Thursday, March 28, 2024

The awarded Design of electric Vespa

Style icon on the road, but also real lifestyle, Vespa is loved and it attracts also in its zero-emission “green” version. The electric model of Piaggio in fact – which represents one of Made in Italy myths in the world – has recently received a prestigious award: the Honourable Mention by the International Jury of the XXVI Gold Compass ADI prize, one of the most ancient and authoritative international awards dedicated to design.

“Electric Vespa confirms the pioneering and innovative spirit of a brand, Vespa, unique and unmistakeable in the global mobility market”, explained Award Prizes managers, illustrating the reasons for such Honourable Mention for design.

Besides its shapes, what are the winning characteristics that characterize Vespa? Extraordinary connectivity, high customization, silence and – obviously – environment protection.

The new silent roar of Harley Davidson

It made its début last July 18th and since 2022 it will be available on international markets. We are speaking of the new electrified Harley Davidson, LiveWire One, and proposed without the mythical logo from the iconic United States company. Therefore, it will have a dedicated EV brand, to underline that the electric range is a fully different story.
However, let us take a step back: the first electric HD, LiveWire, was conceived for the urban environment and was presented 3 years ago: the motor features 78 kW of power and has a maximum autonomy of 235 km, actually the same characteristics as LiveWire One.
The electric motorcycles is always connected to transmit road indications, to monitor the warnings and the recharge status. The bike recharges in DC Fast Charge from 0 to 100% in 60 minutes and from 0 to 80% in 45 minutes, with advanced software and hardware.

Flying cars. The single-seat drone took off

It measures two metre high by four metres wide and four metre long and requires only as much space on the ground as two parked cars. We are speaking of the SD-03 flying car by the Japanese SkyDrive company, which has recently conducted its first test flight, on the Toyota Test Field area in Tokyo, with one man on-board.
The drone moved at low altitude for about 4 minutes by means of 8 independent electric motors that guarantee safety in flight emergency situations.
The electric aircraft with vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), has been designed to become a new revolutionary means of transportation in megalopolis of the future.
Actually, it is a flying car with pilot on board, implemented by SkyDrive just two years after its establishment. The company’s target is to achieve the second level of the experiment in 2023.

Joint Venture at the conquest of China

ZF and Wolong Electric companies are protagonists of an important partnership in the world market of the electro-mobility that will produce components and electric motors for automotive applications. This joint venture will operate under the name Wolong ZF Automotive E-Motors Co Ltd, will develop the product portfolio by ZF and will further improve the competitiveness in electric transmission systems.
A first success of this partnership is the assignment of an important contract for the mass-production of components for the electric motor for hybrid and electric transmissions, which significantly share in reducing CO2 emissions from the road traffic. ZF informs that this move with a Chinese company represents a fundamental step forward in the implementation of its commitment to investing in China.
Meanwhile, ZF is constantly developing its integrated systems for network and automated applications. In the spring of the current year, the Group has further strengthened its ranking in rising markets for MaaS solutions acquiring the majority shares of 2getthere, Dutch mobility supplier. For over 20 years, 2getthere has been offering autonomous-drive shuttles for a broad variety of applications, with the applicative spectrum of fully automated electric transport systems, which range from airports to industrial parks, thematic parks and urban transport infrastructures.
Since January 2016, ZF has grouped its activity in the electro-mobility field in the E-Mobility division headquartered at Schweinfurt, in Germany. Over 9,000 employees work in the division, spread in various sites worldwide.

Car suitable as electricity grid reserve

To meet the universal desire for a transition to decentralised energy generation from renewable sources, new and innovative solutions for stabilising the electricity grid are necessary. The increasing use of renewable energy leads to fluctuations in the grid, which must be initially balanced by primary regulation, able to prevent impending power cuts at a second’s notice.

