CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine - Issue 55 May/June 2021

ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 55 | MAY/JUNE 2021 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

IONIQ 5 2022 HYUNDAI

First of an aggressive wave of new EVs p. 46

Humidity control methods for EV electronics

HBK maps motor efficiency 10 times faster

AMPLY offers 99.9% uptime for EV fleets

Four of five new-car buyers can charge EVs at home

p. 24

p. 30

p. 64

p. 72

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THE TECH CONTENTS

24

30

24

Humidity control methods for EV electronics

30

Motor efficiency mapping

HBK says its digital algorithm can map motor efficiency 10 times faster than analog systems

current events 12

Li-Cycle and Ultium Cells partner to recycle battery manufacturing scrap Delta-Q launches three-in-one charging solution

13 14 15 16

Tesla grants $3 million to Dalhousie University for battery research Solid Power unveils all-solid-state platform technology TWAICE raises $26 million in funding for battery analytics software Allison Transmission to supply Emergency One with electric axles Wevo potting compounds used in supercapacitors

18

18

Donaldson launches Dual-Stage Flex resealable battery vent Factorial Energy unveils 40 Ah solid-state EV battery cell

19

Pensana plans $125-million rare earth separation facility in England Infinitum Electric raises $40 million to scale ultra-high-efficiency motors

20

Wright develops inverter for zero-emissions aircraft WAFIOS introduces SpeedFormer bending process for hairpin motors

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21 22 23

NH Research launches Enerlab 2.0 for remote battery testing Enevate announces battery production agreement with EnerTech BrightLoop uses EPC’s GaN transistors for EV applications

6/30/21 3:49 PM

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

46 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5

46

Hyundai’s all-electric compact crossover is a compelling new EV in a segment that’s about to see multiple models debut

current events 36 38

36

Ford unveils its 2022 F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck BYD introduces electric Type D school bus CARB proposes new rules for defining EV battery health

39 40 42

Texas fails to change dealership law—Tesla still can’t sell directly to residents Kia releases official specs for US-market EV6 electric crossover ABB to electrify its fleet of 10,000 vehicles by 2030 Thomas Built Buses delivers 50th Proterra Powered electric school bus

43 44

United Natural Foods to deploy 53 electric refrigerated trailers

39

GM boosts EV investment, plans to build more US battery factories Proterra to deliver 42 electric buses and 75 chargers to Miami-Dade

45

UK EV builder Lunaz attracts star investor David Beckham

IDENTIFICATION STATEMENT CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine (ISSN: 24742341) May/June 2021, Issue #55 is published bi-monthly by Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC, 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259. Periodicals Postage Paid at Saint Petersburg, FL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine, Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC at 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259.

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43 6/30/21 3:50 PM

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE CONTENTS

64 AMPLY offers 99.9%

uptime for EV Fleets

64

Guaranteed uptime and zero charging challenges are critical to scaling EV deployments

72 Four of five new-car buyers can charge EVs at home

A recent survey reveals that it’s critical for new buyers to understand that most charging happens at home

72

current events 58

7-Eleven to install 500 fast charging stations by the end of 2022 Audi pilots concept for premium-level fast charging hubs

59

California makes $17.5 million available for public charging in 13 rural counties

58

Montgomery County, MD deploys microgrid to support electric bus charging

60

Porsche and Shell to deploy charging network in Southeast Asia XL Fleet acquires World Energy Efficiency Services to integrate EV charging

61 62

Franklin Energy plans large public charging hub at London shopping center Electrify Home launches new HomeStation Level 2 charger Ford acquires fleet charging specialist Electriphi

63

BRUGG eConnect introduces IP69-certified fast charging plug

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GET MORE FROM YOUR MOTOR Stator and rotor stacks for power-dense motors

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Publisher Christian Ruoff Associate Publisher Laurel Zimmer Senior Editor Charles Morris Account Executives Jeremy Ewald

Contributing Writers Jeffrey Jenkins Tom Lombardo Charles Morris Christian Ruoff John Voelcker

For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact: Info@ChargedEVs.com

Contributing Photographers Nicolas Raymond Christian Ruoff

Technology Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Cover Image Courtesy of Hyundai Motor America Graphic Designers Deon Rexroat Kelly Quigley Tomislav Vrdoljak

Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebastien Bourgeois

ETHICS STATEMENT AND COVERAGE POLICY AS THE LEADING EV INDUSTRY PUBLICATION, CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE OFTEN COVERS, AND ACCEPTS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM, COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE IN OUR MEDIA PORTFOLIO. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT WE CHOOSE TO PUBLISH PASSES ONLY TWO TESTS: (1) TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE THE INFORMATION IS ACCURATE, AND (2) IT MEETS THE INTERESTS OF OUR READERSHIP. WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR EDITORIAL CONTENT, AND THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUR EDITORS AND WRITERS ARE IN NO WAY AFFECTED BY A COMPANY’S PAST, CURRENT, OR POTENTIAL ADVERTISEMENTS. FURTHERMORE, WE OFTEN ACCEPT ARTICLES AUTHORED BY “INDUSTRY INSIDERS,” IN WHICH CASE THE AUTHOR’S CURRENT EMPLOYMENT, OR RELATIONSHIP TO THE EV INDUSTRY, IS CLEARLY CITED. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANY OPINION EXPRESSED IN THE CHARGED MEDIA PORTFOLIO AND/OR WISH TO WRITE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR VIEW OF THE INDUSTRY, PLEASE CONTACT US AT CONTENT@CHARGEDEVS. COM. REPRINTING IN WHOLE OR PART IS FORBIDDEN EXPECT BY PERMISSION OF CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE.

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A flurry of fleet activity Every tech revolution proceeds in stages, just as a play proceeds through acts and scenes. Early adopters, killer apps, tipping points and S-curves all make their appearances on the stage. The action doesn’t just take place in the tech realm—social trends, politics and business decisions all play their parts in the drama as well.

The first act of the new EV revolution was the tragedy of GM’s doomed EV1. The next couple of acts starred the Tesla Roadster, Model S and X, and an array of compliance cars that rolled onto the stage to play their forgettable bit parts. The Volt and the LEAF were other bright spots of the era.

In the next act, Tesla stole the show again with Model 3 followed by Y. A confluence of other events, including the VW Diesel Debacle, tightening regulations in Europe and China, and the steady improvement in battery technology, combined to convince Big Auto that the time had come to get serious.

At the moment, it feels like we’re sitting through a brief intermission before the next action-packed scene. Could we see new EV heroes take the stage? A huge wave of new models, including electric versions of the almighty pickup truck (and promising mid-market models such as Hyundai’s Ioniq 5—see page 46), is going to hit the market in a few months. Will Tesla’s dominance of the EV market be seriously challenged for the first time?

A supporting saga is playing out on the commercial EV side, with a bit more predictability, and far fewer headlines. The years-long pilots are winding down, and fleet operators are starting to place large orders for electric buses, trucks and vans, as governments around the world are mandating more and more.

I’ve found an increasingly interesting side story in the EV fleet charging industry. It didn’t take long for those who manage large numbers of EVs to start encountering charging challenges that no one had considered before. Now we’re seeing an avalanche of new activity to facilitate charging for fleets: Ford acquires fleet charging specialist Electriphi; ChargePoint launches comprehensive fleet charging portfolio; Electrify America introduces a B2B charging business unit called Electrify Commercial; XL Fleet acquires World Energy Efficiency Services to integrate EV charging; Proterra unveils high-power charging solutions for large-scale fleets. That’s just a handful of headlines from the past few weeks—I could go on. AMPLY Power’s CEO clearly laid out the charging challenges that fleets face in our recent interview—see page 64.

Meanwhile, the driver of it all, technological progress, marches on, bringing EV prices down to true parity with legacy vehicles. But this doesn’t feel like the final act of our drama—there are a number of hurdles to be cleared before EVs win the day. Battery bottlenecks and other unforeseen challenges loom (see this month’s Charging Forward column—page 78), creating enormous opportunities for innovation.

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EVs are here. Try to keep up.

7/2/21 12:19 PM

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THE TECH

Delta-Q launches three-in-one charging solution Image courtesy of Li-Cycle

Li-Cycle, the developer of a novel battery recycling system, has announced an agreement with Ultium Cells, a joint venture of GM and LG Energy Solution, to recycle up to 100 percent of the scrap generated by battery cell manufacturing at Ultium’s Lordstown, Ohio mega-factory.

Using its patented Spoke & Hub Technologies at facilities in the US, Li-Cycle will transform Ultium’s battery manufacturing scrap into new battery-grade materials, including lithium carbonate, cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate, helping to close the battery supply chain loop and enable sustainable production of new EV batteries.

When fully operational in 2022, the $2.3-billion Ultium battery cell manufacturing facility in Lordstown will span 3 million square feet, making it one of the largest EV battery manufacturing plants in North America.

Li-Cycle will play a key role in GM’s zero-waste initiative by rerouting battery manufacturing scrap back into the supply chain through this multi-year contract.

“GM’s zero-waste initiative aims to divert more than 90 percent of its manufacturing waste from landfills and incineration globally by 2025,” said Ken Morris, GM’s VP of Electric and Autonomous Vehicles.

“Our combined efforts with Ultium and GM will be instrumental in redirecting battery manufacturing scrap from landfills and returning a substantial amount of valuable battery-grade materials back into the battery supply chain,” said Ajay Kochhar, CEO and co-founder of Li-Cycle.

Meanwhile, Li-Cycle has announced a business combination agreement with Peridot Acquisition (NYSE: PDAC). The new company will be named Li-Cycle Holdings, and will be listed on the NYSE under the new ticker symbol LICY.

Delta-Q Technologies has introduced a new line of battery charging solutions.

The new XV3300 combines a 3.3 kW charger, a 500 W DCDC converter and an EV charging station interface in a single package.

“The launch represents a significant product development milestone for Delta-Q,” said Co-CEO Steve Blaine. “The XV3300 answers our OEM customers’ need for on-board charging power up to 20 kW delivered in a compact, fully sealed IP67 package. Our team also designed an included DC-DC converter for auxiliary DC loads, a VCIM (Vehicle Charge Interface Module) for simple connection to public EV charging, and the ability to stack the chargers for configurable power levels. We achieved all this in a 3.3 kW charger that is over twice as compact as our previous models.”

The 3.3 kW charger will be available in 58.8 V, 65 V, and 120 V models, and is scalable, allowing OEMs to stack chargers for power levels up to 20 kW.

Image courtesy of Delta-Q

Li-Cycle and Ultium Cells partner to recycle battery manufacturing scrap

Key features include: • IP67-rated • Scalable • Charges all battery chemistries and voltages between 48 V to 120 V • Protected against short circuit, over-voltage, and over-temperature • Integrated 500 W DC-DC converter provides auxiliary power to operate vehicle accessories • Complies with SAE J1772 (Levels 1 and 2) and IEC 61851 (Modes 2 and 3) • CAN bus communication • Meets European touch-safe requirements and other global regulations XV3300 production will begin in the first half of 2022.

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Dalhousie University researcher and lithium-ion battery pioneer Jeff Dahn has been cooperating with Tesla since 2016, and the partnership has already resulted in significant progress that Tesla hopes will lead to the development of its vaunted million-mile battery pack.

Now Professor Dahn, along with his Dalhousie colleagues Chongyin Yang and Michael Metzger, have received a grant of $3.1 million from Tesla, and another, for $2.9 million, from Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to develop advanced batteries for EVs and grid energy storage.

The goals of the project include lowering battery costs, increasing battery longevity and energy density, improving safety and increasing the content of sustainable materials in the batteries.

Image courtesy of Tesla

Tesla grants $3 million to Dalhousie University for advanced battery research

“This will allow Chongyin, Michael and I to solve many remaining puzzles that will help improve battery lifetime and lower cost,” says Dr. Dahn. “The students trained in this program are finding, and will continue to find, immediate employment in the advanced battery sector locally and around the world. Tesla is a wonderful partner and a world leader in electric vehicle, solar and electrical energy storage products.”

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Solid Power unveils all-solid-state platform technology Solid Power, a producer of all-solid-state EV batteries, has unveiled details of its solid-state platform technology and the three battery designs it enables. The company also announced the transition of its high-content silicon all-solid-state battery to its Colorado-based production line.

Solid Power’s proprietary sulfide solid electrolyte powers the all-solid-state platform, which can enable both high-content silicon and lithium metal in the anode, paired with industry-standard and commercially mature cathodes, including lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides (NMC). The platform can also use low-cost and high-specific-energy conversion-type cathodes that are not suitable in lithium-ion or other liquid-based cell architectures. Combined with a lithium metal anode, the conversion-type cathodes could entirely eliminate the need for cobalt and nickel in the cathode, and could decrease cathode active materials costs by 90 percent.

Solid Power has been developing a high-content silicon anode cell product since 2017, and has produced all-solid-state cells up to 2 Ah using industry-standard lithium-ion equipment and processes. The company intends to begin production of a 20 Ah high-content silicon anode cell by the end of 2021, and a 100 Ah version is expected to follow in 2022.

“Solid Power’s core technology innovation can enable all-solid-state battery products expected to meet performance requirements from multiple automotive manufacturers, including partners Ford and BMW,” said CEO Doug Campbell.

Solid Power intends to commercialize its high-content silicon anode product by 2026, touting its high charge rates, low-temperature operations and the material’s supply chain maturity. A lithium metal NMC product will follow.

“Silicon has been an area of development for Solid Power for several years, and is expected to be the first anode variant to be integrated into EVs,” said CTO Josh Buettner-Garrett. “Rather than using carbon in the anode with silicon as an additive, Solid Power is able to use compositions with more than half silicon by weight, including the weight of the solid electrolyte. This enables volumetric energy densities on par with lithium metal, along with specific energy that far exceeds that of conventional lithium-ion.”

Image courtesy of Solid Power

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THE TECH

TWAICE, a provider of battery analytics software, has raised $26 million in Series B funding, bringing the company’s total financing to $45 million. The funds will be used to expand the company’s analytics platform and to fuel international expansion.

“We have heavily invested in our battery analytics software to address the challenges in the battery life cycle,” said TWAICE Co-CEO Michael Baumann. “Our solution portfolio is now leveraged in the development, operation and potential second use by leading players in the mobility and energy industries.”

TWAICE customers include automakers Audi, Daimler and Hero Motors, as well as energy companies such as Verbund. TWAICE is also working with its partner network, including Munich Re (insurance solutions),

Image courtesy of TWAICE

TWAICE raises $26 million in Series B funding for battery analytics software

TÜV Rheinland (certifications) and ViriCiti (fleet management) to offer battery-related services.

