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LATEST NEWS / PROJECTS / SiC / WBGTianjin Economic-Technological Development Area Inked Investment Agreement with Vitesco Technologies
March 8, 2024
1 Min ReadTianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) inked an investment agreement with Vitesco Technologies for a new project for NEV intelligent manufacturing and automotive electronic products. With the new project, Vitesco aims to strengthen its presence in TEDA by introducing new products such as silicon carbide power modules, 800V motor stators and rotors, EMR3 three-in-one axle drive systems, high-voltage inverters, battery control units, and gearbox controllers.
Vitesco Technologies is a global leader in automotive technology development and manufacturing, dedicated to providing advanced driving technology for sustainable mobility. Vitesco Technologies has been cooperating with TEDA for many years.
The establishment of its R&D center in TEDA in 2019 marks a major step forward in the NEV market, upgrading the Vitesco Tianjin Base into a super factory integrating R&D, testing, and production. Thomas Stierle, member of the Executive Board and head of Electrification Solutions Division of Vitesco Technologies, expressed confidence in China, Tianjin, and TBNA. He stated that Vitesco Technologies will continue to increase its investment in TBNA and deepen cooperation in manufacturing R&D and technological innovation.
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Vitesco Technologies is preparing the series application of its High Voltage Box. The modular system makes charging, converting and distributing electricity in electric vehicles cheaper by integrating several functions in one unit, depending on the design.
This includes the vehicle On-Board Charger for AC charging on the grid with up to 22 kW of charging power, a DC current converter providing the current for the 12 V vehicle net, and power electronics which distribute high voltage power in the vehicle and facilitate fast DC-charging with up to 800 V.
Owed to the high level of mechatronic integration, the High Voltage Box has smaller space requirements to the vehicle while increasing the total system reliability in comparison to individual devices. State-of-the art silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors boost charging efficiency to over 95 percent which lowers the vehicle owner’s electricity bill. This efficiency level is particularly beneficial for car owners because electric vehicles are frequently charged on the grid.
Due to the high AC charging rate of up to 22 kW the High Voltage Box charges the car with 200 km of range in under two hours. DC high-power charging with up to 800 V achieves the same range in 12 minutes. The sophisticated power electronics ensure that this system offers electrical safety as well as efficiency.
On a day-to-day level, charging, energy conversion and power distribution are just as relevant for a driver’s satisfaction with a vehicle as driving itself is. With our High Voltage Box, we integrate these core tasks of energy management into one efficient and compact unit. This integration makes electrification on a large scale and at low cost easier.
Thomas Stierle, Member of the Executive Board and head of the Electrification Solutions division of Vitesco Technologies
Today, the so-called On-Board Charger (OBC) for charging with alternating current (AC) on the grid is a separate device in the vehicle. This OBC inverts grid power to direct current (DC) that can be fed to the high voltage battery. Another separate device is the DC/DC converter which provides direct current from the high voltage battery to the 12 V power net – or it boosts 12 V to high voltage DC. A power electronics unit distributes high voltage current within the vehicle (hence: Power Distribution Unit, PDU). In addition, these electronics can be designed to allow DC charging with up to 800 V at high power charging points. All those components need to be connected, they require a housing, installation space, and cooling.
The modular and scalable High Voltage Box makes it easier to cover two or more of these functions with a single device. SiC technology is used to minimize the conversion losses of the unit:
A high level of efficiency brings the car owner’s electricity bill down and contributes to sustainability.
Christian Preis, Head of Base Development Energy Transformation at Vitesco Technologies
Within the modular design Vitesco Technologies covers all relevant European and worldwide grid topologies. The High Voltage Box was developed to support modular vehicle adaptation for the global market. At the same time, Vitesco Technologies is driving new functions ahead. The High Voltage Box for one of the two series applications will already function bidirectionally so that it can supply alternating current with 230 V from the DC battery current when this is required.
This puts vehicle owners in the comfortable position to make versatile use of their large battery. For instance, if they wish to use power tools far away from the grid, or if they want to feed electricity to the grid which they have charged earlier from their own photovoltaic system. “In the future, this option to stabilize the grid will continue to gain importance “, Preis adds. The company’s experts are advancing the necessary standard for this in key committees and are thus part of the decision-making process about development trends.
In the future the High Voltage Box with bidirectional function can also make it possible to power a whole house from the High Voltage Battery during a blackout. This is an option because batteries in vehicles have a much bigger capacity than most of the batteries typically installed in private homes.
Original – Vitesco Technologies
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Vitesco Technologies is developing a power module which will be manufactured using transfer molding process. During this process the power electronics are sealed under a dielectric material that protects the components extremely well. The result is a very robust, cost effective and reliable electronic. The power module consists of three overmolded half-bridges and forms the core of an inverter system, which controls both the drive energy and the energy recovery (recuperation) in high-voltage electric vehicles.
Manufactured at the Nuremberg electronics plant, the power modules will be delivered to a large global car maker from mid-2025 onwards.
Vitesco Technologies has been adapting and utilizing transfer molding technology since 2020, first applying it to compact Transmission Control Units designed for full integration inside a gear box.
The overmold power modules now combine highly efficient state-of-the art silicon carbide (SiC) chip technology with overmolding to facilitate a particularly robust product with increased power density, lower cost and reduced weight.
These power modules are a good example of strategic approach of using the scalability and modularity of our power electronics to develop and manufacture submodules in addition to the complete electronics. Combined with extensive overmolding expertise, Vitesco can deliver an extremely robust product to our customers. This is yet another example of how the company successfully transfers proven technology to an electrification product.
