Since the inception of electric vehicles, chargers have played a key role recharging the battery and ensuring that it is always operating safely and maintained in a good condition to deliver the best performance. Chargers, vehicles and batteries were all simple enough in the early stages of the technology, but as battery systems and charging safety requirements have become more complex, the need for more sophisticated charging solutions has emerged.

Electrification of commercial vehicles accelerated the transition from alternator-powered auxiliaries, to components that operated at higher voltages and fed directly from the EV’s high-voltage battery using DC-to-AC inverters.

Additionally, onboard chargers with bi-directional functionalities have recently become of interest to fleet operators and vehicle manufacturers thanks to their compatibility with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications. These applications are expected to be standardized in the future – as power utilities and consumers look at various ways to optimize energy consumption during peak demand hours in order to reduce loads on the power grid and avoid purchasing electricity when the rates are at their highest.

TM4 has always been at the forefront of electric and hybrid powertrain development. The company’s expertise in the field has enabled the development of a compact bi-directional charger that provides not only battery charging functionality but also auxiliary power supply during vehicle operation – using the same power electronic modules to supply a configurable voltage and frequency output to auxiliary devices.

In charger mode, the TM4 BCI20 converts AC to DC power to efficiently charge the electric vehicle’s battery. It is designed to use the full current range from the AC mains supply, as defined in SAE J1772, for a maximum charge power of 18kW on 240V AC.

When the vehicle is in use, the unit becomes a dual inverter, which converts stored onboard energy from the electric vehicle battery to AC power. Its two independent three-phase outputs of 9kVA can each be used to power various loads, including pumps, HVACs, and so on. The charger, combined with two inverter outputs, simplifies vehicle integration and saves weight and space by combining multiple functionalities in one box.

The BCI20 satisfies the IP67 rating for reliable operation in harsh underhood vehicle environments. Its aluminum enclosure is sealed against dust, sand and water. It is compact and lightweight, and allows for a flexible installation in multiple mounting locations within the vehicle.

Over time, TM4 will expand this new series of products and offer the North American and European markets single-phase and three-phase bi-directional charger-inverters, available in either 450V DC or 750V DC voltage ranges.

TM4 is adding 4 new electric powertrain options with increased performance within its SUMO family of products:

• SUMO HD HV3500–9P
• SUMO MD HV1800-3P
• SUMO MD HV2200-3P
• SUMO MD HV2400-6P

These new motor and inverter combinations have been optimized in terms of power, torque and speed.

Within the SUMO HD line, the new SUMO HD HV3500 allows up to 350 kW of peak power, an increase of over 100 kW compared to the most powerful system already offered by TM4.

Within the SUMO MD line, the new  SUMO MD HV1800, HV2200 and HV2400 offer 170, 200 and 240 kW of peak power and 1770,2200 and 2300 Nm of peak torque.

The SUMO family now offers a total of 11 powertrain options,  each optimized to offer the best efficiencies for different vehicle platform and duty cycles.

This year marks the 5^th anniversary of this family of products. Read this blog article to learn more about its evolution and where we’re heading.

Summary
Before all-electric vehicles make sense for all types of applications and markets, hybrids solutions will still act as stepping stones to reduce CO2 emissions and ramp-up the production of EV components like batteries, electric motors and power electronics.

While the production volumes of electric vehicle has increased tremendously during the last five years, we can nonetheless argue that this market is still in its infancy and that a few challenges will need to be overcome before we can expect to see pure electric vehicles overtake petrol-fueled ones.

Before all-electric vehicles make sense for all types of applications and markets, hybrids solutions will still act as stepping stones to reduce CO2 emissions and ramp-up the production of EV components like batteries, electric motors and power electronics.

Several applications relying on long range and low downtime are not yet suitable for complete battery-based operation without significant infrastructure or technological breakthrough, therefore offering a compact and efficient gen-set package for a range extender system is a valuable asset to encourage electrification of the drivetrain.

Our new motor/generator option

TM4 has introduced its SUMO line of powertrains five years ago to assist its customers with cost-effective vehicle electrification. TM4 has always innovated to serve market needs and is now introducing as part of its SUMO family of products a new motor/generator for the commercial heavy-duty class 7-8 market.

The SUMO HP was purposely developed for series and parallel-hybrid configurations; it can be coupled to diesel engines, multi-speed gearboxes or integrated into axles for ultra-low floor buses.  TM4 offers this new motor/generator with its well proven 3-phase CO150 inverter, used in thousands of vehicles worldwide.

