Mitigation of parasitic stray currents in heavy duty electrical vehicles for improved reliability and efficiency

Stray currents lead to damages in the drivetrain in heavy duty electric vehicles. The damages leads to increased noise, but also shortly to damages so severe that the vehicle cannot be in use. The problem origins from high frequency inverters controlling the electric motors to achieve a higher efficiency and are expected to become even worse with next generation of vehicles with even higher switching frequencies.

The problem reduced the appeal of electric trucks due to reduced reliability and higher service costs, and are slowing down the transition to more efficient electric drivetrains.

The projects main goal is to establish competence regarding the fundamental mechanisms in electrified tribological contacts to eliminate bearing damages. This would increase the appeal and reliability of electric vehicles and accelerate the introduction of more efficient solutions. This is expected to lead to a faster transition to heavy duty electric vehicles and thus a faster reduction of emissions