As a pioneer of electrification, the company has already supplied products for more than two million electrified vehicles
Regensburg – Vitesco Technologies’ clear electrification strategy, which was communicated at an early stage, meets rapidly growing global market demands. The company covers all applications with its technology mix for all key performance classes, from 48-volt to high-voltage drives.
“We are among the pioneers of drive electrification, we’ve got outstanding systems expertise and we make electrification compatible with the mass market, and affordable. Our extensive industrialization expertise gives our customers security on the way to large-scale production. We have demonstrated this both at 48-volt and at high voltages.“ – Thomas Stierle, Executive Vice President Electrification Technology business unit
With mild 48-volt hybridization, Vitesco Technologies is a pioneer, who delivered the first 48-volt systems back in 2016, building on experience of similar 42-volt technologies, that went into global volume production in 2006.
The actual growth is still in the starting blocks, as the legal pressure to reduce CO2 emissions from whole fleets and the requirements for reducing emissions are continuing to increase. The economical 48-volt systems help to save fuel by 10 to 20 percent depending on the application and driving distance.
Vitesco Technologies already produces the integrated electrical final drive EMR3 – a compact, lightweight and high-performance combination of electric motor, inverter and reduction gear – for more than five manufacturers and for over 20 different vehicle models. Since the end of 2019, the company has delivered over 150,000 of these units. Another pioneering achievement: Electric vehicles with integrated electrical final drive received several awards last year for their good driving performance, price-performance ratio and energy efficiency.
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FROM VISION TO HIGH-VOLUME MARKET
The current market success – despite the ongoing Corona virus pandemic – was made possible by an early strategic orientation. The EMR3 high-voltage axle drive has a modular design and responds to the common market requirements in a solution that can be integrated into the vehicle at an attractive cost: The 3-in-1 system, consisting of an electric motor, inverter and reducer, offers the best possible performance values in terms of installation space, weight, performance, and costs in the performance class of 100 kW to 150 kW.
“This is currently the strongest demand on the market, and with the EMR3 we have set our first focus in this volume sector. The response has been positive. We’re now expanding the production capacity for the EMR3 created in 2019 for the second time.“ – Hilko Hakvoort, Head of the High-Voltage Drives product line in the Electrification Technology business unit
In order to successfully serve the growth that is kicking off in electrification, three strengths have been implemented in the drive portfolio for the volume market: “Consistent modularization makes it possible to scale drives economically for many types of vehicles and to reduce costs in both design and manufacturing,” explains Katharina Helten, head of Mechanical Modules for Electric Drives.
Progress in efficiency in the active parts contributes to driving pleasure and greater range. Also, the current range of performance requirements for high-voltage drives will become even more scalable in the future with 60 kW to 200 kW. There is also still potential for the energy efficiency of the drive system.
Both 48-volt and high-voltage systems benefit from the increasing quantities at Vitesco Technologies, as many basic requirements apply to both voltages. Here, the technological mix has repeatedly proven to be a source of synergies.
