Profile: SME Interview on Electrification Evolution of Commercial Fleets

The technology in the space is really developing at an incredibly rapid pace, and it's able to grow from what is already been learned in the electrification of the passenger space as well. So everything we've done for fuel efficiency on heavy duty trucks also plays into this. The real enablers for technology are focused on efficiency and thermal management. From charging the batteries to delivering that power to the wheel, efficiency really is the key to all of this. Even today, we're using electromagnetic pulse technology to crimp some of our connectors. And this is really providing us with unprecedented micro welds. And what that means is that the connection is super tight. And we are getting great efficiency through that connection, and that is efficiency to the engine, or to the transmission, to the end of the line here where the wheel meets the road. And the ability to simulate this, we're getting better and better. The thermal flow through the system is better refined every day. The simulation teams are growing. The experience that they have is growing. And you put that together. You have people that are just highly motivated trying to put these together and really say, okay, how can I model this to make this system more and more efficient and give you accurate results, but accurate results even faster than what they did yesterday? Again, the speed here is unprecedented. 

The advances in battery technology and the use of hybrid systems are major components here. Battery power density continues to be an area where we need to grow, and it is growing. There's a lot of engineering focus on that, not just in the commercial space, but in the passenger car space as well. So again, we're able to leverage those synergies with what's already going on out there. Until we get the levels for commercial applications that we need, hybrid solutions like hydrogen fuel cells are allowing the manufacturers to kind of race forward with these ideas and these vehicles that really work for the customer today. Specific to the connector world, the industry is bringing in new connection technologies and methodologies like the EMPT that I just mentioned, but we're also looking at brand new materials, brand new coatings, and how we apply those coatings with more efficiency, higher precision. And all of this is kind of coming together right now so that we can pass very large amounts of power from the battery to the highway. 

Actually, this one really sells itself. We can look at the passenger car markets. They can see the proven technologies, the advancements that are happening, the exponential pace of how this stuff is moving. And then look at it within the on-highway space and commercial space, you have an electric vehicle with fewer moving parts and fewer maintenance records. The business model really falls into place and sells itself because you have less maintenance, you have less downtime. And in our industry, uptime is money. And that's what really sells this. 

In this space, it's getting in as early as you can and putting together a robust product plan with the customer to really scope out what is it that the end customer is going to use that vehicle. In a mine or a transit bus application, the routes are more controlled, more defined. They have a charging location that's set up. So you can really detail that and focus in on the areas of constraints that it has. When you look at the line haul truck application, the distance, the load, the environmentals, all of that is changing all of the time. And so you really need to put together a much more robust plan around that. And what this really comes back to is a customer relationship. And you've got to have this very strong relationship with the customers that they're pulling us into their very early stage designs, so we can help them put together a total system that's as efficient as possible. So again, when we talk about what's the most important aspect of designing it, it's relationships. It's the engineer-to-engineer relationship. 

That is a very big question. And there's a lot of aspects there that we could go into. But I think I'll focus on the factory infrastructure because I think that that really speaks to where this market is going. Just like with a standard combustion vehicle at the end of the line, you need to test and troubleshoot, and make sure that your vehicle is built as well as it can before it gets delivered to the customer. No different for an electric vehicle. But this means that those factories built around internal combustion have to be converted. And they need to have a factory that has very large energy demands to charge and test those systems. And you have to overhaul not just the factory, the domestic power supply coming to that factory. There is very unique factors there in dealing with high voltage. And so you've got special training involved, special PPE for your employees to make sure that they're safe. These are not insignificant investments that the OEMs are having to make. And the fact that they are making these investments now really speaks volumes to where they think this market is going. And I think that's what we are now, is really building up to that point that we can deliver things tomorrow.  

We're working with Ohm's law here. Passenger cars have been steadily increasing in voltage and are currently running around 400V, where buses and larger vehicles are running around 800V. So what we're seeing is that even in the high voltage space that we work, they're going higher and higher up into the kilovolt range for vehicles that they're asking us to try and support. Because if you double your voltage, you cut your current in half. Again, this is Ohm's law that we're playing with. So you gain efficiency. In particular, you help your charging time. The larger battery packs that we have in industrial and commercial applications means that they're going to keep pushing that envelope. They're going to keep pushing for higher voltage because we need to get those vehicles in, charged, and back on the road as fast as possible for that uptime that they're selling themselves on.

