Engineering Priorities for Integrating Batteries, Motors and Controls into Unified Systems

The field of engineering has always been about adapting, innovating and overcoming new challenges. As vehicle electrification advances, engineers involved in EV projects will find their work evolving in even more meaningful ways.

Today, ongoing changes to the electric vehicle industry are driving a shift in the engineering team’s priorities.

An anticipated increase in all-electric technology is behind the evolution: By 2050, electricity is expected to account for around 70% of all power usage.¹ (For comparison, electricity currently makes up just 20% of the planet’s final energy demand.) As the world pivots to greener transportation and industry solutions, the push for electrified vehicles and smarter innovations within them is gaining unstoppable momentum.

However, with rapid adoption and growth comes new challenges. In an electrified future, modern EVs will no longer be specialized products. The technology will need to appeal to a wider audience, including operators who want ease of use and safety, as well as company stakeholders who are always seeking economic advantages.

With that in mind, engineers need to ensure that batteries, motors and controls work together smoothly and efficiently, all while keeping production costs in check.

Because these new engineering priorities will shape the products that leave the factory floor, understanding the industry’s evolution is essential for engineers and key decision-makers in non-engineering roles alike.

The Engineer’s Job is Changing

The role of an engineer has always been in constant flux. Engineering teams are tasked with fielding ever-changing challenges and requests from consumers, regulatory boards, product managers and more.

Even so, the new expectations surrounding electric vehicles are so substantial that engineers should be prepared for a minor industry overhaul.

As widespread electrification occurs across agriculture, construction and other domains, electrified systems are becoming more complex and interconnected. From higher-power components to intricate thermal management systems, EV motor and battery engineering is more complicated than ever.

Despite the increasing complexities, customers are still demanding faster charging, more efficient battery technology and better safety features. Engineering teams must deliver on these requests to remain competitive.

Of particular note is the continued progression toward software-first solutions. Between remote firmware update capabilities and smartphone app integrations, the lines between hardware and software are increasingly blurring. Now, EV engineers must work to integrate these two elements of machinery that have, until recent times, been relatively separate.

Inevitably, these modern unified systems require a new set of priorities for engineering teams.

New Engineering Priorities

Engineers are both steering and responding to the evolution of electrification across industries. Using both advances in available technology and end-user sentiment as the guiding forces, EV engineers are (or should be) shifting their focus to meet the needs of a new market.

The most critical changes are taking place in the design phase, where engineering teams are now prioritizing:

• A transition from a hardware-first philosophy to intelligent control strategies.
• A new reliance on software for both convenience and safety applications.
• A renewed focus on system-level engineering from the start.
• An emphasis on unified energy flow management for battery optimization.

Other changes will no doubt emerge as electrification speeds up, but these four areas of focus are the most pressing priorities for engineers.

The Shift from Hardware to Intelligent Control Strategies

For the longest time, ahead of electrification, ICE vehicles and other machines existed solely in the domain of hardware engineering. Any challenge to solve was a mechanical challenge.

Even as digital technology emerged, hardware was the predominant factor in machinery. Non-hardware components were largely seen as barely usable add-ons or frivolous gimmicks. While vehicles produced in the last decade have integrated software to varying degrees, most applications could be considered “surface level.”

With this most recent wave of electrification, the hardware-first model is officially fading. Engineering teams should recognize that intelligent control strategies are becoming the industry standard in any electrified machine with moving parts.

Intelligent motion control (IMC) is a standout technology for EVs. Using a series of integrated sensors as data inputs, an IMC system can monitor and manage various components within the system. In real time, IMC can automatically adjust the movement of individual parts. This smart technology has safety and performance implications for:

• Braking
• Steering
• Handling
• Battery charging

For operators, the advantage of smart motion control is enormous. After all, in electric vehicles—on- or off-highway—the coordination of moving components is what makes everything work. An IMC system ensures that every aspect of movement is optimized and functioning in harmony. The real-world implications are manifold: Intelligent systems can adjust torque to respond to changing road conditions, reallocate power when load weight increases or manage propulsion to optimize vehicle range.

A set of integrated sensors also offers unprecedented levels of insight into and control over the machines with which operators interact. Intelligent motion control systems can harness sensor data to identify, analyze, and even predict problems.

Those same benefits apply to engineering teams, as data from the IMC sensors can be leveraged to inform the next generation of vehicles. As such, collecting and interpreting component data is part of this reprioritization.

The Increasing Role of Software

Although intelligent motion control is redefining product design and feedback, it is far from the only software-related change for engineers. Increasingly, EV engineers will need a cross-disciplinary understanding of the interactions between software and hardware.