The efficiency of the system (generator and inverter combined) reaches 95% and has been developed to match the efficiency of a diesel engine, which is instrumental to optimize fuel savings. In fact, in a series-hybrid, the combined use of the electric traction system, the optimized gen-set and electrified accessories can result in a  minimum 50% fuel economy compared to a conventional vehicle.

Contact-us for more information!

TM4 introduced its first SUMO powertrain system in the market during the summer of 2012, which means that this family of products is now entering its fifth year of deployment in dozens of vehicles applications. With more than 75 million kilometers of real road driving and no design-related failures, the technical and commercial success of this product family is evident. More importantly, it helped TM4 establish itself as a global supplier of electrified commercial vehicle drivetrains, both by expanding its direct sales and support network capabilities but also by forging alliances with major industry players, such as Cummins, for the development of PHEV bus range extender system.

Establishing our presence in the commercial vehicle space, step by step.

TM4 had its first experience in the commercial vehicle space more than 10 years ago, being contracted by Volvo to develop its I-SAM parallel-hybrid system and supply them for the initial prototypes runs. TM4 only had a prototyping workshop in 2007 and could not bid on the volume production project; hence Volvo went to other suppliers for volume production. That being said, the fact that this system is still used today by Volvo shows that the concept and the design made by TM4 were right for the application.

This proved to be a great introduction to the needs of these vehicles and helped TM4 to make more rational design choices when starting the development of powertrains for all-electric trucks and buses a few years later. Coming mostly from an automotive background, we first envisioned the development of a more powerful, high-RPM electric motor similar to what is found in our MOTIVE systems. Such a motor would need to be coupled to a multi-speed transmission in order to achieve the torque needed to operate the EV buses and trucks according to the same duty cycles that ICE buses are used to. However, looking at what was available on the market, there was no products available in production to couple with a performance machine. Everything was custom made, very expensive and produced in low volume. This is when we decided to go with a direct motor. While bigger, it still was less expensive than a motor + gearbox combination and also reduced the mechanical losses of the drivetrain, maximising the use of the on-board battery, which is the most expensive component. Moreover, the OEM can retain its standard axle and the installation of a direct-drive system is as simple as it gets and easily replicable in many vehicle platforms.

One important driver of its success was the set-up of our joint-venture with Prestolite Electric Beijing, PEPS, to serve the Chinese market with domestic production. This not only helped us develop a reliable low-cost/high volume supply chain there, but also allowed us to produce our systems in significant volumes in order to take advantage of the huge boom in electric bus sales of the 2010’s. A lot of in-field data generated in what are sometimes difficult conditions allowed us to quickly learn about ways to optimize our systems and make them even more rugged. Achieving  TS 16949 certification was also a big step for us as a company, enabling us to supply high-volume OEM programs.

Current market situation

Fast forward 5 years later and here we are, with thousands of buses and trucks equipped with our powertrain systems. The SUMO line has evolved as a family of powertrain systems offering more than 10 versions, each optimized to offer the best driveline efficiencies to different vehicle platforms according to selected duty cycles. Still, as we speak, there are no competitive multi-speed transmissions in mass production offered on the market for medium- and heavy-duty pure electric buses and trucks. There are certainly several initiatives that have been presented, but they are still either at a low maturity level or developed exclusively for/by select OEMs. Some have also adapted conventional transmissions to electric motors, but raises concerns about long-term reliability and efficiency optimization. Because of that, direct-drive is to this day the only powertrain electrification solution for buses and trucks that ticks all of the following boxes:

• affordable
• reliable
• proven
• efficient
• available in mass production.

What the future holds

This is not to say that we believe direct-drive is necessarily the best configuration for all types of vehicle platforms. Several electrified axles have started to make their way in the market and while they are generally more expensive and complex to integrate in the vehicle (reducing the amount of “standard” parts), they represent interesting alternatives for vehicles where space constraints are high. Their deployment is also part of a movement towards more integrated electric drivetrain systems. TM4 is not missing out on the trend, also working with axle manufacturers to offer optimized electric axle products, both for the on- and off-highway markets. One of such projects is with Axletech, and the focus is on the development of different types of electrified axles to tailor to the needs of medium- and heavy-duty bus and truck applications, as well as off-highway vehicles.