“After years of closely monitoring the energy storage ecosystem, we recognize that software will be crucial to helping the battery industry achieve scalability—whether the batteries are powering EVs or the grid,” said Tyler Lancaster, principal at Energize Ventures. “Our investment in TWAICE is the culmination of ideal market conditions, technology and team, and we expect to see escalating demand for the company’s proprietary battery analytics platform.”

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Allison Transmission to supply Emergency One with electric axles Allison Transmission and Emergency One have agreed to integrate the Allison eGen Power 100D electric axle into Emergency One’s fire rescue and emergency vehicle platform. This builds on a successful current relationship, under which 90% of the units Emergency One sells are equipped with an Allison automatic transmission.

The eGen Power 100D electric axle, the first in a new lineup of electric axles, integrates two high-speed electric motors and a multi-speed transmission, eliminating the need for additional drive shafts and support structures.

This allows it to fit between the wheels, leaving space for battery storage. The e-axle delivers 536 hp (400 kW) of continuous power, with a peak output power of 738 hp (550 kW).

“We continue to expand our eGen Power portfolio in support of our promise to provide the most reliable and valued propulsion solutions in the world,” said Allison VP Heidi Schutte. “The Allison 3000 Series is the standard transmission offering in Emergency One’s conventional diesel-powered fire and rescue vehicles, so it’s natural to expect Emergency One and Allison to partner and bring the same proven performance, reliability and durability to Emergency One’s electric fire and rescue trucks.”

Wevo potting compounds used in supercapacitors WIMA, a maker of film capacitors, employs Wevo potting compounds in its supercapacitor PowerBlock—a cascaded, double-layer capacitor module whose capacitance, rated voltage and dimensions can be individually adapted to a desired application. This allows a range of mobility applications, such as engine starter modules in large construction and agricultural machinery, ships, locomotives, trams and buses, as well as applications in the energy sector, such as slip controls for wind turbines or generators in emergency power systems.

The individual supercap cells of the PowerBlock are fixed symmetrically to the base and at the lid of the housing with the help of Wevo’s WEVOPUR 512 FL potting compound. The polyurethane resin functions as a cell holder, which previously had to be manufactured and adapted to the construction form of the cells separately.

Also, the cells are protected from shocks, oscillations and vibrations due to the tough mechanical properties of the potting compound.

The cells are bonded directly to the metal surfaces of the housing, which allows the thermal surface resistance to be minimized and the thermal conductivity of 0.8 W/mK to be optimally used to dissipate the thermal energy during operation. At the same time, electrical insulation is provided between the cells and the metal housing. With burst power levels up to several thousand watts, electrical safety is ensured by the high tracking resistance, surface resistance and dielectric strength in the PowerBlock. In addition, the potting compound is self-extinguishing in line with UL 94 V-0 and certified according to railway fire protection standard EN 455452, reducing the risk of fire and protecting the PowerBlock against thermal runaway.

Image courtesy of Wevo

Image courtesy of Allison Transmission

THE TECH

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Image courtesy of Factorial Energy

THE TECH

Donaldson expands battery venting product line with DualStage Flex resealable vent Image courtesy of Donaldson

Donaldson has expanded its dual-stage battery pack vent line with the addition of the Dual-Stage Flex battery vent.

The new battery vent enables pressure relief at lower pressures, helping support battery life and reliability.

EV weight can be reduced by using thinner battery pack walls, but thin walls can’t withstand higher pressures within the battery pack. The new Dual-Stage Flex battery vent was developed to address this low-pressure requirement.

Donaldson’s Dual-Stage Flex battery vent contains a one-way umbrella valve that allows for quick exhaust if pressures within the battery pack increase, enabling the internal pressure to be quickly released through a flexible valve and helping to avoid potential further disruption to other cells.

The dual-stage vent now includes the Flex and Burst vent options—both provide sealing and guarding against contaminants, offer continuous pressure equalization, expel damp air and help with mitigation of gases in the case of thermal runaway.

“The Dual-Stage Flex battery vent is easy to integrate into most battery pack configurations, and is a great choice for EV manufacturers looking for a venting solution with low-opening pressure,” said engineer Shane Campbell. “Both of our Dual-Stage vents feature Donaldson’s proprietary Tetratex ePTFE filtration membrane that is engineered for maximum airflow and offers advanced ingress protection.”

Factorial Energy unveils 40 Ah solid-state EV battery cell Factorial Energy has introduced what it says is the first 40 Ah solid-state EV battery cell.

The Factorial Electrolyte System Technology (FEST) is a proprietary solid electrolyte material designed to enable safe and reliable cell performance with high-voltage and high-energy-density electrodes. Solid electrolytes like FEST are considered safer than conventional lithium-ion technology, as they replace the combustible liquid electrolyte with a more stable solid-state electrolyte that suppresses dendrite formation on lithium metal anodes.

“Factorial’s solid-state battery technology offers the performance, safety, scalability, and commercial readiness needed to move the needle of EV adoption. We are thrilled to be the first to reach the 40 amp-hour benchmark for a solid-state cell,” said CEO Siyu Huang.

Factorial says several automotive partners are currently evaluating its technology, with the intent of integrating FEST into their existing supply chains.

“Our batteries are unique because they achieve the broadest range of OEM performance requirements while offering superior energy density, safety and scalability,” said Joe Taylor, Factorial’s new Executive Chairman.

“Our technology can be easily integrated into existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing infrastructure, which makes Factorial an immediately viable partner for every automaker pursuing EVs.”

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Pensana plans to build a $125-million sustainable rare earth separation facility at the Saltend Chemicals Park in Humber, UK. Targeted annual production is around 12,500 tons of rare earth oxides, including 4,500 tons of magnet metal rare earth oxides (NdPr), which would represent approximately 5% of the projected world demand in 2025.

The Saltend plant will purify rare earth sulfates imported from the company’s Longonjo mine in Angola.

Pensana says Saltend has the potential to become the first major separation facility to be established in over a decade—one of only three major producers outside China—at a time when Europe depends on China for 98% of its rare earth magnets.

Saltend has received first-phase progression from the UK government’s £1-billion Automotive Transformation Fund, which seeks to support the national transition to EVs. UK engineering experts the Wood Group designed the Longonjo mine in Angola to international standards, featuring hydroelectric power and a tailings storage facility to meet the recommendations of the Church of England Pensions Board and ICMM guidelines.

Pensana is also in active discussions with third parties for the additional supply of sustainably sourced rare earth carbonates. Once production begins, Pensana will look to expand capacity when additional feedstock becomes available.

Through teaming up with alloy makers and magnet manufacturers, the company is looking to establish a 3,000-ton-per-year metal facility at Saltend to supply European automotive and wind turbine OEMs. Pensana is exploring the use of blue hydrogen generated by Equinor at Saltend Chemicals Park to recycle an addressable annual market of 4,000 tons of permanent magnets from end-of-life EV motors and wind turbine nacelles.

Image courtesy of Infinitum Electric

Pensana plans $125-million rare earth separation facility in England

Infinitum Electric raises $40 million to scale ultra-highefficiency motors Infinitum Electric, creator of the air-core motor, has secured $40 million in Series C funding to scale production of its ultra-high-efficiency, lightweight motors.

The investment will be used to expand production of the company’s IEs Series motors for commercial and industrial applications, and to complete development of its IEm Series EV motors.

Infinitum says its motors use lightweight materials and modular design to generate the same power as traditional motors in half the size and weight, and at a fraction of the carbon footprint.

“Infinitum Electric’s innovative technology approach and pragmatic design has resulted in a motor made for the next 100 years,” said Kevin Skillern, managing partner of Energy Innovation Capital, one of the investors.

Infinitum’s motor design replaces the copper wire and laminated iron core found in conventional motors with a printed circuit board stator, making the motor smaller, lighter and more efficient. Infinitum Electric says its motors are 10% more efficient, 50% lighter and smaller, and significantly quieter than conventional motors. Infinitum offers a fully integrated system: motor, variable frequency drive (VFD) and embedded IoT in a single compact package.

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Wright develops inverter for zero-emissions aircraft Wright Electric has developed an inverter for large zero-emissions aircraft. Designed to be scalable from 500 kW to 20 MW systems, the Wright inverter targets the following performance levels: • 99.5% efficiency—a 6x improvement in heat loss over current in-production aviation inverters resulting in lower thermal management loads.

• 30 kW/kg power density—in contrast, today’s technology delivers 10-20 kW/kg. On a standard single-aisle aircraft, this would result in a weight savings equivalent to 5-10 passengers per flight.

“The level of performance demonstrated with our new inverter will become the baseline for any new electric aircraft, and is a key technology in our megawatt system,” said CEO Jeff Engler. “In January 2020, we announced the start of our megawatt-scale electric motor program for a single-aisle commercial airliner. Over the coming months, Wright will be making additional announcements regarding the progress of our integrated propulsion system.”

The inverter will now proceed to the next phase of development, including integration with an in-house-developed 2 MW motor, high-altitude chamber testing and qualification for flight readiness.

WAFIOS introduces SpeedFormer bending process for hairpin prototyping and production WAFIOS has introduced the SpeedFormer, a new approach to the production of hairpins for EV motors.

SpeedFormer combines three bending techniques from conventional wire and tube bending machines into one system.

One of the bending techniques has been used for decades in WAFIOS CNC spring and wire forming machines, and has now been modified and optimized for the bending of hairpins. This technique is used for simple hairpin bends and is designed to ensure the highest production speeds.

A second, patented bending technique is based on the rotary-draw bending method used in tube bending machines. It is used for making complicated bends with overlapping geometry elements as they occur at the head of hairpins (S shapes). This new technique actively clamps the material during the bending process to facilitate bending accuracy even when processing inconstant materials.

In the twisting process—the third of the three bending techniques—the feed unit is rotated in such a way that a defined twist of the hairpin legs can be produced. This is designed for hairpins used in the stator.

WAFIOS says SpeedFormer reduces series production cycle times from 6-10 seconds per hairpin to 1-1.5 seconds per hairpin. Identical production technologies, i.e. the same tools and bending techniques, are used in series production. Parts that have been approved on the prototype production line can be produced with the same kinematics on the series production line.

Images courtesy of WAFIOS

Image courtesy of Wright Electric

THE TECH

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NH Research, a provider of battery test solutions for the EV and renewable energy markets, has launched Enerlab 2.0, a new battery test lab management solution.

Enerlab 2.0, which uses the Enerchron test executive, has a new design that includes a GUI focused on improving the user experience and productivity.

Enerchron is a battery test executive created to simplify and accelerate test automation. It includes a variable-based test sequence editor and allows integration and control of external software and hardware. Enerlab provides local and remote real-time access, and control of lab and test information. Its key capabilities include live camera views and full control of test programs, as

Image courtesy of NH Research

NH Research launches Enerlab 2.0 for remote battery testing

well as customizable dashboards and reporting tools.

“Today, our customers using Enerlab are able to keep their battery test projects on track, even during the pandemic,” said Product Director Martin Weiss. “Enerlab 2.0 has further productivity enhancements and additional visualization tools to simplify battery testing across R&D and production labs, facility-wide.”

increase production through automated 1K and 2K material dispensing.

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THE TECH

Image courtesy of Enevate

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Battery maker Enevate has announced a new production license agreement with battery cell producer EnerTech International to commercialize Enevate’s silicon-dominant XFC-Energy battery technology in the transportation, mobility and reserve power markets.

The production license agreement with EnerTech is the next milestone in Enevate’s technology roadmap, which is expected to lead to commercialization in 2022. Pre-production batteries have been built and tested using EnerTech’s existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing equipment. Under the agreement, Enevate will deliver enabling technology to accelerate EnerTech’s market expansion and triple its manufacturing capacity.

Enevate says its next-gen technology delivers up to 10 times faster charging than conventional lithium-ion batteries, along with other benefits, including improved safety and low-temperature operation for cold climates.

“Combining EnerTech’s world-class manufacturing base with Enevate’s revolutionizing technology will enable our growth plans across multiple segments as we match development pace with our customers’ ever-increasing battery specification requirements, now and into the future,” said EnerTech CEO Duke Oh. “This production license agreement with EnerTech represents another step toward establishing Enevate technology as the de facto standard for offering fast charge, high energy density, and improved safety,” said Enevate CEO Robert A. Rango.

7/1/21 12:02 PM

BrightLoop Converters is teaming up with Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) to deliver the upcoming Value line of high-power DC-DC converters.

The Value product line is composed of two converters, M and L, delivering 6 kW/300 A and 12 kW/600 A, respectively. BrightLoop says the power converters have a smaller footprint and lower weight than equivalent converters currently available, and comply with market standards such as ECE R 10, ECE R 100 and LV 124.

BrightLoop’s Value DC-DC converters can be used in 12 V, 24 V and 48 V architectures, and with 400 or 800 V, or more. They are available in single- or dual-output versions, and the output voltage can be set via CAN between 10 V and 54 V, allowing the removal of some vehicle components, such as the battery equalizer that would typically be used when there are several batteries in a system. Also, the converters offer a reversibility

Image courtesy of BrightLoop

BrightLoop uses EPC’s GaN transistors for EV applications

function that allows pre-charging the HV bus without the need for bulky resistors.

These features are made possible by the use of EPC’s EPC2029 enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) FETs. The EPC2029 is an 80 V, 48 A eGaN FET featuring a 1 mm ball pitch. The wider pitch allows for the placement of additional and larger vias under the device to enable high current carrying capability in a 2.6 mm x 4.6 mm footprint.

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HUMIDITY

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The first things to consider when choosing a scheme to protect against water intrusion or condensation are the cost of the device, closely followed by the consequences of it failing.

By Jeffrey Jenkins t’s a well-known trope that water and electricity don’t mix, but keeping the two separated is often deceptively difficult, because the simple solution of just sealing the box is insufficient on its own. This is because of condensation, which can come from water vapor in the air at the time the box was sealed, or from years of air exchange via supposedly sealed connectors, wire pass-throughs and the like. A presentation at the Charged Virtual Conference on EV Engineering this past April by Stego, a manufacturer of active condensation control measures, touched on some of these issues, with a particular emphasis on DC fast chargers, but there are many other possible solutions which should be considered, especially if a device has to deal with vibration and shock, as will be the case when it is installed in an EV. The first things to consider when choosing a scheme to protect against water intrusion or condensation are the cost of the device, closely followed by the consequences

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of it failing, especially while the vehicle is in operation or otherwise away from its home base. By these criteria, the traction inverter would warrant more attention (and budget allotment) to protecting it against damage from water than, say, the DC-DC converter that keeps the 12 V battery charged—the EV will likely be able to continue operating for some time on the charge remaining in its 12 V battery, just as an ICE-powered vehicle can keep going after its alternator has failed. An onboard charger occupies a middle position between the other two devices in that it is highly unlikely to fail while the vehicle is being driven, but would definitely leave a negative impression should it fail upon arriving at a remote destination without sufficient charge to make it back.

