Compact, Smart and Reliable Drive Unit for Fully Electric Vehicles

The project ‘COSIVU’ aims at new system architectures for drive-train by developing a smart, compact and durable single-wheel drive unit with integrated electric motor, compact transmission, full SiC power electronics (switches and diodes), a novel control and health monitoring module with wireless communication, and an advanced ultra-compact cooling solution. The advances over the current state of the art can be summarized as follows:

• Decentralized drive-train system with one compact system package and wireless communication between drive units and central computer
• Development of next generation of highly integrated inverter modules based on novel SiC technology (1200V, 500A)
• Fail safe concepts for increased functional safety
• Closed hardware-in-the-loop technology to always guarantee optimal working conditions
• Innovative functional and health monitoring
• Improvement of durability and total driving range by factor 2
• COSIVU solution demonstrated and proofed in a test rig, and In-vehicle tests