As we strive to maintain a leadership position in the electric powertrain field, we need to stay at the forefront of technologies, and regardless of whether or not direct-drive remains the most cost-effective solution to electrify the powertrains of commercial vehicles in the long run, this type of motor technology has shaped TM4’s as a company and helped us achieved global commercial success.

For the next 5 years, we already have a busy schedule of new products and innovation to introduce to the market, so be sure to follow us to stay informed of our latest projects!

Summary

All public transit authorities in the province of Québec, Canada, have declared their intention to fully electrify their fleet by 2025, but currently, the electric infrastructure for public transportation is either inexistent or limited. In order to offer a more flexible solution to the transit authorities, a new consortium formed by Dana TM4 Inc., Cummins and the Société de Transport de Laval (STL) will develop, assemble and demonstrate a new and more efficient plug-in hybrid drivetrain for heavy vehicles. This new plug-in solution is an intermediate step between existing hybrid and EV technologies. The proposed solution will allow transit authorities progressive electrification of their bus fleet according to their recharging infrastructure and routes.

Electrification of a fleet usually implicates carefully planning routes of electric buses around a certain number of charging station. Since charging stations are costly, EV bus projects are slow to implement. This limits the use of electric vehicles to densely populated areas and is not a model easily adapted to suburb areas where the average speed and distance between stops is higher.

A consortium formed by TM4 Inc., Cummins and the Société de Transport de Laval (STL), has developed and will demonstrate a new and more efficient plug-in hybrid drivetrain for heavy vehicles. The project aims to provide transit authorities with a flexible, more efficient drivetrain and a long-range zero-emission capability for inner-city routes.

This innovative project is financed by the Green Fund, under the Technoclimat program resulting from the 2013-2020 Action Plan on Climate Change. The group has received a total of 4.25 M$ grant from the Government of Quebec to carry the project.

The components

This new plug-in hybrid propulsion system for heavy vehicle is the result of the combination of different optimized sub-components and control algorithms that allows the system to be operated at its maximum efficiency. An important subcomponent of the system is the auxiliary power system (“gen-set”) which consists of Cummins’ Euro 2019 B4.5 internal combustion engine coupled with TM4’s SUMO HP HV900 electric generator sized to deliver over 190 kW continuous.

The system’s architecture also proposes an external ultrafast charging infrastructure, a power collector, a 111 kW-h onboard Li-ion battery, a TM4 SUMO HD electric drive system directly connected to the axle’s differential, a small fuel tank and all power electronics and controls that allow the system to work.

The program

The project has two main objectives: to increase the proportion of electricity used as a source of energy for the hybrid vehicle and to develop an optimised auxiliary power system (“gen-set”) capable of operating the vehicle continuously.

Two 12m buses will be equipped with the plug-in hybrid powertrain and will be tested by the Société de Transport de Laval (STL) starting this year. The buses will have a range of 35 km in electric mode could be charged in 10 minutes (estimated) from 0% to 100% using a fast charging station of 450 kW. With two or more charging events on a specific route, a fuel reduction of more than 50% can be attained compared to a conventional diesel vehicle. This project provides outstanding features of flexible fleet operation with the advantage of reducing fuel consumption thanks to fast recharging capabilities.

To sum up, it is estimated that over the course of five years, the project would result in a GHG reduction of 20,730 tons of CO2 eq, equivalent to the annual removal of 1400 light vehicles from our roads.

Contact-us for more information!

Summary
Hydro-Québec, TM4’s shareholder, recently made public a report comparing the complete life-cycle of an electric vehicle vs a gas-powered vehicle in the province of Québec. It makes quite clear that an electric vehicle powered by Québec’s electricity is more environmentally friendly than a conventional vehicle over their respective life cycles (including the manufacturing of components and batteries, transportation from the plant to the user, usage of the vehicle and end of life).

Are electric vehicles really more environmentally friendly than their diesel counterparts? That is a question that is worth taking the time to investigate.

Hydro-Québec, TM4’s shareholder, recently made public a report comparing the complete life-cycle of an electric vehicle vs a gas-powered vehicle in the province of Québec. It makes quite clear that an electric vehicle powered by Québec’s electricity is more environmentally friendly than a conventional vehicle over their respective life cycles (including the manufacturing of components and batteries, transportation from the plant to the user, usage of the vehicle and end of life).