Another important consideration is whether the device will have to contend with other environmental hazards such as vibration and shock or even explosive gases (e.g. locomotives, EVs operated in mines). This obviously weighs heavily on any onboard devices, like the inverter and DC-DC converter, but is less of a concern for something like a DC fast charger. Another similar consideration is how much of a temperature swing can be expected in going from quiescence to active operation and then back to quiescence, as it is during the cooldown phase that condensation tends to form. This can be an especially insidious issue for high-power devices like traction inverters and DC fast chargers—even if they were to achieve a near-mythical efficiency of 99%, that still means they would produce 1 kW of waste heat for every 100 kW of power handled, or about the same as a typical residential space heater.

One of the most popular (and obvious) ways to protect a device from contamination by dust or water is to seal it, and the two most common rating systems for describing how well-sealed an enclosure is are those published by the

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THE TECH Another popular way of keeping water and other contaminants out is to protectively coat the internal surfaces.

Parker LORD says that its CoolTherm® potting and encapsulants will improve performance by optimizing heat dissipation with high thermal conductivity and low viscosity.

They also protect components from dust and moisture and help reduce vibration. CoolTherm materials are available in a variety of chemistries to fit many application needs.

Image courtesy of Parker LORD

National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (specifically, code IEC 60529). While there is some overlap between the two rating systems, they embody slightly different philosophies and therefore aren’t one-to-one analogous. A NEMA enclosure rating consists of a single number that describes resistance to contamination by physical objects and water intrusion, along with one or more optional letters that describe resistance to various other environmental hazards such as corrosion (X) or snow/ice (S). The IEC code separates resistance to penetration by physical objects of varying size (down to that of dust particles) and resistance to water intrusion into a two-number IP rating, for Ingress Protection, and in that order. One confusing aspect of both rating schemes is that a higher number generally, but not always, translates into a higher resistance to dust or water intrusion.

For example, the most common NEMA ratings for enclosures used outside are 3 and 4, which means they are protected from dripping and sprayed water, respectively, whereas a NEMA 5 rating only guarantees dust resistance (that is, no water-resistance rating), while NEMA 6 is immersion-proof temporarily (or continuously, for 6P). Similarly, an IP rating of IP67 means the enclosure is both dust-tight and can withstand immersion in 1 m of water for 30 minutes, but can’t necessarily withstand jets of water sprayed directly at it (which is specified by a 6 for the second numeral), while IPn8 means no harm will come from immersion in up to 3 m of depth, but doesn’t actually require that water not make it inside. Confused already? Well, you’re not alone.

Sealing an enclosure obviously requires filling any gaps, seams or other penetrations (such as for wires, buttons, etc) with some kind of compliant material like a rubber gasket, bead of silicone caulk, etc, as such will accommodate any difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion between dissimilar materials. Sealing around wires or cables is a special headache all its own—gland nuts are specifically made to make a waterproof (or resistant, at least) pass-through for a cable, but they don’t necessarily prevent air slipping past, and air tends to carry water vapor with it.

Another thing that needs to be noted is that any sealant that cures through a chemical process (such as epoxy and silicone) might produce corrosive off-gases. For example, the two types of general-purpose silicone available at most hardware stores (and therefore likely to be used in a pinch)

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produce noxious, and potentially corrosive, off-gases—one emits methanol and ammonia during curing, and the other emits acetic acid. Of the two types, the acetic acid-emitting one is by far the worse, as it will corrode many metals. However, methanol will react with some plastics, and ammonia will discolor copper and some copper alloys (brasses and bronzes).

Fortunately, there are “electronicsgrade” silicones available which cure through different (though maddeningly proprietary) processes so as to not off-gas anything damaging to the typical materials used in electronic assemblies.

Another popular way of keeping water (and other contaminants) out is to protectively coat the internal surfaces. This can be a conformal coating that is strategically applied to printed circuit boards and other areas with exposed solder, conductors, etc, by spraying or dipping, or the rather more drastic approach of filling the entire internal volume of an enclosure, which is called potting. There are a wide variety of coating and potting compounds available, and every last one has advantages and disadvantages relative to the rest.

Note also that some compounds can be used for both potting and conformal coating—for example, silicones and epoxies—while others are really only used as coatings—such as acrylics and polyurethanes—and others still are only used for potting—the most notable example being asphalt.

As is the case with sealing the enclosure itself, a prime consideration in selecting a coating or

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THE TECH

potting material is how much compliance is needed to accommodate thermal expansion/contraction. However, additional factors that might complicate the decision process are whether the coating will be exposed to large potential differences (such as between the pins of a MOSFET) and/ or high frequency and amplitude voltage changes (which can cause dielectric heating). Needless to say, conformal coating or potting has to be done closer to the end of the assembly process—and definitely after all interconnects are made—but a less obvious consideration is how much more difficult it will be to effect a repair later on; some coatings are relatively easy to remove either chemically or mechanically, like acrylic, while others can only be mechanically removed, like silicone, and some can’t be removed non-destructively without a heaping dose of luck, such as epoxy and polyurethane. Most of the time, sealing the enclosure and applying an acrylic-type conformal coating to the circuit boards will provide many years of service under harsh conditions, but if a higher dielectric strength is needed, then a spot application of silicone is usually a good choice.

Potting should only be a last resort, and it only tends to make sense in very cost-sensitive devices that aren’t considered worth repairing (such as a golf-cart motor controller, which is where I’ve seen it used the most in the EV field).

Even with a belt-and-suspenders approach to keeping water vapor (or water) out of a device, there still might be a need to make sure condensation does not occur, and that is where passive or even active means of water removal come into play. By far the most common example of passive humidity control is the humble packet of silica gel, which is so cheap it can be included in a disposable bag of beef jerky. That low price is matched by relatively low performance, however, particularly in the absolute level of relative humidity that can be achieved (typically down to 40% RH or so), especially as ambient temperature exceeds 35° C. A desiccant which operates by a similar mechanism to silica gel—adsorption—but which can achieve much lower levels of relative humidity, even at higher ambient temperatures, is a molecular sieve, which is made from a clay-like material called zeolite, which is covered in tiny pores of just the right size to trap water molecules (“sieving” the water out of the air, then). One downside to molecular sieves is that they are much more friable than silica gel (that is, easier to pulverize into dust), so they might not be the best choice for onboard devices.

Both silica gel and molecular sieves can be regenerated

The low price of silica gel is matched by relatively low performance, particularly in the absolute level of relative humidity that can be achieved (typically down to 40% RH or so), especially as ambient temperature exceeds 35° C.

by baking at a high temperature for several hours, which drives off the adsorbed water, and both can be treated with a chemical that indicates when they need to be replaced or regenerated (a common indicator is cobalt chloride, which is blue when dry and pink when wet).

Finally, there are active humidity control methods,

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which could be a better choice when outside air is likely to make it into the equipment cabinet (for cooling, servicing, etc). The first approach is simply to heat the air inside the cabinet so that the temperature is always above the dew point. This could be done with a heater running all the time—maybe using a PTC (positive temperature coefficient) element so it semi-regulates its temperature—or by controlling it with either a thermostat, a humidistat (switches based on humidity level, rather than temperature), or both, so that the heater doesn’t run unnecessarily.

The latter approach has been used with success on a DC fast charger, according to Stego, though it would be a tough sell to put any kind of active humidity control system inside any of the power electronics on an EV, and the additional battery drain would be unwelcome.

For completeness, it should be mentioned that there are two other methods of actively controlling humidity—condensing it with a refrigeration system, or periodically regenerating one of the desiccants mentioned above, using externally-supplied hot air— and while these approaches are incredibly effective, they also take up way too much space (and are too expensive) to consider using on even a large piece of equipment like a DC fast charger, much less on an EV itself. Still, if you need to bring the dew point down to where dry ice can’t precipitate water out of the air, then those last two methods are the only way to go.

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THE TECH

HBK’S DIGITAL ALGORITHM CAN MAP MOTOR EFFICIENCY

10 TIMES FASTER THAN ANALOG SYSTEMS 30

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Images courtesy of HBK

Using a process called efficiency mapping, engineers determine the “sweet spots” of a powertrain—the regions of the torque-speed curve where the system operates at peak efficiency. This is a costly and time-consuming process.

By Tom Lombardo n order to maximize an EV’s range for a given battery capacity and vehicle weight, engineers try to eke out as much performance as possible from the electrical and mechanical systems. Using a process called efficiency mapping, they determine the “sweet spots” of a powertrain—the regions of the torque-speed curve where the system operates at peak efficiency—and design the components to operate in the maximum efficiency zone as much as possible. The problem is that efficiency mapping is a costly and time-consuming process, often occupying expensive equipment for weeks on end.

To test and optimize powertrains, automakers turn to companies like HBK, a provider of test and measurement equipment. HBK’s systems are used to evaluate all aspects

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of an EV’s powertrain, including the motor, controller, gearbox and inverter. The company says its latest product line, the eDrive Power Analyzer packages, can dramatically reduce the time it takes to create an efficiency map.

Charged recently spoke with HBK Engineer Mitch Marks, who described how eDrive Power Analyzers employ an innovative digital algorithm that maps motor efficiency in a fraction of the time that it used to take using analog methods.

Efficiency mapping with cycle detect Q Charged: HBK says its process cuts testing time by

nearly a factor of ten. What is it about the efficiency mapping process that takes so much time?

A Marks: Powertrain efficiency varies primarily with

speed and torque, as well as a few other factors. Our equipment measures battery power, inverter power and motor power to determine each component’s efficiency at different torque-speed combinations. Using a dynamometer, we program torque and speed parameters for every point of the vehicle’s operating range, measure the input and output powers of various components, and use those figures to calculate the efficiency of each section. Once the data points have been mapped, we can see details about how the entire propulsion system operates, and the powertrain can be designed to optimize efficiency.

Efficiency mapping sounds simple in principle, since we’re just looking at a few hundred operating points on the torque-speed spectrum. But the efficiency also varies with gear ratio, temperature and even the battery’s state of charge. Suddenly, all these real-world variables multiply into maybe 50,000 unique scenarios for a single powertrain, and that could tie up a testing rig for weeks.

A traditional power analysis uses a technology called a phase-locked loop. Basically, it’s a piece of circuitry that tracks a frequency. It’s an analog thing that is very slow in nature, and usually tuned at 60 Hz. We asked, “Why is everybody using a power-line tool for vehicle development? Your car doesn’t just go 12 miles an hour.”

EV motors run at multiple speeds, so a power analyzer needs to sweep over a range of frequencies in order to test a motor at all those speeds. The problem is that with each frequency change, the analyzer has to wait for the system to stabilize before taking another reading. This adds about 10 seconds to each measurement. Multiply that by 50,000

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Images courtesy of HBK

THE TECH

30 data points taken that will go onto an efficiency map setpoints and we’re looking at weeks of dynamometer time, and that’s assuming everything goes as planned.

So, we developed a digital algorithm that, in real time, reads the fundamental frequency of the sine wave supplied to the motor, tracks that, and gives you measurements on every half-cycle of the wave. This algorithm is very robust and it gives you an answer in half a cycle of the fundamental frequency, which is a fraction of a rotation of the machine. For example, for a 20-pole machine, it takes a measurement every 10th of a rotation. We call it cycle detect, and we use a cool digital algorithm to do it.

The cycle detect algorithm takes measurements on every zero crossing of the inverter sine wave, essentially giving two measurements per cycle. This allows a power map with 300 unique conditions to be completed in a few minutes. A map with 50,000 scenarios will take around 10 hours, where the old method might take 10 working days or more.

Real-time mechanical and electrical measurements Q Charged: What exactly are you measuring during

efficiency map tests?

A Marks: We’re measuring DC bus voltage and current,

inverter voltage and current, inverter input power and

A map with 50,000 scenarios will take around 10 hours, whereas the old method might take 10 working days or more. inverter output power. The inverter goes to the motor, so we’re measuring the motor’s torque and speed output.

Knowing the electrical power into the motor and the mechanical power out of the motor, we determine the motor’s efficiency. If you’ve got a gearbox, we can measure its mechanical power output and calculate its efficiency as well. These tests are very temperature-dependent because when machines get hot, they lose more energy and they’re less efficient. So, keeping the machine in a really tight temperature range is an area of interest for engineers.

We designed the eDrive, HBK’s product that simultaneously measures all mechanical and electrical values— torque, speed, temperature, voltage, current, etc. These measurements are stored on the fly, along with the data from the powertrain’s control system. Post-processing analysis will compare the physical quantities with the values the controller is “thinking” or estimating, allowing engineers to design and optimize the control system.

We put the battery, inverter and motor on a dynamom-

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How it works

A description of how the cycle detect concept can accelerate mapping is given in a white paper by Professor Radu Bojoi of Turin Polytechnic. The test rig includes: • • • • • • • •

Three efficiency maps on one screen eter, and enter a number of setpoints that fix a torque and a speed for the full range of the powertrain. For each condition, we measure the battery power, the inverter power and the motor’s mechanical power output to determine inverter efficiency and motor efficiency. As we do this, we create an efficiency map. We put speed on the X-axis and torque on the Y-axis. We want to figure out where the most efficient points are so the powertrain can operate there the majority of the time.

Then the engineers will use this data to optimize the powertrain and also define the vehicle’s driving mode parameters. For example, they can look at the efficiency map and say, “Okay, in unbridled mode at an ambient temperature of 20° C, my battery state of charge is this.

I can be this liberal with how I’m operating.” Or, say, “It’s 40° C—very hot. My battery is at a really low state of charge. I’m in dire straits and need to get somewhere.

I’m going to operate a little more conservatively.” This is all derived from these maps that say, “Under these exact conditions, I want to operate here.”

Testing setup Q Charged: How does the pack’s state of charge affect

these measurements and the efficiency?

A Marks: As the battery’s state of charge gets lower, you might lower the bus voltage to try to conserve energy. Or some fundamental functions in the battery move it to a lower voltage level. So that state of charge is going to affect where that DC bus is sitting or how much current you’re willing to provide.

the motor under test and its controller a torque sensor with a built-in 1,024-bit rotary encoder to measure shaft position three current sensors (one per phase) voltage sensors temperature sensors a rotary encoder/shaft position sensor that’s used by the motor controller.

Using this method, an algorithm creates a set of operating points across the torque-speed plane. For each of the 10 to 20 speeds on the X-axis, another 10 to 20 torque values are chosen. This produces 100 to 400 torque-speed operating points to sample.

Each operating point measurement takes 3 seconds, with all quantities measured simultaneously and the data recorded on the fly. An entire sweep takes up to 20 minutes. Additional sweeps are performed to account for temperature, battery state of charge and other variables until all scenarios are accounted for, after which the data goes into post-processing for later analysis. HBK has a database of formulas that can be tailored to fit the application and calculate a number of quantities, including: • • • • • • • •

input electrical power I2R copper losses mechanical shaft power iron losses mechanical losses motor efficiency inverter efficiency stator currents and voltages.