- Thomas Stierle, member of the board and head of Vitesco Technologies’ Electrification Solutions division
Vitesco Technologies has extensive expertise in power electronics and is already on the market with its fourth generation. The newly developed overmold power module expands the company’s strategic portfolio.
A very deep system competence is necessary to ensure that a sub-module of this kind, which forms the core of the inverter, can be successfully integrated into the full system. Our degree of electronics modularity and scalability enables us to offer more flexibility in terms of customer-specific interfaces.
- Michael Horbel, head of product and platform management high voltage inverter at Vitesco Technologies
Vitesco Technologies will continue to use this strength to bring further electronic sub-modules to the market.
The lead plant for these modules is Vitesco Technologies’ Nuremberg site. With its existing competencies and experience, the plant offers a high degree of automation as well as the focus on electronics and e-mobility required for the power modules. This is a further step forward into the “Plant of the Future” concept, defined for the Nuremberg plant to maintain its international competitiveness.
Original – Vitesco Technologies
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Vitesco Technologies has honored the exemplary performance of six of its around 17,000 suppliers worldwide. The awards were presented to suppliers of production and non-production materials for the 2022 fiscal year.
The award ceremony took place at the Sorat Hotel in Regensburg on July 20, 2023. Andreas Wolf, CEO of Vitesco Technologies, and Peter Reidegeld, head of Purchasing & Supplier Quality Management, presented the awards to the representatives of the international suppliers. This was the second Supplier of the Year award ceremony at Vitesco Technologies, after the award was presented for the first time last year.
Winners of the 2022 Supplier of the Year award
The Supplier of the Year award is divided into four categories: in addition to the categories Passionate, Partnering and Pioneering – reflecting the corporate values of Vitesco Technologies – the manufacturer of sustainable drive solutions also presents a quality award for special achievements in product and supply chain quality.
- Passionate:
Mansfield Group from Dongguan City, PR China (stamped parts)
- Partnering:
ASIMCO Sealing Technologies from Nanjing, PR China (customized rubber seals)
ROHM from Kyoto, Japan (semiconductors)
- Pioneering:
Ningbo Yunsheng from Ningbo, PR China (magnets)
STX Group from Amsterdam, Netherlands (sustainability certificates)
- Quality award:
TDK Electronics from Munich, Germany (sensors)
Original – Vitesco Technologies
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Vitesco Technologies, a leading international manufacturer of modern drive technologies and electrification solutions, has secured strategically important capacities in energy-efficient silicon carbide power semiconductors through a long-term supply partnership with ROHM – worth over one billion US dollars until 2030. The development partnership with the manufacturer ROHM, which began in 2020, created the basis for the supply partnership now signed in Regensburg. Vitesco Technologies’ advanced inverters with integrated ROHM SiC chips will be adopted by two customers, to be applied inside electric vehicle powertrains. Vitesco Technologies will start supplying a first series project as early as 2024. The company is thus even ahead of the originally targeted timeline.
SiC devices enable the design of particularly efficient power electronics, such as those needed for electric car inverters. SiC chips are a key technology, particularly for high voltages and for vehicles with demanding range targets and optimum overall efficiency. During the existing development partnership with ROHM the relevant SiC chips were further optimized for use in automotive inverters starting in 2024.
Silicon carbide belongs to the so-called wide bandgap semiconductors, whose wide bandgap (simplified: the energy gap between the non-conductive state and the conductive state of the electrons in the material) enables lower electrical resistance, fast and low loss switching chips for power electronics. At the same time, SiC chips are more thermally resistant, so that the power density of electronics can be increased.
Thanks to these features, SiC electronics have reduced conversion losses compared to conventional silicon (Si). Especially at high voltage levels such as 800 V, SiC inverters are more efficient than Si models. Since 800 V is the prerequisite for fast and thus convenient high-voltage charging, SiC devices are at the beginning of a worldwide boom. Reduced conversion losses in the inverter are also significant for the overall efficiency of electric driving and thus for range. Competition for sufficient capacities in components made of this high-tech material is correspondingly fierce.
Original – Vitesco Technologies
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Vitesco Technologies and onsemi announced a 10-year long-term supply agreement worth $1.9 billion (€1.75 billion) for silicon carbide (SiC) products to enable Vitesco Technologies’ ramp in electrification technologies. Vitesco Technologies, a leading international manufacturer of modern drive technologies and electrification solutions, is providing an investment of $250 million (€230 million) to onsemi for new equipment for SiC boule growth, wafer production and epitaxy to secure access to SiC capacity.
The equipment will be used to produce SiC wafers to support Vitesco Technologies’ growing SiC demand. In parallel, onsemi, a leader in intelligent power and sensing technologies, will continue to invest substantially into end-to-end SiC supply chain.
In addition, Vitesco Technologies and onsemi will collaborate on optimized customer solutions for Vitesco Technologies. onsemi’s highly efficient EliteSiC MOSFETs will be used by Vitesco Technologies to execute the recent orders as well as future projects for traction inverters and electric vehicle drives.
SiC semiconductors are a pivotal technology for electrification enabling highly efficient power electronics leading to reduced charging times and longer range for electric cars. Especially at high voltage levels such as 800 V, SiC inverters are more efficient than silicon models. Since 800 V is the prerequisite for fast and thus convenient high-voltage charging, SiC devices are at the beginning of a worldwide boom.
Original – Vitesco Technologies
