U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of five next-generation vehicle research projects, which will receive up to $19 million in DOE funding to further the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs).
Combined with industry’s cost share, projects selected for negotiation of awards total $33.8 million (FY’07-’10).
Projects will focus on reducing the cost, weight, and size of electric drive and power conversion devices while also increasing vehicle efficiency.
Selected projects focus on advancing research on four areas: high-temperature three-phase inverters; high-speed motors; integrated traction drive systems and; bi-directional DC/DC converters.
Selected projects:
Delphi Automotive Systems (Troy, Michigan): $4.9 million for high-temperature three-phase inverter research. Three-phase inverters control and regulate the speed of electric motors. Other team members include Dow Corning, GE Global Research, GeneSiC, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University of Blacksburg, Virginia: $1.7 million for a project that will focus on developing an advanced softswitching inverter for reducing switching and power losses. Other team members include Azure Dynamics, Powerex, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
General Electric Global Research (Niskayuna, NY): $3.4 million for work on developing high-speed electric motors. Specifically, this work will focus on increasing the traction motor drive power density and efficiency at reduced costs for PHEVs, HEVs and FCVs by developing an electric motor of at least 55kW peak power and capable of high speed operation with a goal of at least 14,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). Team members include GE Motors and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
General Motors Corp (Torrance, CA): $7.9 million for development of a combined traction motor and power electronic inverter for PHEV, HEV, and FCV. This aims to lower the cost, weight, and package volume, and increase efficiency. Team members include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Ames National Laboratory, Arnold Magnetics, Encap Technologies, Isothermal Systems Research, and AVX.
U.S. Hybrid Corporation (Torrance, CA): $1.3 million for a bi-directional DC/DC converter for PHEVs. The work will include a vehicle system study to determine the optimum operating battery and DC-link voltages, allowing for higher efficiency and lower costs. Team members include University of Illinois, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and SiCED.
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