C h a p t e r 6
How do commercial vehicles
differ from consumer vehicles?
Commercial vehicles require higher system
voltages and experience a far higher number
hours in operation than passenger cars.
Additionally, reliability is essential in any
commercial vehicle, especially because a
vehicle's commercial value is dependent on its
uptime; repair work results in monetary loss.
Industrial applications such as mining and
construction add challenging requirements
regarding vibrations to the design.
What are the most common
types of power semiconductors
found in commercial EVs?
Commercial vehicles have several electrical
systems utilizing various bus voltages. The
12V-network is used to power electronic
systems from sensors and cameras to heated
seats and window lifters. In these cases,
standard MOSFETs do the power conversion
well thanks to their low cost, high reliability, and
well-understood operating nature.
Outlets providing mains voltages
(120VAC/240VAC) are also commonly found
in commercial vehicles to provide mobile
POWER SEMICONDUCTORS
AND OFFBOARD CHARGING FOR
COMMERCIAL VEHICLES
With the dawn of autonomous
trucks, operators will try to
get the time for charging
down as much as possible—
time is money. If it is desired
to get those 600kWh into
the battery in less than 15
minutes, 2.4MW of power
would be required."
Martin Schulz
Global Principal, Application Engineering,
Littelfuse
29
7 Experts on Automotive Powertrains
