German supplier’s extensive range of products for EVs include traction batteries for passenger cars and commercial vehicles and its proprietary Battery Management System.
25 May 2023 | 3450 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Leading automotive supplier Webasto is showcasing its extensive range of electromobility products at the Battery Show Europe in Stuttgart (May 23-25). This includes various traction batteries for passenger cars and commercial vehicles and its proprietary Battery Management System (BMS).
Among the products exhibited at the booth is a battery ...
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Leading automotive supplier Webasto is showcasing its extensive range of electromobility products at the Battery Show Europe in Stuttgart (May 23-25). This includes various traction batteries for passenger cars and commercial vehicles and its proprietary Battery Management System (BMS).
Among the products exhibited at the booth is a battery for hybrid vehicles that Webasto produces at its plant in Jiaxing, China. Moreover, the company is exhibiting its first battery for fully electric passenger cars. This has been manufactured at the new battery plant in Dangjin, South Korea, for customer Hyundai-Kia Motors Corporation (HKMC) since April 2022.
The demand for battery systems is not only growing for passenger cars; electrification is also steadily increasing in the commercial vehicle market. Webasto’s portfolio has included an established solution for commercial vehicles for several years. The standard battery system for commercial vehicles combines the price benefits of a scalable mass-market product with the tailored fit of a custom solution. Its robust design also makes it ideal for use in construction machinery.
Each battery pack has a capacity of 35 kilowatt hours (kWh), and up to 18 packs can be interconnected. Webasto is currently developing the next generation of this battery system, which will feature higher power density and enhanced safety features. Initial samples are already planned for the end of this year.
The BMS from Webasto is the control centre and brain of every battery. Among others, it ensures the thermal stability of the energy storage unit and regulates charge and discharge limits, thereby ensuring maximum battery longevity.
Sustainable battery production
A significant portion of battery production takes place at the German plant in Schierling, Webasto’s global competence centre for battery systems and a prime example of sustainability in action. Like all of our German sites, only electricity from renewable sources is used here, some of which is supplied by the company’s own 4000-square-meter photovoltaic system. The energy concept also includes a battery storage system with a capacity of one megawatt hour. This system utilises 30 second-life batteries. Further projects to expand the sustainable energy concept are at the planning stage.
“In Schierling, we not only focus on sustainable energy supply, but also on handling all of our resources responsibly. For new battery projects, we use freed-up space within the plant and retrain our colleagues from other areas for the highly sophisticated battery manufacturing processes,” explains Christin-Marie Boudgoust, Director Business Development Battery Systems Webasto.
Thermo solutions from a single source
As an expert in heating and cooling, Webasto also offers thermal solutions for electromobility in addition to batteries. Webasto’s eBTM Electrical Battery Thermal Management system is a powerful stand-alone device for the effective thermal management of traction batteries. With a heating capacity of up to 10 kilowatts and a cooling capacity of up to eight kilowatts, the device ensures optimum functionality of water-cooled battery packs, even under extremely hot or cold ambient conditions. It also extends the pack’s service life (state of health) by up to 21 percent. Charging time is halved thanks to active thermal preconditioning of the battery cell during the charging phases.
For ambient conditions that demand particularly high heating requirements, the High Voltage Heater (HVH) from Webasto is an ideal addition: The powerful heating system for hybrid and electric vehicles tempers both the driver’s compartment and the batteries.
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