The comparison was made between two vehicles released in 2013 after driving 150 000 km in Québec. The study takes into consideration 5 categories of impact:

• Human health
• Quality of ecosystem
• Climate change
• Depletion of fossil resources
• Depletion of mineral resources.

The overall result indicates that after accounting 150 000 km of travel, electric vehicles have 65% less impact on the environment than conventional vehicles, and the percentage raises to 85% after 300 000 km of travel.

But still, electric vehicle do have an impact on the environment and it’s mainly due to the manufacturing of its components.

A manufacturing process to optimize

When looking at the results of the comparison in the 5 different categories of impact, there is a global conclusion that emerges:

• Pollution associated to conventional vehicles is related to their usage, while pollution associated to electric vehicles is related to their production.

The difference between the components used in a conventional and electric vehicle is mainly explained by the battery and the choice of metals. In fact, there’s at least three times more aluminium and two times more copper used in an electric vehicle (whereas steel and iron are the main metals used in conventional vehicles).

Aluminum is mainly chosen for its low density which serves to counterbalance the additional mass added by the battery. But the fact is that aluminium and copper have up to 7 times more impact on the environment than steel and iron. With a focus on clean manufacturing, the use of alternative battery chemistries and alternative metals, emissions related to electric vehicle could be significantly reduced.

The graphs below show the comparisons between the two types of vehicles in each 5 categories of impact. It can be seen that the extra emissions associated with electric vehicle production are rapidly negated by reduced emissions from driving, except for the depletion of mineral resources.

Human health

Quality of ecosystem

Climate change

Depletion of fossil resources

Depletion of mineral resources

Conclusion

In light of the results of this analysis, it can be concluded that, when considering the full life cycle of an electric vehicle vs a conventional vehicle, EVs represent an environmentally preferable choice in the province of Québec. The longer the distance travelled, the greater the advantage of electric vehicles.

Potential environmental gains associated with vehicle electrification are directly influenced by the source of electricity production. The figures below illustrate the carbon footprint of electricity generation in different geographical contexts throughout the world.

The low carbon footprint in Québec is mainly due to the preponderant use of hydroelectricity; a renewable and low emissions energy source. Vehicle electrification makes complete sense in Québec and should be encouraged in about 90% of the world.

N.B : all facts, data and images used in this article are the property of Hydro-Québec.

M4 offers its SUMO direct-drive powertrains for the bus and commercial vehicle markets. They represent the best compromise between efficiency and simplicity for our customers looking to electrify their commercial vehicle platforms. But why did TM4 come up with this design choice, you  may ask?

When TM4 first started to develop motor and inverter systems for the commercial vehicle market, our original idea, as a company mainly involved in automotive projects, was to design a high RPM and high power density electric motor that would be used with a gearbox, ideally a multispeed one.

We planned to use this motor for both the commercial vehicle and the high performance passenger car markets. The problem was there was no suitable gearbox commercially available on the market for us to use with that high torque and high RPM motor.  Sure, we found some gearboxes, but they were and still are at the prototype stage and very expensive.

After making short and long term analysis of industry and technology trends, we determined that a direct-drive motor was the best type of motor for medium and heavy duty buses and trucks.

Here are a 5 key advantages that this design offers:

1. Efficiency

The transmission can be responsible for approximately 5 to 10 % energy losses inside the powertrain due to mechanical friction. Considering that the battery packs remains the most expensive and important component inside an electric vehicle, making the most of the energy carried by the vehicle is critical.

Single and multi-speed gearboxes can, in some situation, be part of the solution when it comes to increasing efficiency of a powertrain. This is especially right for traditional gasoline cars, but it is also true for electric powertrains using AC induction motors. While the peak efficiency of these motors can be as high as permanent magnet motors, the high efficiency can only be attained at a certain operating sweet spot. Outside of the latter, efficiency falls fast.

TM4’s permanent magnet and reluctance assisted AC motor not only have high peak efficiency, but maintain a >94% efficiency over the majority of the operating range, which surpasses any potential efficiency gain that could be achieved with a gearbox.

2. Installation

The bus and trucks OEMs we visited and interviewed during our design phase did not want to make major changes to their vehicles or, for that matter, their production lines, simply for the purpose of incorporating a new powertrain. Fitting as much battery as possible is already quite a challenge.

