.”

XL Fleet partners with eNow to power electric refrigerated trailers

XL Fleet has announced a partnership and investment in eNow, a solar and battery power system provider, to power electrified refrigerated commercial trailers. Under the terms of the agreement, XL Fleet will supply battery and power electronics systems for the first 1,000 units of eNow’s electric Transport Refrigeration Units (eTRUs), designed for Class 8 commercial trailers.

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Source: Charge Forward

REI CTY review: A sleek commuter from an outdoors company

REI, the nation’s premier outdoor equipment retailer, enters the e-bike space with its CTY e2.2. For reasons unclear, REI decided to enter the electric bike space with a city bike rather than something made for off-road. If their goal was to nail down a commuter bike and test out their mettle, I believe they’ve succeeded. 

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Source: Charge Forward

Elon Musk: Tesla to likely resume Bitcoin payment after due diligence on energy mix improvements

Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla is “most likely” going to resume taking Bitcoin payment after some due diligence on the improvements in the energy mix used to mine the cryptocurrency.

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The post Elon Musk: Tesla to likely resume Bitcoin payment after due diligence on energy mix improvements appeared first on Electrek.


Source: Charge Forward

Southern California Edison aims to help site hosts install 38,000 EV chargers

Southern California Edison has opened its Charge Ready program to businesses, government agencies and other nonresidential customers. The initiative has a budget of $436 million and a goal of adding some 38,000 new EV chargers throughout SCE’s service area over the next five years.

Under the Charge Ready program, SCE installs and maintains the supporting EV charging infrastructure, while site hosts typically own, operate and maintain qualified charging stations.

“As SCE is preparing its electric grid to serve the increase in transportation electrification, more charging equipment is needed to give EV drivers and fleet operators the peace of mind that they will be able to charge whenever they want,” said Carter Prescott, SCE Director of eMobility and Building Electrification. “Today, we are asking our customers to join with us to ensure that an effective framework is in place for a clean air future for our communities.”

The large-scale program is modeled after a much smaller pilot that ended in May, in which SCE partnered with businesses, local governments and other organizations to add more than 2,700 charge ports at nearly 150 sites.

The first site to participate in the pilot was the city of Lynwood, where six chargers were installed to charge the city’s fleet of EVs, and eight more were installed in the civic center public parking lot.

SCE also helped the city of Long Beach install 102 ports at five sites, including the city’s fleet services yard and several public attractions. “The best part of participating in Charge Ready is being able to provide a benefit to both our public and our fleet,” said April Walker, the city’s Project Management Officer. She added that Long Beach would not have been able to deploy the large number of chargers without Charge Ready’s assistance.

Charge Ready helped to install 200 ports at Fairplex, the site that hosts the Los Angeles County Fair and 400 other events throughout the year. “Being an early adopter, we are now actually able to help others who are contemplating expanding their infrastructure through Charge Ready, and we appreciate that partnership with SCE,” said Fairplex interim CEO Walter Marquez.

SCE will continue to focus on providing charging infrastructure at workplaces, public parking lots, schools, hospitals and destination centers, as well as condominium and apartment complexes.

In the interest of making EV charging available to all Californians, Charge Ready sets a target to locate 50% of the chargers in state-designated disadvantaged communities, and those that suffer most from the negative effects of air pollution.

In addition to Charge Ready for passenger EVs, SCE has launched a program for trucks, buses and off-road industrial equipment called Charge Ready Transport, which aims to add charging to support at least 8,490 medium- and heavy-duty EVs over a five-year period. The $356-million program is also modeled after the Charge Ready pilot.

Source: Edison International