At its Tech Day 2023 event, Volkswagen Group Technology (the OEM’s group-wide technology supplier) provided an outlook on its upcoming battery, charging, and electronic component innovations that will help support the Group’s future EVs.
The focus of this outlook revolved around the development of a new electric drive system, through which the OEM will develop and produce its central components. At the same time, in addition to developing batteries and electric motors in-house, the supplier will now develop pulse inverters and thermal management systems internally. In developing the full system itself, Volkswagen expects to benefit from enhanced efficiency, improved scalability, and reduced system costs.
In enhancing the pulse inverter, Volkswagen’s developers fully redesigned its hardware and software. Here, a modular toolkit principle allows it to be implemented across a variety of new EVs – from entry-level EVs to sports models with an output exceeding 670 hp (500 kW). The technology is currently being developed for series production maturity and can already be used in the next generation of the OEM’s MEB platform.
A similar approach is being taken by the OEM to thermal management systems, with Volkswagen working on entirely new solutions. In the future, the individual modules and long hose connections used in its systems today will be replaced by a compact, integrated, thermal module. This module will control the entire air conditioning system, including for the high-voltage battery – enhancing the vehicle’s range and fast-charging capabilities in turn. The new module is also lighter, more robust, and more efficient when compared to the systems used today.
