MIRA boosts electric vehicle battery services
MIRA, the global development partner to the automotive and defence sectors, has installed a comprehensive battery test and development suite at its dedicated component development centre near London. The new equipment will support the rapid development of the latest Electric Vehicle (EV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) powertrains and continue the quest for compact, durable, high-energy charge storage solutions.
In electrified powertrains, traction batteries are used for storing and converting electrochemical energy. To meet increasing market expectations for longevity, high storage capacity and dynamic power flows, rig testing provides the most expedient and cost effective route to performance assurance. MIRA’s tailor made solutions allow the parallel development of primary traction battery systems, which run alongside the overall vehicle development programme to provide the broadest development window.
High voltage (500volt) traction batteries can be exercised directly using powerful a 400amp, 200KW unit. When teamed with a separate battery simulator MIRA can also test ancillary EV components. This capability provides a crucial opportunity to develop EV components prior to prototype battery packs coming on stream. Multiple battery cells/modules can be exercised simultaneously on a secondary system operating up to 72v.
Eamonn Martin, MIRA’s Environmental Test Services Manager enthused: “This significant investment in the latest equipment brings vital technology within easy reach of the majority of the European automotive sector. We must also recognize what makes our battery testing capability special is our renowned expertise in power electronics, battery management strategy and functional safety. Together these deliver a unique package that provides vehicle makers and their suppliers a technically secure route to market.”
The latest high voltage, high power exercisers are deliberately configured to be coupled with MIRA’s extensive array of environmental test equipment. These simulate real world meteorological conditions and draw on representative road load data to add an extra layer of complexity and realism to any battery development programme.
MIRA’s equipment can be tuned to support proprietary and third party peripheral devices on industry standard protocols such as: RS485, CAN, I²C, SMBus, and Ethernet. MIRA’s engineers can automatically develop test programs from existing drive cycle data, which is useful for executing proprietary development tests and industry standards such as: FUDS, SFUDS, DST, and ECE-15L.
Eamonn Martin explained: “We’ve rolled out the strategy to become Europe’s largest provider of environmental and performance test services, and consolidated the majority of our component level environmental test equipment under one roof to offer the EV and HEV market a modern, comprehensive development service.”