Toyota, University of Warwick studying silicon carbide inverters for hybrids
Toyota and the University of Warwick are in the middle of a three-year joint research project studying silicon carbide's use in electric drivetrains, according to the video above, which is from March 2007. The video includes two Toyota engineers talking about the use of silicon carbide in their hybrids and one engineer even holds the current Prius inverter in his hands. Graham Roberts, one of the Warwick researchers, says he would publish papers on the research like this paper Evaluation of Silicon Carbide Devices for Hybrid Vehicle Drives. Here are the possible advantages of using silicon carbide according to Graham's profile page:
Operating the inverter at higher temperatures will allow a reduction in inverter size, and the possibility of sharing the water cooling circuit of the engine, reducing the space required by the electric drive system, its weight and its cost. New material devices, such as those fabricated in silicon carbide offer potential improvements over existing silicon devices in terms of reduced switching losses, increased operating temperatures and smaller size.
Lets see, a three-year project announced in 2007. Toyota recently said they would release plug-in hybrids in 2010, three years from 2007. Hm, I wonder if Toyota's plug-in Prius will have silicon carbide inverters? Someone at GM better give Warwick a call.
Related:
[Source: University of Warwick]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Karkus 5:04PM (2/11/2008)
It's great to see they're working on a better inverter which could improve hybrids (and many other things), but...
1) I can pretty much guarantee you that the release date of the new Prius is NOT being determined by a new inverter technology. (if the get it - great!, but if they don't - no big deal).
2) If they have a new Prius out as a 2010 model, it will be sold by 2009, and the technology will have to be figured out before that, so your numbers don't add up anymore.
3) Research rarely moves from a University lab into a car in 3 year (not impossible, but not likely either).
Unless you have some insider info that substantiates any of this, what's the point of these wild speculations ?
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rgseidl 5:37PM (2/11/2008)
Warwick University is hardly the only one working on SiC. It's currently core research topic in the power semiconductor field, so GM almost certainly already has some researchers it is collaborating with closer to home.
Toyota is a conservative company, they would not risk a release schedule on an immature component technology. It's quite likely that SiC will make it into xEVs at some point but most likely not by 2010.
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Lascelles Linton 6:40PM (2/11/2008)
I love Mondays :D
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Lascelles Linton 6:24AM (2/12/2008)
Karkus, Toyota is releasing to a fleet, a limited amount of cars which would fit with using something like this. I don't have any insider information. I just though the dates coinciding was interesting.
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Lascelles Linton 6:23AM (2/12/2008)
rgseidl, GM is worldwide. Anyway, Toyota made the trip, so, I think GM can afford it. I think Warwick has a special school set up because I have seen other things from them. I would not be surprised if they read the papers or have contact already. It was just a funny way to end the article. I write about archbishop, I get it. I write about, something as hyper technical as this, I still get it :D
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