The power electronics business as applied to electric vehicles is becoming so huge that divergent approaches are needed.
Indeed, Nissan, in Korea recently specifically mentioned inverters as a target for cost and volume reduction but, as they said, it goes hand in hand with merging the inverter with other parts of the pure electric powertrain.
Mando of Korea told analysts IDTechEx that they see a trend to smaller, lighter, and cheaper. Their 3.3 kW on-board charger soon to be available will be one third of the size of the current 6.5 kW version.
There is a market for standard boxes simply being cost reduced but it will not be the biggest value market in the years to come in the opinion of IDTechEx.
Size and weight reduction are important and there are many other factors that must be considered by those seeking major market share of what will be a market of well over $100 million in 2025 in the estimation of IDTechEx.
Dr Achim Strass, Application Engineering Manager at Infineon, tells IDTechEx that he sees the primary trends in EV traction inverters as including wide bandgap semiconductors, double-sided cooling and making conformal shapes for in-wheel motors and for integration into other parts.
Reducing cost and improved robustness are important. Inverters are becoming more complex, offsetting cost reduction, he advises.
Accordingly, he says traction inverters will continue to be the third most important item of cost of an electric vehicle, increasing as a percentage when there is a move from one motor to more per vehicle.