Review of Electric Vehicle Powertrain Technologies with OEM Perspective

Electric vehicle technologies have rapid growth by the development of the multitude solutions at component and subsystem level. Compared to technology level in year 2010, automotive technologies have entered a new era similar to industry 4.0. On the other hand, understanding the benefits and trade-offs of the new technologies have crucial importance for the development and life cycle of the electric vehicle. Beside the development challenges, automotive manufactures need to manage the complexity of the solutions and find the optimal technologies that fulfil the requirements for the target market vs. development cost. In this study, the recent technologies and system integration issues of electric vehicles are reviewed. Electric vehicle control unit and application software modules are reviewed with respect to vehicle performance. System level problems including the functional safety, motor insulation aging, bearing currents and electric powertrain vibrations are reviewed with application aspects. Electric axle topologies and trends in non-rare earth and reduced rare earth motors are also discussed. Technology trends in traction inverters and motors are compared with trends in industrial inverters and motors. Future technology trends in automotive inverters and motors are estimated. Importance of post-crash diagnostic analysis of electric vehicle components is also highlighted for aftersales services of electric vehicles.