This data is used to plot a torque-speed efficiency map as well as a variety of loss maps.

During testing, engineers use power supplies that simulate the battery packs, and there are a lot of really good battery emulation systems on the market. One of the problems with using real batteries for testing is that there are a whole bunch of safety concerns that go into it, and it gets expensive.

Q Charged: What about the rest of the test setup?

How many test bench rigs are EV makers typically operating in parallel?

A Marks: It depends on the size of the automaker. If you

look at GM, for example, they’ve got one facility with a

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THE TECH hallway that’s got 120 dynamometers that are pretty much all the same. They can use those for powertrain efficiency mapping, NVH testing, etc. There is a cart where they bring in the motor, a technician connects it, closes the door and runs the test. That’s General Motors—as good as it gets. On the other hand, we’ve seen labs of startups where they might have something that’s more cobbled together, operated by a person whose real job is something else. So, it varies.

The load machines are pretty standard. For example, if you run a 100-kilowatt device under test, you’ll have a 200-kilowatt load motor, and then you can run peak power where you overload the machine and run the whole gamut. Those dynamometer systems are really good at just holding a stiff speed and absorbing torque without fluctuating too much. The good ones are really expensive and the bad ones are really unreliable. But you typically have one machine that can take most of the motors you’re going to put on it.

Also, eDrive formulas can be modified for motors with more than three phases or systems with more than one motor. Extra inputs allow users to connect temperature sensors, accelerometers, microphones, a CAN bus and more. We also include a suite of analysis tools and users can create custom analyses as well.

Since all raw data is stored on the fly, the measurements can be examined in detail as often as necessary, eliminating the need to rerun tests at certain operating points.

Because of the additional sensors, eDrive can calculate iron losses and copper losses. And since we’re measuring all aspects of mechanical and electrical efficiency, we can help engineers who are designing the individual components—the battery, the inverter, the motor and the control system—to optimize those parts so they work together to make a better overall powertrain.

System installation on a dynamometer at the university of

Since we’re measuring all aspects of mechanical and electrical efficiency, we can help engineers who are designing the individual components—the battery, the inverter, the motor and the control system—to optimize those parts so they work together to make a better overall powertrain.

Next-gen testing Q Charged: Where do you see this efficiency mapping

industry moving in the future?

A Marks: Testing is expensive. A dynamometer, for example, runs you a million bucks. The measurement equipment and time to test is not inexpensive, so everybody’s moving to computer models or digital twins. You’ve got a digital twin of the motor, a digital twin of the inverter and a control algorithm. A lot of

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Images courtesy of HBK

university of Wisconsin – WEMPEC

times, you’re just getting your computer model to be as close to reality as possible so you can just hit Enter on a computer, run all these tests and validate the algorithm on the test stand.

Everybody’s moving towards more hardware in the loop, simulated motors and simulated inverters. It’s a cool time to be in development and an interesting time for test people, but we’ll always be here because you’re always pushing the envelope and need to validate.

Q Charged: In those scenarios,

when they’re moving to computer model or digital twin, they will constantly check against real life using your equipment. Is that right?

A Marks: Right. We need to

have validation so when something goes wrong in the field, we can identify what happened quickly. And then we have the guy who just wants to figure out the best algorithm, refine his model, hit go, and then validate.

That’s the dream, but I don’t think we’re there yet.

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THE VEHICLES

Ford unveils its 2022 F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck Images courtesy of Ford

By John Voelcker

In May, Ford unveiled its long-awaited battery-electric pickup truck, dubbed the F-150 Lightning.

The name hearkens back to “the fastest truck in the world,” the Lightning F-150 SVT, which launched in 2002 with a high-performance V-8. But this is the 2020s, and Ford has repurposed the name for what will become its fastest-accelerating full-size pickup truck.

The EPA rating for battery range is expected to come in at around 230 miles for the Standard Range pack, and 300 miles for the Extended Range. That’s roughly equivalent to the ranges promised for the Mustang Mach-E, which was launched last year. GM said in April it will offer a battery-electric version of its competing Chevrolet Silverado pickup with 400 miles of range. Let the pickup range wars begin.

Performance, onboard power…and a front trunk As it has done with hybrids, Ford is pitching the performance and onboard power aspects of its EV models. Climate change doesn’t rate a mention, and “zero emissions” appears only sporadically. It’s not a bad strategy, because Americans care more about fast acceleration and the ability to use power tools in the wilderness than about melting ice caps or carbon footprints.

While the F-150 Lightning largely resembles the rest of the sprawling F-150 lineup, it turns out to be quite different underneath. The only carryover sheet metal is the Crew Cab body and the structure of the pickup bed. The front suspension is also common to gasoline and diesel versions—but that’s about it.

The company designed a brand-new frame to accommodate a large, flat battery pack stretching almost from side to side, axle to axle. The Lightning is the first-ever F-Series pickup truck with independent rear suspension.

And of course, rather than a transmission and associated 4WD gearing, it uses one electric motor on either end to provide all-wheel drive.

A feature that proved hugely popular in clinics, said Darren Palmer, Ford’s North American EV Manager, is the front trunk. It’s reached by opening the power-operated hood, actually a new one-piece unit that includes the blanking plate that serves as a “grill.” That opens right down to bumper level, giving owners a 14-cubic-foot lockable storage compartment. It includes a hidden compartment below the floor, plus a drain plug so you

can just hose it out if you’ve stored something dirty or smelly.

One configuration, two battery options Today, the F-150 Lightning comes in only one body style—the Crew Cab that Ford says is the most popular of all F-150 configurations for private buyers, with a 5.5-foot pickup bed. Two motors are standard, though buyers can choose between the Standard Range and Extended Range battery packs.

Ford was coy about pack capacities, but the cited charging rates and durations would indicate capacities of roughly 150 to 160 kilowatt-hours for the Extended

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Images courtesy of Ford

Range battery and 110 to 115 kWh for the Standard.

Ford is quite willing to share other specs, though. It quotes 0-to-60-mph acceleration in the “mid 4 second” range, about 1 second quicker than the F-150 Raptor—its current performance pickup—which comes in at 5.5 seconds.

Peak motor torque for all Lightnings is a whopping 775 pound-feet, which Ford says is the highest for any F-150 ever built. Motor power varies with pack size. The F-150 Lightning with the Standard Range battery is quoted at 318 kilowatts (426 horsepower) of peak output, while the Extended Range battery boosts that to 420 kW (563 hp).

Payload and towing are inevitably on the minds of any truck buyer. Payload is listed as 2,000 pounds in the Standard Range model, though it falls to 1,800 pounds in versions with the heavier Extended Range pack. Towing capacity with the larger battery is rated up to 10,000 pounds with the Max Trailer Tow package, or 7,700 pounds for the Standard pack. Ford executives declined to characterize the effect of towing on battery range, beyond saying it was “roughly” equivalent to that of a gasoline or diesel vehicle—often quantified as a fuel-consumption hit of up to 50 percent.

Home charging options up to 80 amps The portable charging cord that comes with the truck has pigtails for 120-volt and 240-volt plugs, the latter with a capacity of up to 32 amps. At best, that requires 14 to 19 hours to charge the pack from 15 to 100 percent.

The standard home charging station runs at 80 amps, though it will likely require some garage rewiring. The Lightning itself comes with dual onboard chargers, meaning that the Extended Range version can charge from 15 to 100 percent of battery capacity in about 8 hours, or overnight. It’s 10 hours for the smaller pack.

As for DC fast charging, as it does for the Mach-E, Ford uses the CCS standard, and has trip planning and routing built into the onboard navigation and the FordPass app. The maximum charging rate is 150 kW, but Ford declined to specify under what circumstances that rate could be achieved, or how long it was sustained.

If the Mach-E pack is any guide, that maximum rate can be reached only at low states of charge, and the rate steps down in several increments starting well before 50 percent. Using a 150 kW charging station, Ford quotes fast-charging times from 15 to 80 percent of 44 and 41 minutes for the Standard and Extended batteries, respec-

tively. Old-style 50 kW CCS sites, however, will take 91 and 122 minutes (that’s a grim two hours) to deliver that same increment.

Power appliances, even your home, with your truck Perhaps the most interesting marketing pitch for the F-150 Lightning is its ability to provide backup power to a home. With the 80-amp charging station that’s standard with the bigger pack (optional for the Standard battery), plus an optional home energy management system— installed by Sunrun—a fully charged F-150 Lightning battery can power a US home for three days, assuming the average national usage of about 30 kWh a day.

The F-150 PowerBoost hybrid model that launched last year included a feature that has become a popular show-off for owners and a major selling point. That’s the ProPower Onboard system, which provides multiple 120-volt and available 240-volt bed sockets. In the ads, the hybrid F-150 is used to power stereos, refrigerators, even power tools, essentially replacing portable generators in many applications.

With about 100 times the battery capacity, the electric truck amplifies those capabilities enormously. The standard Lightning models provide 2.4 kW of power out, while the two higher-end trims offer up to 9.6 kW— which is enough, Ford underscores, to power your home.

Variable pricing A “commercial-oriented” basic F-150 Lightning starts at $39,974 (plus a mandatory delivery fee of $1,000 or so) before any federal income-tax credits or state purchase incentives are applied. Retail buyers are likely to opt for the mid-range XLT model with more features, which starts at $52,974—or about the transaction price of the average F-150.

Ford declined to answer questions about future configurations aimed at fleet and commercial buyers, where its 45-percent share of the core truck and van segment make it the market leader. But versions with a single motor (to keep costs down for users who don’t require 4WD), perhaps additional battery sizes, and more cab-and-bed combinations seem almost inevitable, given the varying demands of commercial buyers.

All F-150 Lightnings will be built at the new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, and production is to start next year. Ford says it has logged over 100,000 reservations for the new truck since the launch event.

MAY/JUN 2021

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Image courtesy of BYD

THE VEHICLES

BYD introduces electric Type D school bus BYD, a major manufacturer of transit buses, is introducing a battery-electric Type D school bus. According to the company, the new e-bus offers “unparalleled safety features and performance, wrapped in a sleek design that will have students wanting to step onboard.”

BYD’s Type D school bus will come in 35-, 38-, and 40-foot lengths, and will offer a range of up to 155 miles. It can seat up to 84, and can be equipped with an ADA-compliant liftgate.

The new e-bus will use BYD’s lithium iron phosphate battery, and BYD’s proprietary powertrain, which features dual in-wheel traction motors.

BYD says its school buses can cut fuel and maintenance costs by as much as 60% compared to diesel vehicles.

BYD’s new bus follows the current industry trend and offers bidirectional charging, for which school buses offer an ideal use case. The ability to feed energy back to the grid during downtime offers an income opportunity that can offset the cost of converting a fleet to EVs. BYD says it has made safety the top priority in its school bus design, including such features as electronic stability control, a collision avoidance system, and a 360-degree monitoring system to detect pedestrians and cyclists. BYD buses can be equipped with IMMI’s Safeguard 3-point lap-shoulder belts, integrated child seats, and portable restraints.

“We believed the Type D electric bus needed to be appealing to kids, offer the utmost safety features and driver ergonomics, be equipped with a safe, high-performance battery, and have plenty of storage capacity for road trips,” said Samuel Kang, BYD’s Head of Total Technology Solutions. “The BYD Type D school bus achieves all those goals.”

CARB proposes new rules for defining EV battery health Buying a pre-owned EV presents a new concern for buyers to beware of—the health of the vehicle’s battery.

All batteries degrade over time, and there’s no simple way for a buyer to know how much of its original range a used EV retains. Some older EVs—notable the air-cooled Nissan LEAF—have poor records in this department.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is taking a comprehensive approach to electrification, and its proposed Advanced Clean Cars II framework, which sets an objective of making EVs 80% of new light vehicle sales by 2035, includes provisions for defining EV battery health.

The new rules, which would apply beginning in model year 2026, would require that battery EVs maintain 80% of their certified range for 15 years or 150,000 miles. The regulations would also require a “customer readable state of health metric,” allowing buyers to ascertain the state of health (SOH) of a particular vehicle without the need for any special tool. The vehicle maker would have to clearly specify the SOH percentage that qualifies for warranty repair.

The proposed rules would also require “information disclosure for all propulsion-related components,” and a standardized procedure for reading vehicle diagnostic data such as propulsion-related fault codes.

David Reichmuth of the Union of Concerned Scientists sees the proposal as a positive both for consumers and the environment. It’s important to ensure that “consumers don’t have concerns over buying a used EV and being able to replace a gasoline vehicle.” And the longer an EV’s useful life, the greater the amount of emissions it will offset.

Consumer Reports also praised CARB’s proposed rules: “CR welcomes the new electric vehicle durability requirements to ensure consumers have access to longrange, long-lasting vehicles.”

It remains to be seen how EV OEMs will react to the proposed new rules. As Green Car Reports sees it, this measure is related to the Right to Repair movement, which Tesla, for one, has generally not supported.

CARB will vote on a more detailed version of the proposal later in the year.

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Image courtesy of Tesla

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Texas fails to change dealership law— Tesla still can’t sell directly to state residents For almost a decade now, Tesla has been fighting state governments for the right to sell its vehicles directly to customers—something which has historically been prohibited in most US states. Texas is one of the states that still forbids direct sales, so residents have had to resort to a workaround some call the “Texas two-step.” Texans can order a Tesla through the company’s web site, but no orders may be placed or processed within the state. The buyer must pay for the vehicle online, and can then pick it up at one of Tesla’s eight Texas service centers.

Now that Tesla is building a massive Gigafactory in the state, a billion-dollar project that’s expected to create at least 5,000 jobs, will the state government reverse its direct-sales ban (as Nevada did when Tesla chose it for the site of Gigafactory 2)?

Not this year. Texas’s state legislature meets only every other annum, and this year it will end its session without changing its auto dealer franchise laws. This apparently means that, once Tesla begins production at the Austin Gigafactory, any vehicles sold to Texans will have to be shipped out of the state, then shipped back in.

That’s not the only roadblock that the Lone Star State, which Elon Musk assumed was so business-friendly, may erect. The Texas legislature did find time this session to consider a new tax on EV owners that, at up to $400 per year, would have been the highest in the nation. (The Austin American-Statesman reported that the proposed tax did not become law this session.)

In March, Republican State Representative Cody Harris introduced a bill that would have crafted a narrow exception to the dealer franchise law, allowing Tesla to deliver EVs in the state. However, the bill died in the House Transportation Committee, so the direct-sale ban will remain in place.

Unless something unexpected happens, the next chance to change the law will be two years from now, when the legislature meets again.

