Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Switching-Cell-Array-based Power Electronics conversion for future electric vehicles

Project description

Standardising power conversion systems for tomorrow’s electric vehicles

The design of power conversion systems for electric vehicles (EVs) varies across different models and types of vehicles. This lack of standardisation leads to significant investment costs for manufacturers to develop custom solutions, inhibiting economies of scale. To address this, the EU-funded SCAPE project will use a modular approach to develop standardised and scalable power converters with enhanced performance. To do so, it will develop an interconnectable compact module that can be assembled with others to form power converters suitable for EVs of various sizes. This scalable solution is expected to streamline development, reduce manufacturing costs and accelerate consumer adoption of more affordable and reliable EVs.

Objective

In power electronics, the traditional design approach of power converters involves a range of power semiconductor devices with different ratings, optimized to operate at different conditions, where different suitable ancillary circuitry and power circuit topologies are also required. This dispersion in power devices and circuits leads to significant engineering efforts, the inability to take full advantage from scale economies to reduce costs, and the inability to concentrate efforts to improve performance. In the electric vehicle (EV) market, this is translated to a lack of standardization on the EV power conversion system designs across the different models and types of vehicles available, meaning that nowadays EV OEMs invest billions of euros to develop their own solutions.
SCAPE aims at achieving three main objectives: i) propose a standardisable, modular, and scalable approach, based on multilevel technology, for the design of the EV power conversion systems ii) develop highly-compact and integrated building-block implementation. iii) propose intelligent modulation and control strategies, online diagnosis, and digital twin for predictive maintenance with machine learning. Reaching these objectives will enable reducing the cost of the EV power electronics thanks to scale economies, improving its performance features (reliability, efficiency, power density, etc.), and enabling advanced functionalities.
This will allow satisfying the user’s needs, increase the acceptance and affordability of zero-emission vehicles, reduce green-house gasses emission, and enable a full-market penetration of the EV. Having this approach adopted by EU automotive manufacturers will allow creating a cost-efficient production chain in the EU based on economies of scale and advanced integration technologies, as a competitive advantage against other manufacturers.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL5-2021-D5-01

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

FUNDACIO INSTITUT DE RECERCA EN ENERGIA DE CATALUNYA
Net EU contribution
€ 1 111 418,50
Address
C/ JARDINS DE LES DONES DE NEGRE 1
08930 Sant Adria De Besos
Spain
Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 1 111 418,50

Participants (9)