Researchers at University of Kassel develop new commercial EV transmission
While the range of electric models for cars and heavy goods vehicles is growing, the University of Kassel believes that the introduction of electric vehicles in the minibus or delivery vehicle sector has been “difficult so far” – due to a lack of technically suitable vehicles. Although there are already numerous electric vans on the market, they are significantly more expensive or, fitted with relatively small batteries, are only suitable for certain driving profiles. As the number of commercial vehicles is comparatively low, the development costs for in-house solutions are often not worthwhile.
And installing car drives in commercial vehicles is “not a solution,” according to the German company. “High power reserves would be required to meet the torque and speed requirements at the same time. This would increase costs, volume and weight and would also be disadvantageous in terms of energy.”
The project ‘Scaling effects through modular drive architectures for commercial vehicles’, or ‘Scale-E-Drive’ for short, aims to solve precisely this problem. A newly designed two-speed gearbox and a newly developed operating strategy were developed for this purpose. The goal is to enable lightweight and affordable electric drives from passenger cars, including converters, to also be used in commercial vehicles – and in an energy-efficient manner.
“This enables scaling effects as well as significantly reduced development costs and risks. The basic research objective of the project is to cover the highly variable and demanding driving dynamics requirements,” the university wrote in an explanation. “Firstly, a highly dynamic shift strategy was developed to implement the gear changes in the multi-speed gearbox efficiently and without compromising comfort. Secondly, a predictive driving strategy was developed that anticipates the most energy-efficient driving strategies based on current usage behaviour.”
The project, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) with around 1.8 million euros, is a collaboration between the university and the Daimler Truck plant in Kassel. The electric drive with the new transmission was demonstrated in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. However, this is built by Mercedes-Benz Vans, a company of the Mercedes-Benz Group. Since the split of Daimler AG into Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Daimler Truck AG, Daimler Truck is no longer actually responsible for the Sprinter segment. However, as the Kassel-Lohfelden plant is the global competence centre for commercial vehicle axles within Daimler Truck AG, projects of this kind are a logical step for the company.
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