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THE VEHICLES

Image courtesy of Kia

Kia releases official specs for USmarket EV6 electric crossover

In March, Kia teased us with some exterior and interior images of the EV6 electric crossover, the automaker’s first dedicated (that is, not adapted from a legacy vehicle) EV. Now the automaker’s American division has confirmed official specs for the version destined for the US market.

The EV6 will be available with two powertrain configurations and two battery pack options. The rear-wheel-drive version has a 160 kW rear motor, and the dual-motor AWD version adds a 70 kW motor to the front axle.

The RWD variant will offer either a 58 or 77.4 kWh battery pack. The AWD variant comes with the 77.4 kWh pack, cranks out a total of 313 hp, and does 0-60 in 5.1 seconds. Maximum range is expected to be up to 300 miles.

There will also be a performance variant, the GT, with a feisty 576 total hp and a 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds. (In case you’re comparison shopping, that’s equivalent to the times boasted by the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition and the Tesla Model Y Performance.)

DC fast charging will offer power levels of up to 350 kilowatts. The newest hot feature for EVs is a power export capability—it’s expected to be available on Tesla’s Cybertruck and Ford’s F-150 Lightning, and Nissan claims to offer the feature on LEAFs sold in Japan. The EV6’s vehicle-to-load function turns the crossover into a 1,900-watt mobile generator, enough to power tools, camping gear or maybe even your fridge in a power outage.

Kia says the 2022 EV6 will arrive at US dealerships in early 2022, and the souped-up GT version later in the year. Car and Driver expects the new crossover to start around $45,000, or around $55,000 for the GT version.

More plug-in Kias are on the way—the company says it will bring 11 new electrified models to global markets by 2026.

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ABB to electrify its fleet of 10,000 vehicles by 2030 Global electronics giant ABB has been involved in the e-mobility segment since the early days, and it is currently delivering everything from battery systems to charging stations to large-scale EVSE projects. The world’s leading EV magazine (which you’re holding) has published at least a hundred articles referring to the company. So when we read about ABB’s recent announcement that it plans to electrify its vehicle fleet by 2030, our reaction was: “ABB is still using fossil fuel vehicles?”

Yes, like a lot of companies (and governments), ABB is getting started a little too late, and setting a too-timid timeline. However, substantial action is underway. The company’s EV 100 plan commits it to electrifying its fleet of more than 10,000 vehicles by 2030. ABB in Sweden has already begun to convert its approximately 700 company cars to pure EVs, and ABB in the UK announced last year that it will convert its over 500 company cars to an all-electric fleet by 2025.

The firm has also announced two related programs: the RE 100 initiative, under which it plans to power its operations with 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 (the company’s operations in its home country of Switzerland reached this goal in 2020); and the EP 100 initiative, which calls for dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. Currently, more than 100 ABB sites employ energy management systems.

“At ABB, we want to lead by example across our own operations and the confirmation that our ambitious targets are now scientifically verified is an important milestone for the company,” said Theodor Swedjemark, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer. “We believe that the combination of technology and empowered people is key to reducing emissions and avoiding the further heating of our planet.”

Image courtesy of TBB

Image courtesy of ABB

THE VEHICLES

Thomas Built Buses delivers 50th Proterra Powered electric school bus Thomas Built Buses (TBB), a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America, together with vehicle dealer Sonny Merryman and commercial EV manufacturer Proterra, recently celebrated the delivery of the 50th SafT-Liner C2 Jouley battery-electric school bus. The milestone delivery went to Loudon County Public Schools in Virginia as part of Dominion Energy’s Electric School Bus Initiative.

TBB and Proterra unveiled the Jouley electric school bus in 2018, and several are now in operation at school districts around the US. In Virginia, TBB and Sonny Merryman were selected as the exclusive providers of 50 Jouleys to 15 public school districts. The first were delivered in November of 2020.

In Michigan, Ann Arbor and Roseville Public Schools are operating 6 Jouleys in partnership with DTE Energy, which is also performing a Vehicle to Grid (V2G) study to obtain data regarding the energy efficiency and environmental benefits of EVs. In Massachusetts, the City of Beverly recently unveiled its first Jouley, which will participate in a V2G strategy deployed by Highland Electric Transportation and utility provider National Grid.

In Alaska, Tok Transportation is operating a Jouley, the first battery-electric school bus in the state, in partnership with the Alaska Energy Authority.

In Indiana, Monroe County Community Schools and Delphi Community Schools both recently received their first Thomas Built electric school buses.

The Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley’s Proterra Powered electric drivetrain provides 226 kWh of total energy capacity, and enables a range up to 135 miles.

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Image courtesy of United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods to deploy 53 electric refrigerated trailers with PV panels and Li-ion batteries Food wholesaler United Natural Foods (UNFI) plans to add 53 all-electric refrigerated trailer units (TRUs) to its fleet based at the company’s Riverside, California distribution center. The all-electric TRU achieves zero emissions by using a high-efficiency refrigeration system powered by roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels, a “wheel-momentum generator,” lithium-ion batteries, and an auxiliary power unit that eliminates the requirement for a diesel generator to power the refrigeration system.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) plans to impose zero-emission requirements on TRUs sold or operated in California by the end of 2029.

Advanced Energy Machines, a specialist in the electrification of refrigerated trailers, will rebuild UNFI’s units to all-electric specifications. UNFI will lease the TRUs through PLM Trailer Leasing for five years. To help reduce the cost of retrofitting the diesel-powered TRUs, PLM received vouchers on UNFI’s behalf through CARB’s Clean Off Road Equipment (CORE) Voucher Incentive Project. CARB launched CORE in 2017 to accelerate the purchase of zero-emission freight handling equipment in California by offsetting the technology’s higher up-front cost.

UNFI anticipates that the all-electric TRUs will save approximately 135,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, while reducing particulate matter pollutant emissions and greenhouse gas emissions.

“Nearly 50 percent of UNFI’s direct greenhouse gas emissions are from our fleet of trucks and trailers. These 53 all-electric TRUs will help us get a head start on the proposed CARB zero-emission requirements,” said Jeff Wismans, National Director of Fleet Operations at UNFI. “Adding these TRUs comes after an exhaustive four-month pilot, testing the equipment through a variety of conditions. When we look at it from an operational standpoint, we’re not changing anything, but it gives us a fresh look at running our operations and finding additional efficiencies.”

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THE VEHICLES

er now says it plans to invest $35 billion in electrification over the five years ending in 2025—the second increase in its announced figure in the last eight months. By 2025, GM plans to offer 30 electrified models globally, and hopes to reach annual sales of 1 million EVs in the US and China.

Perhaps the most important news, however, is that GM plans to bulk up on battery manufacturing capacity in the US, which will be a necessity if it truly intends to reach volume production. GM President Mark Reuss recently told the Associated Press that the company will soon announce plans for more US battery factories, in addition to the two that are already on the drawing board.

The two plants currently under construction, in Lordstown, Ohio and Spring Hill, Tennessee, will be sending cells to five factories where GM plans to build EVs, in Michigan, Tennessee, Ontario and Mexico. Industry observers say the two factories won’t be enough to serve the five assembly plants if sales rise as expected.

Reuss offered no details of where the factories would be located, saying only, “In the next week we’ll announce some more, and it will be here in the US.” It seems likely that the new battery plants, each of which is expected to cost more than $2 billion, will be located close to some of the assembly plants.

“EV adoption is increasing and reaching an inflection point, and we want to be ready to produce the capacity that we need to meet demand over time,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson said in a conference call with reporters.

“We know we’ll need those battery plants to further our goals.”

Proterra (NASDAQ: PTRA) and Miami-Dade County have announced a major fleet electrification project. The Florida metropolis will acquire an additional 42 Proterra ZX5+ electric transit buses, bringing its total fleet of Proterra electric buses to 75. Proterra will install 75 of its branded chargers, packing a total of 9 megawatts of power, at 3 bus depots. The first of the e-buses are to be delivered in 2022.

The company’s Proterra Energy division offers a turnkey package for heavy-duty electric fleets, including charging infrastructure design, build, financing, operations, maintenance and energy optimization.

“With these new electric buses, Miami-Dade will lead the way with the largest sustainable transportation fleet in Florida and one of the largest in the nation,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Proterra began trading on NASDAQ in June after finalizing its SPAC deal with ArcLight Clean Transition. The stock market liked the Miami news, and gave the new stock a respectable boost.

Meanwhile, Proterra announced plans to establish a US battery cell manufacturing facility “within the next few years.” Bloomberg reports that Proterra, which has a supply agreement with LG Energy Solution through 2022, foresees investing $100 million to $120 million in domestic cell capacity.

Images courtesy of Proterra

GM boosts EV investment, plans to build more US battery Proterra to deliver 42 electric buses and 75 chargers to factories GM has raised the stakes in what’s starting to look like a Miami-Dade transit agency lively EV rivalry with Ford. The nation’s largest automak-

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Images courtesy of Lunaz

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UK EV builder Lunaz attracts star investor David Beckham UK-based Lunaz upcycles and converts legacy vehicles to EVs, using a proprietary electric powertrain. The company has big plans for growth, and recently secured funding from a group of high-profile investors, including soccer star David Beckham, who has taken a 10% stake in the company.

Beckham’s expertise extends to more than just bending it on the football pitch. His investment company has successfully backed a number of startups in the eSports and athletic recovery sectors.

Lunaz, which is headquartered in Silverstone, a hotspot for advanced automotive technology, has earned critical acclaim for its electric conversions of Range Rover, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar sports cars. Now the company plans to widen its scope to the electrification of industrial vehicles on a mass global scale, beginning with heavy-duty vehicles such as refuse trucks.

The company will also offer its modular powertrain as a turnkey, white-label product for OEMs and other vehicle builders.

Lunaz says its remanufacturing and electrification process will extend the life of up to 70% of the existing weight and embedded carbon within a vehicle, and can save fleet operators significant costs compared with buying new vehicles. According to the company, a municipal authority could save more than 43% on the total cost of ownership of an upcycled and electrified refuse truck versus replacing its existing fleet with new EVs. “The upcycling of existing passenger, industrial and commercial vehicles presents a sustainable alternative to replacing with new,” said David Lorenz, founder and CEO of Lunaz.

“Lunaz represents the very best of British ingenuity in both technology and design,” says David Beckham. “I was drawn to the company through their work restoring some of the most beautiful classic cars through upcycling and electrification.”

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Images courtesy of Hyundai

THE VEHICLES

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2022 HYUNDAI

IONIQ 5 FIRST OF AN AGGRESSIVE WAVE OF NEW EVS

MAY/JUN 2021

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THE VEHICLES Hyundai’s all-electric compact crossover, complete with available AWD, is a compelling new EV in a segment that’s about to see multiple models debut.

By John Voelcker

T

he 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 should be taken very seriously when it goes on sale this fall.

It will be a new and likely very competitive entry in what will soon become a crowded field of EVs in the popular “compact crossover” segment.

It’s not the fi rst such EV: the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model Y, and Volkswagen ID.4 are already on sale. Upcoming entries include the Audi Q4 e-tron, Kia EV6, Nissan Ariya, Subaru Solterra, Toyota bZ4X, and a Chevrolet crossover to be launched in 2023. And that list only includes crossovers that offer standard or optional all-wheel drive.

But the Ioniq 5 and its underlying technology show how serious Hyundai-Kia has become about offering EVs that appeal to mass-market buyers. It’s the fi rst of 23 new battery-electric vehicles the company plans to launch by 2025, under three brands, and they’re targeting total global sales of a million EVs by the end of that year.

Hyundai has been selling battery-electric models in the US since the Ioniq Electric was launched alongside hybrid and plug-in hybrid siblings in 2017. Originally rated at 124 miles of range, in 2020 the model received a range boost to 170 miles, and it remains on sale. But Prius-like compact hatchbacks are a fast-fading segment, and that car is too small for most US buyers.

Now, Hyundai has rebooted its EV efforts with a new platform that will spawn a whole range of EVs offering 250 miles or more of rated range. The Ioniq 5 is the fi rst, and it’s aimed squarely at the heart of the most popular family segment in the US: compact crossover utility vehicles.

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Images courtesy of Hyundai

It’s the first of 23 new battery-electric vehicles the company plans to launch by 2025, under three brands.

MAY/JUN 2021

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THE VEHICLES

Heritage style The Ioniq 5 was previewed in September 2019 by the Hyundai 45 Concept, a styling exercise that harkened back to the company’s very fi rst car. The Hyundai Pony (1976-85) was an inexpensive, conventional small sedan that introduced the South Korean carmaker to the rest of the world.

Unfortunately for its US marketers, the Pony was never sold in the United States (though it did appear briefly in Canada).

Our fi rst Hyundai was the subcompact 1986 Excel, an early front-wheel-drive model. So, the heritage theme simply won’t work in the US. The Ioniq 5 sits on the company’s Electric-Global Modular Platform (EGMP), which it says is flexible enough to support not just compact vehicles but mid-size ones too—including an electric three-row SUV it is expected to launch by 2023, perhaps to be named Ioniq 7.

The same platform also underpins an EV from Hyundai’s sister brand, Kia. That’s the Kia EV6, which couldn’t be more visually distinct. It’s a low, sleek, rounded “crossover” that’s really more like a traditional hatchback. Side by side with the squarer, blockier Ioniq 5, you’d never guess the two share the

Images courtesy of Hyundai

Hyundai Ioniq 5

Kia EV6

The same platform also underpins an EV from Hyundai’s sister brand, Kia.

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simulation case study

Side by side with the squarer, blockier Ioniq 5, you’d never guess the Kia shares the same “skateboard” running platform. same “skateboard” running platform—which is, of course, exactly the point of sharing costly new technology without resorting to badge engineering.

800-volt battery It’s the technical details of the E-GMP platform that underscore the company’s determination to build fully capable EVs. First, and perhaps most useful to drivers, is the company’s focus on charging, both AC and DC. Its onboard AC charger operates at up to 10.9 kilowatts at capable Level 2 charging stations, higher than the previous EV standards of 6.6 or 7.2 kW. To future-proof its DC fast charging, the Ioniq 5’s battery pack operates at 800 volts, rather than the 400 volts used for the last 20 years in both hybrids and EVs. The practical effect is that the Ioniq 5 can use DC fast charging stations that run at higher rates than the 125-to-150 kW limit on most 400-volt EVs. Th is allows large battery packs to be charged

Iss 55.indd 51

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at 250 to 350 kW. Hyundai says a recharge from 10 percent to 80 percent will take just 18 minutes (under optimal circumstances).

To date, only the Porsche Taycan and its platform twin the Audi e-tron GT have 800-volt batteries— though Tesla’s 400-volt batteries can briefly charge at up to 250 kW. Notably, Hyundai promises that every Ioniq 5 will include the ability to use far more plentiful 150 kW charging stations too. That’s a feature that costs Taycan buyers an extra $460.