For this reason they wanted the motor and power electronic components to fit between the H beam of the truck or in the engine bay of the city bus, ideally, keeping the same type of driveshaft arrangements. Knowing all the space taken by the diesel engine and the automatic transmission typically found in a bus, this can easily be achieved with a direct-drive motor.

Direct-drive in-wheel or hub motors, on the other end, often require a special axle or the customization of other vehicle parts in order to be properly integrated, which means that the added price often offsets any potential benefits. Direct-Drive single motor is simply easier to install and integrate with the existing bus and truck axles available today.

 Typical truck or high floor bus chassis.

3. Reliability

One way to maximise reliability is to minimize the amount of parts within your drive system. This is what we aimed to do with our direct-drive motors. Removing the gearbox means that you can remove out of the equation the most mechanically complex and maintenance intensive part of an electric vehicle.

With a direct-drive motor connected to the axle, the only mechanical wear you have in your powertrain is the driveshaft bearing and the axle itself. Both are designed to last the lifespan of the vehicle. Our direct-drive motors, if used in the conditions prescribed by TM4, will last 1 million kilometers without any maintenance being required.

4. Maintenance

Speaking about maintenance, there are of course obvious costs associated with it. For a vehicle operator, it means expenses related to the training of support personnel, spare parts storage and vehicle downtime. While this will remain a reality even with electric vehicles, we need to keep in mind that one of the selling arguments in favor of EV’s is that they’re expected to reduce all of the expenses incurred for vehicle maintenance.

Maintenance is also about being able to access, diagnose, and replace a product as easily as possible if there is a problem. A motor system integrated with multiple other components such as a gearbox assembly or inside a wheel might be hard to access on a standalone basis and ultimately, failure of one of the component might prevent you to use the motor altogether. Such scenarios can make maintenance more complex or costly. TM4 direct-drive motors require no maintenance.

 5. ROI

Considering all of the items mentioned above, everything comes down to maximising the ROI of the vehicle owner or fleet operator. We want to provide the best torque density a customer can get for the money, both in term of the initial investment and long term expenses, and also maximise the system efficiency, which can also be translated in cost savings. We’ve found that keeping a simple powertrain architecture based on direct-drive motors offers the best compromise in that regard.

TM4 has not only validated this hypothesis theoretically during the SUMO product line design, but the millions of on-road kilometers achieved by buses and trucks using these products since their launch in 2012 also tend to confirm this proposition. Of course, to benefit from all of this, the products should be industrialised in order to be readily available and affordable. This is why TM4 has heavily invested into its Canadian and Chinese development and production facilities in order to bring down the price of its electric powertrain technologies and ensure that it can cover the growing worldwide demand for these products.

In conclusion, while TM4 is not the only company providing direct-drive motor to the bus and truck market, the torque density achieved by our systems is unequaled on the market. This is thanks to the many innovative technologies found inside our motors and power electronics.  To learn more about our products or if you have any questions, please visit our products and technology sections or contact us.

Summary
Ultimately, one of the key to being able to optimize the hardware design and the control software of inverters acting as motor controllers is having an in depth knowledge of the design of electric motors. It is one thing to ensure that electric motors and inverters not only have the highest possible efficiency as standalone products, but to design a truly efficient powertrain system, the challenge is keeping the combined efficiency of these components at the highest level possible.

With an history of more than 25 years in the vehicle electrification market, TM4 has long being known for its advanced expertise in the field of power electronics, which has allowed the company to implement breakthrough technologies in its inverters. One of these technologies is the patented Reflex^TM gate drive technology that increases current output of IGBT modules by up to 100% in certain operating conditions, making TM4’s inverters some of the most power dense off-the-shelf products on the market.

TM4 is also known for taking a multiphase approach for its high power inverters used in commercial vehicle and bus powertrains, offering 6 phase and even 9 phase inverters along with similarly designed motors. You can learn more on the advantages related to this design here.

Ultimately, one of the key to being able to optimize the hardware design and the control software of inverters acting as motor controllers is having an in depth knowledge of the design of electric motors, because they will both influence each other’s behavior during operation. In fact, it is one thing to ensure that electric motors and inverters not only have the highest possible efficiency as standalone products, but to design a truly efficient powertrain system the challenge is keeping the combined efficiency of these components at the highest level possible. TM4 has achieved this is by working on two axis that can be used to optimize the pulse width modulation (PWM) signal: the carrier wave form and the carrier frequency.