Our OEMs and end customers, again they really see the inherent benefits of an EV system. But it's that power density, the infrastructure, and really the total integration efficiency of the vehicle. That's where our engineers have to focus. So the mining applications have used electric vehicles for many years now. This helps to reduce the risk in the mines to their employees and also helps to make it a much more pleasant place to work. An electric vehicle is quite quiet. So when we talk about emissions and things like that, it's not just the emissions coming from your tailpipe. It's the sound. It's the noise emissions. Electric vehicles really bring that down. And this is something that's pulling people in very quickly.

Personal experience is where I'm living now. We have a bus route that runs very close, and the city recently changed to electric buses. Before I could have told you every bus that drove past. Now, I don't know when the bus is going around. I have to check the schedule. Just that change for me was like, oh, this is really great stuff.  

We try to pride ourselves on really being with our OEMs and end customers every step of the way. We work with universities, planning commissions. We're trying to help define and lay out what does that future technology look like. Just like the charging systems. How does that play into that vehicle that they're going to use? Is that the right technology for the environment that they're working? So we want to be there very early, but then we've got teams of engineers that are delivering the products that we need today, as well as separate engineers looking at the advanced technologies. We've got a whole group of people out there that are looking every step of the way in the life cycle of these products, and that's really what we're able to do with the customers. Regardless of whether that's a direct customer or the end customer, it is that we are with them the whole way and trying to be out ahead of them as much as possible to make sure we're anticipating what their needs might be. 

Our goal, again, is to stay ahead of the curve, and we want to be out in front of our customers. We want to get simulation out there and have tools in place that allow us to provide precise solutions very quickly. This is new technology. It's a new frontier for our market. And so that's where we need to be as a supplier, ahead of our OEMs and the end customers in anticipating their needs and having the tools ready today that will enable them to do their designs of the full vehicle and then implement that out in the market. So that's really what we're working on, is the simulation and staying on technologies that are 5, 10 years out. 

For a few factors, we've got reliability. I want to think about efficiency, safety, and then sustainability.  And I think that it is our diversity. And what I mean by that is that we have highly diversified teams across the globe working on this within the industrial and commercial space. But we also are a very large company. We have diversity of businesses. We have automotive, we have commercial space, we have aerospace, we have sensors, energy. All of these teams that that we can reach out to, that we can pull in and look at what's going on in these other sectors. Figure out how does this all meld together, and really find the best technology and bring that to the OEMs. So we're actively working with them to define the best innovations. And that you just can't find that everywhere. And so having the teams, having this right there at our fingertips, gives us an edge that really helps us to bring OEMs in and show them, hey, this is what we can bring to the table. 

Bus manufacturers, for example, have been ahead of the curve. They have EVs released, applications out there running, and they have their charging stations set up. And over the next two to five years, we're going to see that continue to grow. Again, it's a very good play for that market. And major OEMs, major truck OEMs are releasing their vehicles. They’re in that design phase. They're going to be getting those out there to customers soon. And so over the next two to five years, you're going to see the on-highway space really start to explode. You've got centralized distribution centers, and the rest of the infrastructure is getting up to pace. They're getting ready for these vehicles. You've got test vehicles out there running, so customers are playing with it. See how it fits within their space. How can they best utilize this new technology? With all the new applications coming online and moving into the mainstream, we're also seeing more standardization. The interface of the charging system, is getting much more regulated. And how that design needs to look, how we handle that. This is a good thing. This is helping us and customers really get those costs in line and provide the best benefit to the end customer. And again, we've got a global presence. So you can really see how one region is innovating differently than another and bring that across borders and pull together a truly global solution. So the bottom line is that the commercial space is going through that inflection point that we saw in passenger car a few years ago, which means it's an incredibly exciting time to be an engineer because we are creating the innovations today that are going to take us through the next decade. The next two to five years are really going to be fun.  

I would say that the industry is, again, it's really starting to grow. And anybody that's looking to get in, they can. There's so much opportunity and I hope people are as excited about this as I am and where we're going and pulling in ideas, because you really do get the best solutions when it's a collaborative solution. And that's where if we can get other people sharing ideas in all of these forums that are out there and get the university students involved. Get your ideas out there. This is just an area of exponential growth. It's changing so fast that new ideas are really going to be important for us to be successful long term. I always say get involved.