The second intriguing aspect of Hyundai’s E-GMP platform is bidirectional charging, which the company calls “Vehicle-to-Load (V2L)” capability. That’s the ability to export power from the battery pack to run external electrical devices, from portable accessories to an entire household.

Powering (some of) your home Power export has proven to be a hugely popular feature of the recently announced Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, and Hyundai may fi nd a similar reaction to a mass-market crossover that can power your home in an emergency. However, the electric F-150 exports up to 9.6 kW, while the smaller battery of the Hyundai is limited to 1.9 kW of output. That may not keep your whole house running in a blackout, but

Images courtesy of Hyundai

THE VEHICLES

Hyundai says the 800-volt battery pack will recharge from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 18 minutes (under optimal circumstances). it’ll power your fridge—not to mention boom boxes, coolers, and all the other electric gear users may take to tailgaters, campsites and more.

Finally, Hyundai has followed Volkswagen’s lead and built its E-GMP with rear-wheel drive. All-wheel drive is easily added via a second motor between the front wheels. RWD has advantages for handling and

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roadholding, and reduces the cost of single-motor base models by eliminating costly constant-velocity joints for powered front wheels.

Electronic features galore “Once behind the steering wheel, [buyers] are going to be shocked by the [Ioniq 5’s] range, power, comfort, interior space and advanced technology,” said José Muñoz, CEO of Hyundai Motor America.

Every new vehicle comes with hyperbole, but this statement could be true—depending on how Hyundai prices the new EV. Thus far, it’s been entirely silent on that front.

The targeted range of the Ioniq 5 launch version is 300 miles, using a 77.4 kWh battery pack in a rear-wheel-drive configuration rated at 168 kW (225 hp) and 258 lb-ft of torque.

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THE VEHICLES

The simple, streamlined interior features a central 12inch touchscreen display, a second 12-inch display acting as a digital gauge cluster, and a head-up display with an augmented reality mode.

Adding all-wheel drive, courtesy of a 74 kW motor on the front axle, boosts those ratings to a combined 320 hp and 446 lb-ft, but cuts range to 269 miles—or 244 miles if you check all the option boxes and get the Limited AWD version. The US won’t get the option of the smaller, lower-range 58 kWh battery that’s offered in other markets.

The AWD version is the hot rod, claimed to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5.0 seconds. Top speed of all models is limited to 115 mph, and towing capacity is a modest 1,500 pounds. Rear cargo volume is 27.2 cubic feet with the rear seatbacks up, or 59.3 cu ft with the seats folded. A very small front trunk measures just 0.8 cubic feet—fi ne for a jacket, not so good for luggage.

The electronics of any new EV are now a key selling feature. The simple, streamlined interior features a central 12-inch touchscreen display, a second 12-inch display acting as a digital gauge cluster behind the steering wheel, and a head-up display with an augmented reality mode. Support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is pretty much mandatory, but Bluetooth Multi-Connection, which lets the car pair with two devices simultaneously, is newer.

Advanced driver-assistance systems in the Ioniq 5 will include Smart Cruise Control, Forward CollisionAvoidance Assist, Highway Driving Assist 2, Driver Attention Warning, and quite a few more. Hyundai says the Ioniq 5 will offer over-the-air wireless updates to multimedia features and navigation maps, though

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THE VEHICLES

First sales this fall will be limited to 10 ZEV states, plus Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. it didn’t specify whether ADAS features might be updated as well. The updates will come free to the buyer twice a year.

A carmaker to watch Within the auto industry, it’s said that Toyota is not afraid of competition from most other makers. The most profitable large car company is said to be unimpressed by EV plans from Volkswagen Group, General

Every new generation of Hyundai vehicles is notably better in design, features, and performance than its predecessor.

Images courtesy of Hyundai

No US reviews yet As of June, Hyundai hadn’t provided Ioniq 5 test vehicles to the media, so we can’t offer fi rst-hand impressions yet. But in April, German blogger Dr. Stefan Leichsenring gave the car a solid review. It “delivers a lot of what it promises,” he wrote, saying he had come away “really excited” about the Ioniq 5, “which is rare” for him. He cited the space inside the passenger cabin, the usable trunk (or cargo bay), and the car’s interior flexibility. In summary, Leichsenring said, “Hyundai has earned an A; the Ioniq 5 is a winner.”

Hyundai’s newest EV will be launched gradually in the US. First sales this fall will be limited to 10 ZEV states, plus Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. The company says a broader rollout is scheduled for early 2022. The Ioniq 5 will be packaged with two years of free charging on the Electrify America DC fast charging network.

Moreover, Hyundai plans to join Ford, GM, Nissan, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo in building electric vehicles in the US. The company says it will invest $7.4 billion in new and updated US manufacturing capability by 2025, and most of those resources will target EVs. One report suggests the company could start assembling EVs in the US as early as 2022.

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C

Motors, and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

The only company that worries Toyota, says the received wisdom, is Hyundai-Kia. Along with tens of millions of buyers worldwide, the Japanese company has seen how fast the Korean maker has grown, becoming the fi ft h-largest global producer in just three decades.

Every new generation of Hyundai vehicles is notably better in design, features, and performance than its predecessor, and the pace of model change is rapid: four or five years in most cases.

That makes the Ioniq 5, the fi rst of what will be a dozen or more vehicles on E-GMP underpinnings, a canary in the coalmine for other carmakers.

If it’s as good in real life as it is on paper, it may prove a formidable competitor among EV compact crossovers. Road tests later this year will show whether it lives up to that promise.

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6/30/21 7:53 PM

Audi pilots concept for premium-level fast charging hubs

Image courtesy of 7-Eleven

7-Eleven to install 500 fast charging stations by the end of 2022 Contrary to popular belief, EV drivers don’t have to subsist on kale and granola—now you can have a Slurpee and a microwaved burrito while topping up your battery pack. The iconic American convenience store chain 7-Eleven plans to deploy at least 500 DC fast charging stations at 250 selected stores in the US and Canada by the end of 2022.

The new charging stations will be owned and operated by 7-Eleven, which already has 22 charging stations located at 14 stores in 4 states.

In 2016, 7-Eleven planned to achieve a 20% reduction in carbon emissions from its stores by 2027. In the event, this goal was reached in 2019, 8 years early, and the company has now pledged a 50% reduction by 2030. 7-Eleven is purchasing 100% wind energy for over 800 stores in Texas and over 300 in Illinois. In Virginia, 150 stores are using hydropower, and 300 Florida stores are powered by solar energy.

“7-Eleven has always been a leader in new ideas and technology,” said 7-Eleven CEO Joe DePinto. “Adding 500 charging ports at 250 7-Eleven stores will make EV charging more convenient and help accelerate broader adoption of EVs and alternative fuels. 7-Eleven’s legacy is bringing convenience to the customer, and that continues to evolve—from ice on a dock in 1927 to electricity for your car today.”

Image courtesy of Audi

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Audi is working on a concept for premium-level charging infrastructure, in keeping with its market position as a luxury brand. It plans to implement a pilot project in the second half of this year, which will provide a practical test for a possible serial rollout. The Audi charging hub will offer high-power charging stations that can be reserved in advance, and a lounge area that provides an attractive, premium place to pass the time. In the pilot phase, drivers of non-Audi EVs will be able to use unreserved charging stations, as well as parts of the lounge.

The foundation of the Audi charging hub will be flexible container cubes housing charging pillars as well as used lithium-ion batteries for energy storage. The use of second-life modules from disassembled development vehicles will help to reduce the need for complex infrastructure with high-voltage lines and expensive transformers.

The hub will have six charging stations, each with a power output of up to 300 kW. Thanks to a “huge” amount of interim storage—roughly 2.45 MWh—a standard 400-volt electrical service should suffice. Photovoltaic modules on the roof will provide additional green energy. The combination of renewable generation and storage is designed to make it easier to select possible locations, and to reduce planning time and costs.

The hub can be transported, installed and adapted to an individual location quickly, independent of local network capacities.

“A flexible high-performing HPC charging park like this does not require much from the local electricity grid, and uses a sustainable battery concept,” says Oliver Hoffmann, a Member of Audi’s Board for Technical Development. “We are testing what the optimal technical solution is in a very realistic way. The focus in doing so is firmly on the needs of our customers.”

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California makes $17.5 million Montgomery County, Maryland available for public charging deploys microgrid to support electric bus charging in 13 rural counties AlphaStruxure, a provider of Energy as a Service (EaaS) solutions, has won a contract to deploy an integrated microgrid and electric bus charging infrastructure project for Montgomery County, Maryland. The project will enable transit operator Ride On Montgomery County to convert at least 44 buses from diesel to electric power.

AlphaStruxure, a joint venture of Schneider Electric and the Carlyle Global Infrastructure Opportunity Fund, will design, own and operate the project, located at the Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot. The system is designed to ensure uninterrupted bus service during any long-term power outages caused by severe weather, or by short-term issues with the utility grid, and also to avoid utility demand charges and time-of-use tariffs. The Energy as a Service approach will eliminate upfront cost to the county, and provide long-term cost predictability for the project’s energy supply.

The Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot will use Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure platform, including its microgrid controllers and electrical distribution equipment. The project integrates PV canopies designed and built by SunPower, battery energy storage from Dynapower, charging and energy management software from The Mobility House, and chargers from Heliox.

“This advanced infrastructure project drives forward several of our priorities—converting our fleets to electric, reducing harmful emissions, and ensuring safety and security,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich.

“This project will also improve the county’s resilience, so we can continue providing transportation services even in the event of prolonged power outages.”

“We’re taking the capital cost, complexity and risk out of electrification for Montgomery County through a powerful integration of technical, financial and contractual solutions,” said AlphaStruxure CEO Juan Macias.

Image courtesy of AlphaStruxure

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has announced the availability of $17.5 million in incentives to install public EV chargers in 13 rural counties. Incentives available through the new Inland Communities Incentive Project will cover up to 75 percent of EVSE costs. More than a third of the funding is dedicated to installations in under-resourced communities.

Eligible counties include Butte, El Dorado, Imperial, Kings, Merced, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare and Yolo.

The effort is one of 10 regional initiatives established under the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP), which provides incentive funds for new charging stations at local businesses, shopping centers, gas stations, public facilities, multifamily housing and other community locations throughout the state.

“CALeVIP incentives are crucial to equitably expanding electric vehicle infrastructure to every corner of the state,” said CEC Commissioner Patty Monahan. “More ready access to charging means Californians can have confidence that EVs can meet their transportation needs, whether in urban or rural areas.”

Currently, the majority of California’s public EV charging stations are located in urban and suburban population centers.

“To achieve California’s ambitious EV adoption goals, we must incentivize and install charging stations in all areas of the state,” said Andy Hoskinson, CSE’s Senior Manager for EV Infrastructure. “CALeVIP’s expansion of public charging makes sure our rural communities, which often have limited funding, are not left behind.”

Applicants for the Inland Communities Incentive Project can receive $3,500 to $6,000 per connector for a commercial-grade Level 2 EV charger, and $30,000 to $80,000 for a high-powered DC fast charger. Rebate funds can cover the purchase and installation of charging equipment, electrical infrastructure, utility costs, network agreements and other related costs.

Property owners and managers interested in installing EV chargers can apply for funding online at www.

CALeVIP.org.

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Porsche and Shell to deploy charging network in Southeast Asia Porsche Asia Pacific and Shell will partner to deploy public fast chargers at six Shell stations strategically located along Malaysia’s North-South highway, offering EV drivers the possibility of convenient travel between Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Each of the six Shell stations will be equipped with a 180 kW fast charger with two CCS Type 2 charging connectors, allowing a single vehicle to charge at up to 180 kW, or two vehicles to charge simultaneously at up to 90 kW. Four stations are to open in the second half of 2021, and two additional stations by the first half of 2022.

The automaker already has 175 kW chargers available at all Porsche Centres in Malaysia, and also operates the Porsche Destination Charging network at selected hotels, airports, sports clubs and other venues.

“The ASEAN markets hold strong potential for Porsche to unlock, and we see an opportunity to shape electric mobility in the region,” says Porsche VP Matthias Becker. “Our high-performance charging network across Singapore and Malaysia will serve as a lighthouse project for other countries to follow.”

XL Fleet acquires World Energy Efficiency Services to integrate EV charging and renewables

Image courtesy of XL Fleet

Image courtesy of Porsche

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

XL Fleet (NYSE: XL), a provider of electrification solutions for commercial and municipal fleets, has acquired World Energy Efficiency Services for cash and stock totaling approximately $16 million.

World Energy provides energy efficiency, renewable technology and EV charging stations to customers in the New England region. The company offers full-service EVSE installations, including site assessment, planning and installation.

“Some of our largest customers have identified that fleet facility power constraints create a unique and large challenge when trying to charge dozens and even hundreds of vehicles at the same location,” said Tod Hynes, founder and President of XL Fleet. “The team at World Energy is filled with experts that can help solve this problem by incorporating energy efficiency measures and solar power, while integrating EV charging to increase the amount of energy available for fleet vehicle charging. This transaction reflects a highly complementary addition to our XL Grid offering, improving our ability to reduce the total cost of ownership for the charging infrastructure needed to power fleet vehicles.”

“The highly strategic bolt-on acquisition is consistent with our growth strategy and our focus on electrification as a service, and was enabled by our new public platform with more than $400 million of cash,” said Dimitri Kazarinoff, CEO of XL Fleet. “Our customers will greatly benefit from the supplementary energy efficiency services that we will gain with [this] acquisition. World Energy amplifies the value of our XL Grid division by embedding critical charging solutions to deliver energy and cost savings to our customers.”

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EVSE provider Franklin Energy plans to construct a gigantic 236-bay EV charging hub at Brent Cross Shopping Centre in North London. The public charging station will be part of Franklin’s LiFe Network, and will use chargers built by EVBox. Franklin Energy will build the mega-hub in several phases. Initially, fifty 22 kW AC charging points and two 350 kW DC fast chargers will be installed in the shopping centre’s car park. These will be completed by the end of 2021. The company hopes to install the rest of the planned chargers by 2026.

The large shopping destination is located by a major highway interchange, and attracted over 15 million shoppers in 2011. Franklin Energy says the charging hub will

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Image courtesy of EV Box

Franklin Energy plans enormous public charging hub at London shopping center

not only benefit existing customers, but will also provide charging for cars passing by on the nearby M1, A41 and A406 via the North Circular, which saw pre-pandemic traffic levels of about 80 million cars per year.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Electrify Home launches new HomeStation Level 2 charger Electrify Home, the home charging division of Electrify America, has released its fastest Level 2 home charger to date.

The new HomeStation offers 9.6 kW of power at 40 amps, and can be installed in a 40- 32- or 16-amp configuration. Choosing the appropriate amperage may help to avoid an expensive upgrade to a home’s electrical panel.

