Overview
To reduce harmful emissions and protect the environment, organisations and citizens are turning to eco-friendly modes of transportation like electric vehicles. However, the switch to electric vehicles has caused strain on electric grids that are not technically ready for this new reality.
RHODaS project aims at developing disruptive topologies of power converters using new semiconductor materials as well as cutting-edge digital technologies to improve architecture efficiency, power density, reliability, cost and sustainability. Moreover, multi-disciplinary approaches of modular power electronics for Integrated Motor Drive (IMD) and ecodesign considerations are addressed, to create compact solutions that can be integrated in a wide range and heavy-duty vehicles, enabling these electric vehicles to be more sustainable and autonomous throughout the entire lifecycle of their components. Nevertheless, power electronics solutions that use Wide Band Gap (WBG) devices can also be applied to light-duty vehicle types M and L, with competitive advantages on the efficiency and power densities compared with current technologies. Finally, the RHODaS project targets the validation of the proposed solutions in electric drivetrains of 1200V for zero emissions class N3 (carriage of goods > 12 tonnes) and O4 (trailers >10 Tonnes), which correspond to USA Class 7-8 heavy duty vehicles (>12 Tonnes) and beyond.