Until recently, electric cars with 800-volt drives were expensive premium exotics. Or Koreans. But the voltage level has now completely reached the mainstream and is becoming an important standard in the industry.
The vast majority of electric cars in use worldwide have a voltage level of around 400 volts. Classics such as Renault’s Zoe, the varied ID family from VW or the Tesla models, which have been particularly successful for years, rely on this standard. For the automotive industry, the uniform voltage level has a decisive advantage: the central drive components such as power electronics, charging technology, batteries and electric Motors conform to this one standard, they can be used across manufacturers, which promises synergies in mass production as well as a higher quality level of the components, which are mostly manufactured by suppliers. Everything that their Volt400 Volt has clearly established itself here. But the dominant and in many respects sufficient voltage standard has faced strong competition. 800 volts is the name of the new currency, but this will not mark the end of the volt-volte, because there are some players in the industry who are even striving for higher levels. 800-volt drive architectures are not entirely new in the world of electric cars . Initially, this level of tension in the performance niche caused a stir with the Porsche Taycan, which was introduced in 2019 with benchmark key data for driving performance, range and charging times. This was followed in 2021 by the Hyundai Motor Group, which introduced its own 800-volt standard with the Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) for premium and volume series such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 or Genesis GV70 Electrified. In China is now even further, because several manufacturers such as Xpeng or the large multi-brand companies Geely and BYD also rely on 800 volts. At BYD in particular, this level of voltage has even reached the mainstream, as the example of the small car Dolphin shows, which is even available in Austria at prices starting at a good 31,000 euros minus subsidies. 800 volts are also seeping through in Germany. Big players in the German car industry are now on the rise 800-volt train jumped on. The supplier giants ZF and Bosch have been preparing for series launches in China and Europe and the mass production of 800-volt components for several years or have already begun. At the IAA Mobility 2023 motor show, Mercedes and BMW also presented near-production concept vehicles, each of which provides an outlook on the higher voltage standard. Concept CLA Class and Vision Neue Klasse are the names of the two sedans that indicate series models starting in 2025. More important than their pretty exterior design or the sustainably produced interior materials are probably the new electric drive architectures from BMW and Mercedes, which in both cases promise ranges of up to 750 kilometers, low consumption values and refueling with a range of 300 kilometers in 10 minutes, if a 350 -kW column is available.Advantages in charging speedAnyone who dreams of taking long and fast-paced highway trips in an electric car in the future will find an attractive projection surface in current and upcoming 800-volt electric vehicles. This is also proven by an ADAC fast-charging performance ranking, in which cars with 800-volt architecture take the top places in terms of maximum and average charging power. Fast charging could become a new fetish in e-mobility because it allows short stops and fast travel speeds more than other systems. The physical explanation And this also names the most important advantages of 800 volts compared to the prevailing 400 volt standard. If you want to understand the idea behind double high voltage, all you have to do is remember a formula from physics class: Electrical power (W) is equal to voltage (V) times current (A). So if you want to increase the performance of a battery or an electric motor, you have to increase the value of A or V. If you increase the current strength (A) on one side, you need thicker and heavier cables, and heat losses also increase. Both phenomena are undesirable, especially in electric cars. The desire for even more power could lead to further voltage increases in the future – 800 volts is not necessarily the last word. The standardized plugs and cable connections of the fast chargers would allow up to 1000 volts. In theory, up to 500 kW of charging power would be possible. With Lucid Motors, at least one manufacturer has already positioned itself beyond the 800 V mark. The Lucid Electric Advanced Platform (LEAP), on which the luxury Air sedan is based, is referred to as 900 volt architecture, but in fact it is 924 volts. According to Lucid, the Air can handle up to 300 kW of charging power, which is at least 30 kW more than the previous record holder Taycan and its technology brother Audi e-Tron GT. Charging power of up to 3.7 MW is planned. Even a 1000-volt architecture could be possible Example of the large Tesla truck Semi-Truck, whose launch is still a long time coming. These 1000 volts could possibly also be relevant for Tesla’s Cybertruck pick-up, whose technology is currently the subject of much speculation. For large commercial vehicles, charging standards are even being developed that will eventually enable megawatt charging. The CharIN initiative will have its Megawatt Charging System (MCS) in 2022, which allows a maximum of 1250 volts and 3000 amps and thus promises charging capacities of up to 3.7 MW. Even powerful electric truck batteries with a capacity of several hundred kWh can be charged in a short time. In the passenger car sector, the defined limits are 1000 volts and 500 amps and therefore 500 kW. However, this does not have to rule out the possibility that extreme electric cars will be developed at some point that do not care about these conventions because they perform, can and should charge more. The Bugatti Veyron once had the problem that tire manufacturers did not offer tires suitable for speeds over 400 km/h. Michelin therefore spent five years exclusively developing the Pilot Sport PAX, which was able to meet these extreme requirements. Good range and performance even with 400 volts. However, the trend towards drive systems with ever more voltage does not seem to have heralded the end of 400 volts. The car company Stellantis, which brings together 14 brands, is about to prepare the first electric models on the new STLA platform for market launch, on which many millions of electric cars will be based in the coming years. The Peugeot E-3008 will start in 2024, which will offer a range of 525 to 700 kilometers thanks to low consumption with the two optional battery types 73 and 98 kWh and allow up to 160 kW charging power. These are already very good values for everyday car use. It’s also flexible. The American car giant General Motors proves with its Ultium electric platform that 400 and 800 volts can coexist. This allows different formats of a modular 400-volt battery. The GMC Hummer EV, for example, has two 400-volt battery layers, each with 100 kWh of storage capacity, which power 400-volt electric motors. However, if you want to charge at an 800-volt DC charging station, the layers are temporarily connected in series, which allows DC fast charging with up to 800 volts and 350 kW. (SPX)
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