The new charger is now on sale at the Electrify Home web store for $649.

The HomeStation can be installed indoors or outdoors, and includes a 24-foot charging cable and a 3-year limited warranty. It can be plugged into an existing outlet using a NEMA 14-50 style plug, or hardwired by an electrician. Electrify Home offers third-party installation packages starting at $695.

HomeStation customers will be able to use the Electrify America app for all their home and public charging needs. The HomeStation’s WiFi features let users sync their charger with the app, which can be used to start and stop charging sessions remotely, schedule future charging sessions, and view charging status. Users can keep track of all their charging history—whether at Electrify America’s public network or using the HomeStation—in one app.

Charging management for commercial fleets is one of the hottest topics in the EV world today. So, as Ford stakes out a position in the commercial EV market with its new Ford Pro business unit, it’s only logical that it is seeking to deepen its infrastructure expertise by acquiring Electriphi, a provider of charging management and fleet monitoring software for EVs. Electriphi’s team and services will be integrated into Ford Pro. Silicon Valley-based Electriphi, which has around 30 employees, has developed a purpose-built EV fleet and charging management platform designed to simplify fleet electrification, save energy costs, and track key operational metrics like real-time status of vehicles, chargers and maintenance services.

“As commercial customers add electric vehicles to their fleets, they are looking for depot charging options to make sure they’re powered up and ready to go to work every day,” said Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis. “By adding Electriphi’s existing advanced technology IP to the Ford Pro electric vehicles and services offering, we can enhance the commercial customer experience and become a single-source solution for fleet depot charging challenges.”

Ford sees infrastructure as a major source of future revenue. The company estimates that the depot charging industry will grow to serve some 600,000 full-size trucks and vans by 2030, and hopes to earn $1 billion from charging by that date.

The Electriphi acquisition will come just in time for the launch of electric versions of two of the world’s highest-volume commercial vehicles—the Transit van and F-150 pickup. Ford will start shipping the E-Transit to customers later this year, and plans to make the F-150 Lightning Pro available in spring 2022.

“Customers have been clear—electrification of their fleets is inevitable, with significant economic and sustainability benefits. They now need solutions that enable a seamless transition to electric vehicles,” said Electriphi CEO and co-founder Muffi Ghadiali.

Image courtesy of Ford

Image courtesy of Electrify Home

Ford acquires fleet charging specialist Electriphi

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Image courtesy of BRUGG eConnect

BRUGG eConnect introduces IP69-certified fast charging plug BRUGG eConnect has developed a new plug for EV fast charging. The company says its Compact plug is the world’s first CCS2 charging plug to earn IP69 certification, a very high level of protection against ingress of dust, high temperature and high-pressure water.

CEO Patrick Kern said, “Our fast-charging solutions are already being used for electric trucks. We are currently also working on projects for industrial applications and electrically powered ships. The current charging systems on the market are not sufficient for this. That’s why we are already developing new solutions today.”

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

EV fleets require

guaranteed

up time and zero charging challenges

AMPLY Power’s charging as a service model offers 99.9% uptime, critical to scaling EV deployments

By Charles Morris

leet charging management may not be the most glamorous segment of the EV industry, but it is emerging as an extremely important component of the future EV ecosystem. As commercial fleets electrify, they are finding that they need expert help to design, install and operate their charging infrastructure. During previous tech revolutions, third-party contractors emerged to provide turnkey services to companies for things like data centers and solar installations.

F

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Image courtesy of AMPLY Power

Now innovative companies are meeting the demand for similar services in the fleet charging realm. Charging as a service is the hottest trend in the EVSE world—it offers savings to fleet operators today, and once the nascent technology of V2G takes off, it could offer truly game-changing capabilities for utilities.

Three-year-old AMPLY Power is already providing charging management services to several fleet customers, and the company recently won a high-profile contract to provide managed charging for New York City’s largest pilot of e-school buses, to be operated by Logan Bus, the city’s largest school bus provider.

Charged had a chat with AMPLY CEO Vic Shao.

Q Charged: Could you explain a bit about why the charging as a service model is needed?

A Vic Shao: For new EV fleet operators, charging as a

service can be a difficult concept to wrap their heads around without some sort of comparison to parallel industries, so

when I talk about charging as a service, I typically draw an analogy to solar PPAs [power purchase agreements].

You don’t really find customers anymore that would select solar panels and inverters on their own, hire a construction crew to build a system, then work with the utility directly on the utility interconnect. You would have a solar developer figure out all that for you and install it, and for large enough deployments, you would do a 20-year solar PPA. I also tell the story of data centers. Twenty years ago, large companies would put a whole bunch of server blades into electrical closets, thinking this can’t be that hard—just servers in a closet and away we go. Well, as it turns out, it is a lot more complex than one would imagine—operating system upgrades and antivirus protection and batteries to back up the servers and cooling systems for that closet... all of this mess. So, what ultimately happened, of course, is that everybody started using Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, and just buying the output and leaving all of the complexity to a data center operator.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE Our mission is to provide uptime reliability, mission-critical robustness for charging of electric fleets— buses, trucks, light-duty vehicles, school buses and the like. We have live customers across all of those segments.

I’ve been a long-time clean energy entrepreneur. Prior to AMPLY, I founded and ran a company called Green Charge Networks, which over the span of eight or nine years became the largest distributed energy storage provider in the country. Back in 2016, the company was acquired by a French entity called Engie, which is the largest independent power producer in the world. I went on to head up Engie’s global energy storage practice for a couple of years prior to starting AMPLY. So, the business thesis behind AMPLY is that I simply took what worked for me on my last company with energy storage—and I would argue it’s true for solar, data centers and cloud computing as well—and applied the as-a-service model to charging for fleets. And I believe that this is what’s needed in this market for the industry to scale.

Three big challenges for large EV fleets Q Charged: What are some of the challenges that a

typical fleet manager has to go through as they electrify?

A Vic Shao: By now we’ve touched hundreds of fleets all

across the country, and it seems to always boil down to three major fundamental issues.

The first is the cost of electricity. Fleet operators are used to a scenario with diesel or gasoline, that pricing goes up or down by, let’s say, 20% in a given year. With electricity, it’s fundamentally a much more volatile fuel pricing structure. In California, electricity costs for charging fleets could be up or down 400% in a single day. And there are something like 2,000 electric utilities across the country, all with their own individual tariff structures, time-of-use schedules, demand charge rates and whatnot. So, it’s highly complex—it’s like going to a gas station and it could be $3 a gallon, or it could be $12 a gallon, and it just depends on all of these extenuating circumstances.

Now, if you are a fleet operator, and fueling cost is your second-highest operating expense, right behind drivers, well then, if you don’t know what your costs are going to be next week, next month, next year, you’re going to have a really hard time committing to a large production-scale rollout. You’re kind of stuck in pilot mode, and that’s what we see all the time. A lot of fleets

In California, electricity costs for charging fleets could be up or down 400% in a single day. that have tried electric, they don’t have a path to scale because of this fueling price issue.

The second big issue is that, across these hundreds of fleets that we have touched, we have yet to come across a single fleet that standardizes on one OEM’s products—one make and model of electric vehicle, one charging hardware OEM. Without exception, every single one of them operates a mixed fleet, with mixed vehicle and charging hardware sets. They need to have an operating system that ties all these hardware sets together, that will deliver reliability, charge readiness at the time that they need the vehicles to roll off the lot.

And then the last issue—a big issue—is that it’s not a five-minute fuel-up anymore. No matter how you slice it, it’s going to be several hours of dwell time, so that means, for mission-critical operations, you really need to schedule the charging into the daily workflows of these vehicles.

That means dispatch system integration, telematics integration, back-office ERP [enterprise resource planning] integration.

All three of these problems that I narrated are software-related. It’s not hardware, it’s software-related challenges, so what is required for the industry is an operating system that addresses all these points, and that’s essentially what AMPLY has been working on ever since our founding. We call it a charge management system, and it’s an operating system that tackles all three of these issues

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Images courtesy of AMPLY Power

Without exception, every single one of them operates a mixed fleet, with mixed vehicle and charging hardware sets. They need to have an operating system that ties all these hardware sets together. head-on. And the end output is that for all of our fleets, the charging infrastructure is 99.9% uptime available, robust with failovers and redundancy, and delivering energy savings versus an unmanaged scenario.

Q Charged: What kind of problems do they see

because the vehicles and the charging systems are not standardized to one manufacturer?

A Vic Shao: What we run across all the time is, a charger company with a network-enabled smart charger, during the demo phase with the customer, will say, “Look, you can log into the web portal, you can see that particular charger and what it’s doing in real time, and if you stick the charger into the vehicle, hey, look at that

power spike.” The problem is that it’s completely beside the point. This is like if you’re operating a data center or something, and you’re logging into a particular server blade to see how it’s performing—it’s irrelevant. No fleet operator with 50 or 100 vehicles in their parking lot is actually going to do that on an individual basis.

What you need is a system that operates all of the charging and gets a system-level read on what’s going on. One of the problems with the individualized charger approach is that the charger is giving a particular reading on the state of charge, whereas, in their dispatch system, the expected state of charge is different, or the telematics system is giving them a different reading on various data points. Which one is the truth?

Which one is the valid data point? You can’t dispatch a bus to drive out for the day’s 100-mile routes when you only have 20% state of charge left, so you need to have accuracy.

Another one is a hardware-level example—we encounter this all the time. When you get a product spec on a DC fast charger, oftentimes what’s missing is the audible noise level of that charger. How many decibels at three meters? Now, when you’re installing a couple of chargers in one location, it may not matter all that much. But the kind of projects that AMPLY gets into—we announced a 20-year charging agreement

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

with Anaheim transit last year, with 46 buses and 46 chargers—well, when you have that density, you better believe audible noise is a big deal. So, we would go back and ask the sales rep on that charger, “Hey, your data sheet is missing the audible noise. What is it? Can you tell us?” And the answer is often, I have no idea. In fact, nobody’s even asked that question before.

When you get a product spec on a DC fast charger, oftentimes what’s missing is the audible noise level of that charger. How many decibels at three meters?

Infrastructure planning from day one Q Charged: Let’s say, for example, a school district

wants to deploy some electric school buses. Can you walk me through how your team gets involved with the project and give me the step-by-step?

A Vic Shao: We engage in all different sales cycles. In the

best-case scenario, we get involved upfront, before they even come out with a specification or an RFP, and in those circumstances, we can help them design, help them through the layouts. What is most efficient? What are your routes? How many miles a day? How many days of the week? We get our hands into the design of what they’re trying to accomplish, and that’s the most ideal case. We help them with the design, we help them with mapping out the interfaces with the utilities. Do they have existing capacity, or do they need to go back to the utility for a service upgrade? We walk them through all of that, and then we bid the job. If we win it, then we go through with the implementation and the operations.

However, we get into a lot of situations where the operator already has vehicles on order, they’re arriving in three months, and they haven’t even started on the infrastructure. Infrastructure is still often an afterthought in the marketplace.

In those kinds of situations, we have to do what we have to do to get the customer up and running. It may be too late for us to specify the chargers, and we have to live with whatever is already on order. But we’ve touched enough hardware sets by now that, for the most part, we can operate using our software. We can manage and operate 90% of what’s out there today already—ChargePoint, BTCPower, and so forth. Most of the time, it’s not a huge surprise to us.

However, when we get into a situation where we’re just implementing our software on top of whatever already exists, we can’t fully wrap the project. In other words, we can’t give our customers a performance guarantee on

AMPLY CEO Vic Shao

the operations. The ideal outcome is for us to fully wrap a project, so we can give our customers a performance guarantee of a 99.9% uptime. And we can give them a savings guarantee with managed charging. But if we get engaged late, then a lot of times we can’t guarantee the results.

Q Charged: You announced a project with Palermo,

California school buses that will provide a $1.19 per gallon equivalent. Can you explain how you would help someone optimize for fuel costs? What can you do to drive those costs down over time?

A Vic Shao: We tell the school district, whenever your

drivers get back, just plug in the buses. They’re not going to energize right away, but when they’re needed the next morning, when you need to drive the routes, then these

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Image courtesy of AMPLY Power

Whenever there’s a dip in the power requirements of the building, we use that to charge up the buses opportunistically while still meeting obligations that our vehicles will be charged the next day. buses are going to be charged up, ready to go. So, from the time that they plug in the buses—let’s say 4 or 5 pm—until the next morning when they need to operate, we do a few things. We sequentially charge them as needed, or during the time when energy cost is lowest, when the demand spike in the building is reduced. Whenever there’s a dip in the power requirements of the building, we use that to charge up the buses opportunistically, while still meeting obligations that our vehicles will be charged the next day.

Second thing that we do is, we enroll the customer in grid services and demand-response applications. School buses are actually a perfect case for this. They are usually back and plugged in by the time that the grid really needs that capacity—the 4-to-9-pm window in California in the summertime is when energy is the most expensive. The grid is spiking during that period of time, and it just so happens that all the buses are plugged in and available, so the time-of-day use case is very strongly aligned with school buses.

V2B now, V2G in the future Q Charged: Do you have active fleets that are doing that kind of

demand response, or is this something that will be rolling out in the future?

A Vic Shao: We’re doing that now. In fact, we had a ribbon-cutting ceremo-

ny last week in New York City with a school bus operator called Logan Bus, which is the largest school bus operator in New York City. I think they have something like 2,500 school buses out of 12,000 in New York City. We deployed a very small portion of their fleet just as a start, and on that project, we’re tied in with a demand response [DR] aggregator called CPower, which is going to be dispatching DR for us on that project. So it’s already in place.

Q Charged: So, in those cases, a utility will call the buses to supply

power. And in order to get optimal rates from the utility, do you have to guarantee any kind of capacity at certain times?

A Vic Shao: Correct. We have to guarantee a capacity at a certain time of the

day. The utilities in Con Edison’s territory, in New York City, they typically have 20 or so demand response events, maybe 30 DR events a year in the summer months. So, you enroll in these programs, you get a day-ahead notice for the

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

We can dispatch power from the bus battery to serve the building, to reduce the overall net draw from the grid, but it’s not pumping power back onto the grid. event, and you have to allocate certain hours, 3 or 4 hours at a time, when these assets are going to be available and can be used for demand response purposes. Demand response is not pumping power back onto the grid—it’s just that the building load is reduced. We can dispatch power from the bus battery to serve the building, to reduce the overall net draw from the grid, but it’s not pumping power back onto the grid.

Q Charged: Are there any projects that are looking to pump power to the grid, or is that still in the distant future?

is just the first phase of the Logan Bus project. The hardware set that is in use at Logan Bus is V2G-capable.

Right now we’re not doing V2G, but it’s a demonstration that we can do in the coming months. And I use the word demonstration very carefully here, because it requires participation, not just from AMPLY or Logan Bus, but Con Edison has to be on board for that demonstration in order to make this work.