For instance, TM4 uses a variable switching frequency method, allowing it to increase along with the electrical frequency of the motor, which is dictated by its rotational speed. Varying the switching frequency allows to reduce motor harmonics at high speed, without having to increase the switching losses of the inverter at low speed.  However, faster switching time will leads to larger switching overvoltage. This is where the Reflex technology becomes most important, because it uses the parasitic inductance in the IGBT module as an overvoltage feedback and injects it into the gate driver as negative feedback to control and prevent an overvoltage. This technique permits a better usage of the IGBT, resulting in performance gains.

Over the operating range, space-vector PWM is used for highest frequencies since this technique leads to reductions of up to 30% in motor harmonics compared to another type of modulation, generalized discontinuous PWM (GDPWM). However, GDPWM is also used in some conditions, such as low frequency / RPM operation. This modulation technique permit stopping one IGBT during switching, when current is at its highest rating, hence where switching losses are also potentially the biggest. This process can result in up to 50% switching losses reduction compared to SVPWM over this operating range.

Clearly, at TM4 the proximity and capabilities of electromagnetic and power electronics teams working together under one roof has lead to the development of a wide range of highly efficient electric and hybrid powertrains optimized for their targeted markets and applications. Contact-us for more information, or visit our product’s section.

Summary
One question our sales representatives often get is related to Dana TM4’s multi-phase approach; what advantages do 6- and 9-phase electric powertrains provide in comparison with more traditional three-phase systems? Let’s take a look at the top 5 benefits multi-phase systems can offer.

TM4 offers a scaled line of multi-phase inverters and electric motors combinations:

1. Increased power

The most common approach to increasing power is the parallelisation of multiple power transistors (IGBT).  The immediate problem is that IGBTs are never perfectly matched and current does not distribute evenly between parallelized IGBTs; this can cause a loss in performance of more than 10% compared to the performance we could expect from the sum of the same number of independent IGBTs.

TM4’s multi-phase modular topology of inverters and motors uses independent IGBTs to drive independent electromagnetic subsets of the motor thereby allowing each IGBT to be used to its fullest potential.

2. Reduced component costs and DC bus ripple

The industry is always looking for ways to reduce component costs and our multi-phase topology allows to do just that. As the IGBTs are fully independent of each other in our systems, we are able to benefit from interleaved IGBT switching. This spreads the current ripple demand from the DC bus filtering capacitor among the IGBTs allowing to use a smaller capacitor whilst retaining the equivalent DC bus voltage ripple.

The following figures show the values of the DC filtering capacitor current for one, two or three -phase systems using the same capacitor and output current.

The end result is that for a defined DC bus voltage ripple requirement, the DC filtering capacitor can be significantly reduced thereby reducing costs as well as product size and weight.

3. More efficient use of cable cross-sectional area

At first view, 3 cables with a larger cross-sectional area may seem to be able to carry more current than 6 or 9 several smaller gage cables, but at TM4, we have proven that this is not the case.  As current frequency increases, current tends to flow at the outer edge of the wires while avoiding the center area. The larger the cable and higher the frequency, the more pronounced this effect becomes. This is called the “skin effect”.

Typical electrical systems have maximum fundamental frequencies up to 1 to 1.5 kHz which are sufficient to produce significant skin effect in large cables; this can become significant even at low frequency as presented next for a system at about 10% max speed.

Next is a table comparing a single three-phase system with a SUMO™HD 9-phase system (3 x three-phase) at equivalent output current.

This yields an overall reduction of copper surface of 38% and weight of 33%. Although suffering from a slightly higher cable loss, the larger cooling area of the multi-phase cables provides for a cooler cable temperature.

4. Easier integration

As shown in the previous table, the bending radius of the smaller gage cable is reduced by 50%; this allows for a tighter and cleaner integration around other vehicle peripherals and brackets.

Smaller and lighter cables also benefit from easier handling and preparation by requiring less cumbersome tools and smaller support brackets

5.What about cost?

Typically the more parts you use in your integration,  the higher the costs. However, as smaller gage cables and associated components are more readily available, the overall impact of multi-phase systems yields a small reduction in price as shown in the following table ( prices are for low volumes):

Conclusion

In summary, although seemingly unconventional, the multi-phase topology of TM4’s systems offers multiple benefits both technically and economically with the added bonus of facilitating vehicle integration due to the reduction in component size and bulk.

Please feel free to contact us or more information on our multi-phase products and how we can help you get the most out of your projects.