PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Ten years on…
It is 10 years now since the
Chinese government started
pushing for vehicle electrification,
particularly the rolling stock in the
country’s mega-cities. And the
move has been quite a success
story, with 99% of the global
electrified bus stock – close to
400,000 units – operating on
Chinese city roads by the
end of 2017.
It has taken Europe a little
longer to move, but in the
summer of 2019 the
European Parliament
established binding
regulations that will force
lorry manufacturers to reduce
CO2 emissions from new heavy
commercial vehicles by an average
of 15% from 2025 compared to 2019-
2020, and then by 30% from 2030.
Emission-free and low-emission
vehicles will fall under a supercredits
system until 2024, and by the
following year manufacturers must
also ensure that zero-emission or
low-emission vehicles account for
at least 2% of all new vehicles sold.
On top of that, EU member states
have been set binding targets for
using emission-free commercial
vehicles in public procurement.
For example, Germany must
procure at least 38.5% emissionfree
vehicles from public orders
of light commercial vehicles. The
figure is 10% for heavy commercial
vehicles (15% from 2026) and for
buses it is 45% (65% from 2026).
Semikron, a leading supplier
of power electronics equipment,
has been providing products for
vehicle electrification for more than
25 years. Starting with materialhandling
applications such as
forklifts in the 1990s, Semikron has
since equipped more than 1.5 million
vehicles for material handling and
beyond 200,000 passenger cars
with power electronic products.
The company has also
contributed significantly to the
electrification of Chinese city buses,
shipping more than 50,000 traction
inverters from the SKAI2HV product
family. Since 2013, these inverters
have accumulated more than one
billion field-operating hours.
The resulting field data underlines
the fundamental advantages of
the solder-free assembly of power
semiconductors as incorporated
in SKAI2HV inverters. The lack of
solder joints in the SKAI2HV power
semiconductor assembly enables
the product to fulfil the challenging
requirements for load power cycling,
which is a direct consequence of
the continuous accelerations and
decelerations that take place in
city bus drive cycles.
Since the end of 2018, the second
edition of the automotive functional
safety standard ISO26262 has
applied to the development
162 // January 2020 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
programs of commercial vehicles
with a gross weight of more than
3.5 tons. The manufacturers of
electrified commercial vehicles
have analyzed their vehicle hazards
and risks for potential failures.
To mitigate those risks, the
suppliers of key components such
as the traction inverter are now
– depending on the chosen vehicle
safety concept – often requested
to add certain safety requirements
into their product specifications.
Semikron has prepared itself
for these extended requirements
and is now jointly customizing its
SKAI products in accordance with
customers’ individual safety goals.
Consequently, Semikron certifies
its quality management system
and software development process
in accordance to IATF16949 and
Automotive Spice, respectively. All
process items of the Automotive
Spice standard fully coincide
with the ISO26262 development
process steps.
Since launch, the SKAI2HV
product family has been available on
di erent integration levels to align it
with customer needs. These levels
comprise variants with a gate driver
interface, which o ers direct control
of power semiconductor switching
signals, or a CAN-bus interface. The
required motor control software for
the latter is o ered by Semikron,
but might also be proprietary to
the customer.
Semikron will contribute to the
European vehicle decarbonization
program, and the additional
challenges introduced by the new
ISO26262:2018 will be covered by
the SKAI products that have been
proven in use in China since 2013.
Lessons learned in China over the past decade can help
as the European Union pushes truck and bus electrification
Semikron has shipped more than
50,000 traction inverters from the
SKAI2HV product family for use in
China’s growing fl eet of electric buses
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