The utility has to be involved, because when you pump power back onto the grid, it needs to be very carefully thought through. In solar it’s called net metering, when you deliver power back onto the grid. In fleet charging, the term is V2G. And when you spin the meter backwards, when you push power back onto the grid, in Con Edison’s territory, there are network protectors in the distribution lines. When you see a reverse power flow, those network protectors will trip so that it’s not endangering the equipment.

It requires participation from Con Edison for the demonstration, so that we’re not endangering the utility assets, so V2G is very much in a demonstration phase

Images courtesy of AMPLY Power

A Vic Shao: It’s not in a distant future—in fact, the DR

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That bad charging scenario doesn’t need to happen too many times for the fleet operators to go, well, this technology is just too new, it’s not reliable, and I better go back to fossil fuels. all for the purpose of resiliency.

99.9% uptime Q Charged: After you help a school district electrify,

what do you do in the next 10 years for that operation?

right now. There are no production V2G programs out there in existence, but the equipment that we have deployed is capable.

Q Charged: Do you ever deploy stationary storage

in these systems?

A Vic Shao: Stationary storage is the world that I came from—prior to AMPLY, I founded and ran a stationary energy storage company, so it’s a topic that I know really well. For AMPLY, stationary storage is an option for our customers, for resiliency and backup purposes. For mission-critical operations the question is, if the grid goes out, are we screwed? Can we still get service? And the answer is yes, we can install a stationary storage system for you, to tide you over, but it’s not going to be a full fleet—it’s going to be a select handful of vehicles that you can still continue to operate on an emergency basis.

And in those cases, we typically would also pair stationary storage with a solar installation, so that the stationary battery can refill itself when the sun is shining. Again, it’s

A Vic Shao: We provide the customer with 24/7 support.

We are monitoring all of the chargers in real time. We’re seeing their performance. We’re seeing exceptions. For example, for plug-in chargers, we are seeing across the board with our customers that 5% of the time, the guy sticking the plug into the vehicle doesn’t fully insert the plug all the way, so the vehicle cannot energize. In those circumstances we send automatic text alerts, we notify the folks on site: Please go back to bus number one and reinsert. Because what happens without that monitoring is that the morning-shift driver comes in and notices that the bus is not charged, and they’re scrambling to find a replacement vehicle. That bad charging scenario doesn’t need to happen too many times for the fleet operators to go, well, this technology is just too new, it’s not reliable, and I better go back to fossil fuels.

That’s the last thing that we want the customer to experience, so proactive alerting, monitoring, energy management is huge. We monitor the load at the meter— exactly what the utility meter sees, we see in real time. The customer doesn’t experience demand charges, we manage the charging so that the profile at the building is as flat as possible, so we get the lowest cost of energy. When there is a hardware problem, we know about it before the customer does, and we try to remotely troubleshoot, diagnose, triage the situation. As a last resort, if we can’t bring it back up remotely, we will roll a service technician to the site, get that charger fixed or replaced if necessary.

Uptime is something that we take very seriously. We have been benchmarking our uptime availability ever since the very first customer went live a year and a half ago. So today we’re very proud of the fact that we’re at 99.9% uptime on all of the chargers that we manage across our customer base.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

FOUR OF FIVE NEW-CAR BUYERS CAN CHARGE EVS AT HOME

A recent survey of new-car buyers suggests four of five will be able to charge an EV at home—making it even more critical that they understand how charging is actually done

By John Voelcker

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f projections from major carmakers are to be believed, the bulk of electric cars that will travel on US roads in 2026 haven’t been sold yet. Over the next five years, EV sales are expected to rise steadily, surpassing in five years the 1.4 million sold in the previous 10 years.

The industry and the journalists who cover it often focus on the 17 million new vehicles sold each year in the US, not the roughly 40 million sold as used cars.

But as EV percentages grow, those new vehicles will contribute the bulk of the demand for EV charging by 2026—not the used ones.

To understand how and where those new EVs will be charged, we need to look at the people who will buy them—and not the much larger pool of US drivers overall.

Buyers of any new vehicle occupy the upper end of the economic scale. With the economic impact of the Covid pandemic unequally distributed—those at the bottom end of the economy were affected far more than the professionals who found they could work from home—that trend has only increased.

And those buyers are now willing to pay more for their vehicles. With income from working during lockdown that they couldn’t spend on vacations or meals out, plus limited supply of new vehicles due to chip shortages, fully 40 percent of new-vehicle shoppers would pay up to $5,000 over sticker price to get the vehicle they want, according to a Cox Automotive study last month.

The result is that new cars have gotten steadily more expensive, and at a faster rate. The average transaction price of a brand-new vehicle sold in April was $40,768, according to Kelley Blue Book.

As the industry tries to predict the charging behavior of all those new EV drivers, data from a 2013 study published by Carnegie Mellon (CMU) is sometimes used to suggest overnight home charging is only suitable for a small number of Americans.

While it’s certainly not suitable for all EV buyers, a new survey suggests at-home charging will be a much larger part of the total than suggested by the CMU study. And that understanding makes it even more crucial to address the lack of awareness of home charging among potential EV buyers identified in the J.D. Power 2021 EV Home Charging Study.

I

To understand how and where those new EVs will be charged, we need to look at the people who will buy them—and not the much larger pool of US drivers overall.

(Those buyers will still have to be educated on the different types of EV charging, how each works, and where they’re found—but that’s a topic for another time.)

The conventional wisdom is wrong Those who study and project EV charging behaviors may look to the CMU study published in 2013, US residential charging potential for electric vehicles. In particular, the following data from the summary are often quoted as conventional wisdom: “While approximately 79 percent [of] households have off-street parking for at least some of their vehicles, only an estimated 56 percent of vehicles have a dedicated off-street parking space—and only 47 percent at an owned residence.

“Approximately 22 percent [of] vehicles currently have access to a dedicated home parking space within reach of an outlet sufficient to recharge a small plugin vehicle battery pack overnight.”

The calculation that 78 percent of US vehicles are unable to charge at home is often cited verbatim. It does not take into account that adding a new outlet or charging station to a garage can be a simple modification, though it isn’t always. (My garage fell into that 78 percent until I added a circuit for a Level 2 charging station—at roughly the same cost as adding an electric clothes dryer and its circuit.)

The number of plausible dedicated home-parking spaces throughout the US where charging is practical is likely somewhere between the pessimistic 22 percent and the 79 percent number for “off-street parking for at least some of their vehicles.”

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But a glaring nuance has been entirely lost in using data from the CMU study. That paper covers all households in the US—not the smaller subset of households lived in by the people who actually buy new vehicles.

Americans who can afford new cars can charge at home Looking at new data that surveys only those who can afford new vehicles today, it turns out that four of five of those households have dedicated off-street parking— right at the high end of the CMU number for “off-street parking for at least some of their vehicles.”

That percentage is likely a proxy for household income: the higher your income, the more likely you are to live in a single-family home with its own driveway.

The data is from the Escalent EVForward 2021 study, which surveyed 10,000 respondents chosen to reflect all types of current new-vehicle buyers.

Parking at Home An Opportunity for EV Charging The garage continues to be the most common place that vehicle intenders park their vehicle when at home, followed by the driveway.

With 84% of respondents owning their home, the 88% that park in either their garage or driveway show both the potential and importance of home charging for EV adoption.

In my own garage 33% 5%

56% 30% 5%

Parking garage/ structure

3%

4%

On the street

3%

3%

Some other place at my residence

They included a small number of existing EV owners—2 percent or less, given the current low sales rate—and some EV-curious and EV intenders, but also EV haters, the utterly disinterested, and everyone in between. No new-vehicle buyers were excluded.

55%

Driveway at my residence Parking lot

Q3 Where do you typically park your (#V1) at home?

2020

2021

2%

2%

47

Of that survey group, 84 percent said they owned their own home. 55 percent said they would be able to charge in their garage, and another 33 percent in their driveway. Those percentages are slightly higher than they were in the 2020 survey, which may indicate

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But new-car shoppers, per the J.D. Power study, still don’t know they’ll charge the bulk of their EV miles at home.

increasing affluence among new-vehicle buyers, as average transaction prices continue to climb.

Large numbers of those households will likely have to add a 120-volt outlet or 240-volt Level 2 charging station in or on their garages. But buyers who pay an average of $40,000 for a new vehicle will be far more capable of covering that cost than those living in rented apartments or townhouses.

And with today’s longer-range EVs, the need for a “full charge” every night is reduced. Christian Ruoff, Publisher of Charged, notes that his family has charged its Tesla Model Y in the driveway via a 120-volt plug for more than a year now. They’ll upgrade “eventually,” he says, but it just doesn’t seem necessary when they average only 30 or 40 miles a day.

Once in a while, he noted, he charges the car more fully at a nearby DC fast charging site. Otherwise, that 120-volt socket works fine—adding 40 miles over 10 hours each night—for a long-range EV used for only 250 miles a week. And that may be how many new EV drivers start.

Older houses, or those built under more lax local building codes, may not yet have 200-amp service from the curb, which allows an EV to charge at 240 volts while the rest of the house is operating at full demand.

That requires more effort and cost. But those in newer suburbs won’t have any problem.

Street-parkers, apartment-dwellers, and used-EV buyers have it rougher This is not in any way to ignore the very real challenges of charging an electric car for drivers who lack dedicated off-street parking. They include those living in apartment buildings, townhouses with grouped parking areas, and older city neighborhoods with curbside parking.

Over time, used EVs will come into their own as affordable transport with low running costs, if buyers can charge conveniently. This generates significant questions of equity and fairness, which require policies that specifically site public-charging infrastructure in disadvantaged or dense urban neighborhoods for residents who drive but cannot charge at home.

Still, the millions of buyers who will add new EVs to the US fleet over the next five or 10 years represent the low-hanging fruit for electric utilities—which love the idea of selling more kilowatt-hours overnight, during their lowest-demand hours, for very low additional capital investment.

But new-car shoppers, per the J.D. Power study, still don’t know they’ll charge the bulk of their EV miles at home. That makes it doubly important that automakers create effective, pervasive, targeted programs to explain at-home charging and make it easily and seamlessly available.

If that doesn’t happen, all the fast charging in the world won’t make a difference, because those potential EV buyers will view charging an EV as akin to buying gasoline, only at “a charging station” somewhere else—and they may think they have to do it every day or two, and it’ll take a lot longer than filling the tank.

In other words, overnight home charging will be a big deal—and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

MAY/JUN 2021

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Home charging can be another infrastructure hurdle to clear

By Charles Morris outlay was only a few hundred bucks. ore and more drivers are getting interested in EVs, Horror story: My brother-in-law, who lives in Switzerland, but the first question they ask always has to do with has a detached garage across the driveway from his house, and charging infrastructure. This often causes early the garage doesn’t have an adequate circuit installed. Adding a adopters to roll their eyes: “What are you worried about?

Level 2 charger would mean ripping up paving tiles, digging a Charging couldn’t be simpler, and it’s one of the joys of drivtrench and running some 50 meters of conduit, in addition to ing electric—we plug in at night, and wake up in the morning upgrading his panel. He was quoted a price north of $10,000, with a full battery.” and (quelle horreur!) opted not to buy an EV. Alas, for many drivers, things aren’t so rosy. In past Ho-hum story: Many EV buyers start out using Level 1 columns, we’ve pondered the problems faced by car owners charging, and some eventually decide that it works fine. who don’t have any place to install a home charger, and we’ve Charged Publisher Christian Ruoff brought his new Model bemoaned the pitiful state of public charging at length.

Y home, and found that his electrical panel would need an However, there’s another charging challenge that hasn’t upgrade to install a Level 2 charger. However, after a year of been getting much press, and it’s one that even many suburTesla ownership, he’s found that Level 1 charging, via a plain ban homeowners have to face. Many homes, especially older old 120-volt outlet in his garage, works great for his needs—he ones, simply don’t have the electrical capacity to install a Level doesn’t have a long commute, and he can add about 40 miles 2 charger. This is a solvable problem, but making the necesby charging just 10 hours at night (thanks to Tesla’s supersary upgrades requires the services of a licensed electrician, efficient 28 kWh/100 mile EPA rating). He stopped at a local and in some cases, it can be shockingly expensive.

Supercharger just once in the Home chargers aren’t that past year, to top off before a pricey—$500 will get you a perlonger trip. fectly good one (just make sure California and other forwardFor those who really do need it’s UL- or ETL-listed)—and Level 2 charging at home, there most installations won’t take an looking regions are now requiring are workarounds. A company electrician more than a couple new construction to have enough called NeoCharge makes a of hours. The problem arises electrical capacity at the panel to handy UL-listed gadget called when upgrades to the building’s support future EV charging, but we the Smart Splitter, which allows electrical panel and/or incomalso need solutions for older houses. you to safely split an existing ing service are required.

240-volt circuit, so it can serve A Level 2 EV charger rea Level 2 charger as well as an quires installation on its own existing appliance. And of course, if you don’t mind a little indedicated 240-volt circuit, and owners of older houses will convenience, you can always unplug the dryer and plug in the often find that there’s not enough physical room and/or curcar (most new EVs come with a Level 1/2 portable charger). rent capacity in their electrical panel, especially if the home In the larger scheme of things, however, we do have a probis using a few other 240 V appliances (electric clothes dryers, lem here. Driving electric needs to be more convenient than ranges, water heaters, etc). driving fossil, not less. California and other forward-looking A circuit panel upgrade can be costly—we’ve recently seen regions are now requiring new construction to be “EV-capaquotes in Florida that ranged from $2,000 to over $5,000 to ble” (enough electrical capacity at the panel to support future upgrade from a 150 A to a 200 A panel, plus an additional EV charging), but we also need solutions for older houses. $900-$1,200 to add a new 240-volt circuit for the EVSE. Even A federal tax credit for home EVSE has been extended worse, if the building’s electrical service (the wires coming through December 31, 2021. This offers a tax credit of 30% of into the house from the utility) is inadequate for the addithe cost of purchasing and installing an EV charging station tional load, you could be looking at a Hummer-size hassle, (up to $1,000 for residential installations and up to $30,000 involving a service call from the utility in addition to all of the for commercial). This should be extended and (like the credit above. for EV purchases) it should be changed to a point-of-purchase Happy story: I was one of the lucky ones. I upgraded my cash rebate. panel years ago when I installed a new AC, and there was Local utilities, which are generally keen to encourage EV room to add a new 240-volt circuit. I got a basic Level 2 ownership these days, should waive any fees for upgrading a charger from ClipperCreek, which has worked perfectly for home’s electrical service, make the process as hassle-free as a several years. A friend who’s a licensed electrician did a possible, and publicize all the available incentives. neat, code-compliant installation for a bargain price. My total

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C

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MY

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