In Hagen (Germany) an important milestone on the road to emission-free energy and mobility has been achieved by technology company The Mobility House, energy supplier Enervie, transmission system operator Amprion and car maker Nissan. With the Nissan Leaf and an innovative charging and energy management technology, the project partners have succeeded in qualifying an electric car for all the Tso regulatory requirements for primary power regulation. This means that the car can be integrated as a regulating reserve for the German electricity grid – a breakthrough in the establishment of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology in Germany.
Electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf, with integrated bidirectional charging technology, is able not only to extract power from the grid and store it in its traction battery, but, if necessary, also to feed power back. This is called the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept.

The bidirectional chargeability of Nissan’s electric car is the foundation for its integration in the pilot project at the Enervie site in Hagen. In combination with innovative, intelligent charging and energy management technology from The Mobility House, the charging and discharging processes can be controlled and monitored.
As one of four Tso’s responsible for the transmission of power in Germany, and thus charged with the stability of the power grid, Amprion is a supporter of the ambitious V2G project. The Tso has defined the technical and regulatory requirements for prequalifying a mobile battery storage unit for the market for primary regulation. Amprion has now approved the Nissan Leaf, as the first electric car, in combination with the control system from The Mobility House, as suitable for this function.

Electrification of motors: the importance of retraining internal skills

The signs of factories’ massive conversion towards the electrification of motors are more and more numerous. One of them comes from the factory of the Powertrain division of Continental Group, the company Vitesco Technologies, which since the Sixties has been top player in the production of components for combustion engines, especially petrol injectors. About two years ago, the company announced its strategy change, that is to say the decision of giving up the internal combustion engine business to focus completely on electric cars’ components.
This choice has implied a specific training programme for workers, such as “Automotive Electronics and Powertrain Electrification” that involved 100 engineers and technicians in the sites at Vitesco di San Piero and Fauglia. It is a transition process that is exploiting the close University of Pisa, due to the need of updating employees’ professional competences.
«With its ‘Direction 2030’ strategy, Vitesco Technologies has set itself the goal of being a technological pioneer in clean, electrified and sustainable drives. This consistent and, above all, very early focus on electrification has the advantage for our employees that they can prepare and train themselves with tailored offers and a clear focus. We see – explains Ingo Holstein, CHRO of Vitesco Technologies – continuous learning as a central prerequisite for successful transformation. And that is more important today than ever before».
Besides, not only partnership with the University, the collaboration of the former Continental company sees also local SME to play a protagonist role, due to Invest in Tuscany that aims at creating a widespread net of collaborations on the territory.

The fastest all-electric aircraft by Rolls-Royce

This zero-emissions plane is expected to make a run for the record books with a target speed of 300+ MPH (480+ KMH). The 24ft-wide carbon-fibre aeroplane is being constructed by a 20-man team led by Rolls-Royce at a hangar the Staverton site.
The company hopes the plane will hit a world-beating top speed of more than 300mph when it takes to the skies over the UK in the first half of next year. The current record is 213mph, it was set last year by German-built Extra Aircraft 330LD, powered by a Siemens electric motor.
Inside a bustling hangar bay at the far end of Gloucestershire airport in South West England, a team of British engineers, designers, and data specialists recruited from across Rolls-Royce and beyond have set out to make history. They’re building a high-performance electric aeroplane unlike anything the world has ever seen. Scheduled to take to the skies over Great Britain in 2020, the aircraft will reach a speed of 300 mph – and quite likely more – making it the fastest all-electric plane in history.
This run for the record books is no stunt. It’s part of a Rolls-Royce initiative called ACCEL – short for “Accelerating the Electrification of Flight” – that’s intended to pioneer a third wave of aviation in support of Rolls-Royce’s strategy to champion electrification.

Electric motors and rebranding

Integral Powertrain Limited presents a total corporate rebrand, which transforms it into Helix: a new identity that coincides with its direction towards high-performance electric powertrains, with particular focus on integrated and all-in-one solutions.
The company, established in 1998, initially provided consulting for internal combustion engines, and along the years it has increasingly specialized in electrified units, shifting to hybrid, until nowadays, when it proposes high and very high performance eDrives, with possibility of scalability and customization according to customers’ requirements.
The top product is certainly the Electric Hypercar Fully Integrated Drive Unit, a solution with high power density, which equips Lotus Evija, one of the most powerful electric cars on the market, with 2,000 HP and 1,700 Nm of torque.
Its is also the electric motor of TE-1, the first e-bike by Triumph, and the powertrain by Volkswagen ID.R, an Integral eDrive SPM242

Manufacturing technology for electro mobility

Manufacturing technology

At the end of January 2017, GROB acquired 100 percent shares in DMG meccanica, substantially reinforcing the competences and developments in electro mobility, which it has been developing for several years. The technologies of DMG meccanica and the new processes developed by GROB will now enable GROB to provide all the vital manufacturing processes and procedures in electric drives for the automotive industry and its suppliers worldwide, and also to supply them for series production in the near future. DMG meccanica has many years of specialization and experience in machinery and plant manufacture for the production of stators for electric motors, alternators andgenerators. The technological know-how is based on the tried-and-tested winding process of inserting technology and needle winding.
Most of the machinery and plant of DMG meccanica is used directly in the automotive industry. GROB develops and tests new processes, developed specially for the series production of stators for electric motors in electric vehicles, in its own development department. The future cooperation is therefore a win-win situation for both companies. GROB has secured further know-how in the field of electro mobility and DMG meccanica has found in GROB a strong, globally- oriented partner for series production. Further investments to expand these technologies in the field of electro mobility are planned at both sites in Turin and Mindelheim.

Manufacturing technology
Closing ceremony- Grob and Dmg meccanica management.

Mauro Marzolla and the father of Marco Debilio founded DMG meccanica in 1992 from a spin-off of one of the leading Italian providers of winding machines for electric motors. In 2016, their company with a workforce of forty employees achieved a total turnover of ten million Euro. Their customer portfolio includes many well-known electric motor manufacturers and suppliers to the automotive industry. DMG meccanica is particularly well-represented in the important e-mobility market of China. Owners Mauro Marzolla and Marco Debilio will stay with the company in future and will continue to be co-CEO´s of DMG meccanica. In addition, DMG meccanica will remain an independent company within the GROB-Group, and all jobs in Italy will of course be retained.

A leading machine tool manufacturer

GROB-WERKE is an internationally active family company based in the Bavarian-Swabian town of Mindelheim, with a product portfolio ranging from universal machining centers to highly complex manufacturing systems including automation, and from machining assembly units to fully-automated assembly lines. GROB is one of the few machine tool manufacturers that produces and supplies both machining and assembly equipment. Since the production of electric motors demands special assembly know-how, it was logical for GROB to seek a competent partner from the field of electric motor technology. Its takeover of DMG meccanica enables GROB to emphasize more than ever its claim in drive technology to be a leading and reliable partner for the automotive industry.

The “Swiss Army Knife” of power electronics

Among the top players for the electric propulsion, ranks BAE Systems, which will bring its next-generation power and propulsion technology to the heavy-duty industrial vehicle market. The company’s electric drive system provides a revolutionary design which will help industrial vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) get their electric vehicles (EVs) to market faster and at a lower installed cost.
Steve Trichka, vice president and general manager of Power and Propulsion Solutions at BAE Systems said: «We are providing an all-inclusive solution to bring the industrial vehicle market one step closer to a zero-emission future. Our next-generation components are the Swiss Army Knife of power electronics, delivering multifunctional capabilities in a compact and flexible design. This flexibility makes it easier for OEMs to cover multiple platforms, including traditional diesel and purpose built EVs».
BAE Systems’ next-generation system for the heavy-duty industrial vehicle market builds on the company’s more than 25 years of experience in low and zero emission EV solutions for the transit bus and marine industries. The system uses fewer components and increases electrical efficiency. Its Modular Accessory Power System (MAPS) and Modular Power Control System (MPCS) also allow for scalable, customized solutions to provide the core power for a range of applications, from school buses and mining vehicles to sanitation and yard trucks.
BAE Systems has a deep understanding of systems engineering, a revolutionary design for propulsion and accessory power, proven integration expertise, and aftermarket support to give manufacturers a reliable solution and faster path to market, at a lower installation cost.