The need for engineering teams to broaden their horizons beyond hardware and work more collaboratively with software engineering counterparts is driven by three primary changes:

• The expansion of firmware. Where previous vehicles would have a centralized software system managing multiple parts, many EVs are eschewing this concept in favor of a more decentralized model. Built-in software (i.e., firmware) is now a crucial part of nearly every EV component. From on-board chargers and power control units to motor control systems and more, every piece of hardware has been elevated with an individual and bespoke piece of software.
• The demand for remote updates. When companies only operated a handful of EVs, manual updates were more manageable. However, now that mass electrification is leading to entire fleets of off-highway electric vehicles (OHVs), a more time-sensitive solution is essential. A software-first approach promises operators the convenience of over-the-air (OTA) updates, allowing them to send security and performance fixes to hundreds of vehicles simultaneously. The same remote monitoring technology can diagnose potential issues before they become costly problems.
• The quest for improved operator safety. On highways and jobsites, EV software keeps operators safer. Integrated firmware can help eliminate any guesswork from following safety protocols by automatically restricting speed and sudden movements. Perhaps most importantly, software solutions can help address operator fatigue through in-vehicle alerts and assistive steering and braking technology, thereby reducing accidents.

The many benefits of software integration have led customers to demand more from their vehicles—and engineers must now prioritize meeting those needs.

Embracing System-Level Engineering

System-level engineering, which focuses on ensuring that all components function harmoniously, is another noteworthy practice being emphasized in the EV space.

System-level engineering is nothing new; engineers have long considered the sum of a machine’s parts. However, mass electrification has transformed a wise strategy into a must.

Due to inseparable hardware and software integration, it’s no longer enough to think about any single component in a vacuum. Today’s data-oriented standards require batteries, motors, controls and safety systems to operate as a coordinated whole. For intelligent motor controls and quality-of-life features to work properly, a full-picture view of the entire machine is necessary.

A system-level approach should be on every engineering team’s priority list. When all components are considered part of a complete system, operators and engineers can receive unfiltered, start-to-finish information from their machinery.

There are other reasons for teams to embrace system-level engineering, too. A comprehensive approach can streamline production, saving countless dollars on manufacturing. Cost savings may also be passed on; holistic, long-term design thinking can reduce operating costs for end-users and simplify maintenance.

An Emphasis on Unified Energy Flow Management

Naturally, the most important aspect of system-oriented engineering in an EV—or any electrified machine, for that matter—is energy flow management.

Energy flow management (EFM) refers to the intelligent process of optimizing power usage to maximize both vehicle range and component lifespan.

Unified energy flow management is essentially an advanced version of EFM. Utilizing the same sensors that make intelligent motion control possible, unified EFM allows for the analysis and optimization of power across countless components.

Based on incoming component data, the system can prioritize essential energy use (motor operation) over non-essential usage (A/C), redirect power captured by regenerative braking, and more. Importantly, unified EFM can function even when electricity isn’t the sole source of energy, as in the case of hybrid EVs.

A unified approach to energy flow management across batteries, inverters and motors promises operators the feature they’ve always sought in EVs: increased vehicle runtime. The less time fleet vehicles need to spend charging, the less downtime companies need to factor into jobs and the more profit they can generate.

The engineer’s role in prioritizing unified energy flow management revolves around collecting and interpreting data. Regardless of the number of components or fuel types, built-in sensors can ensure that every input and output is tracked, recorded and utilized to better manage energy. Insights from sensors can be leveraged in real time to optimize energy flow in individual vehicles, but also to inform the next runs of innovative EVs.

Essential Considerations for Engineering Teams

As electrified systems become increasingly complex and industry priorities and preferences shift, engineering teams must consider more than just the product they’re designing.

It should go without saying that engineers are not solely responsible for setting design priorities. Requests from product managers, manufacturers and end-users will always dictate features and limitations.

With that said, today’s EV engineers should take a more holistic view of their work, not for the sake of marketability, but because it leads to more thoughtful designs. Product builds that respond to the market’s ever-evolving needs are more impressive to present to stakeholders and more fulfilling to work on.

Engineering teams should ask themselves a series of comprehensive questions as they develop next-generation EVs, including:

• What does the end consumer need from this machine?
• What problems do competitive products have?
• How can my company reduce manufacturing costs without compromising on quality?
• Is this solution scalable as electrification advances?
• How can this technology improve operator safety?

According to the past principles of a more insular school of product design, some of these considerations may seem “beyond the scope” of an engineering team. And that’s precisely the point: The scope of EV engineering is expanding to meet the needs of a rapidly growing industry.

To design truly efficient and effective electric vehicles, engineers must adapt to an all-encompassing mindset. Integration and unification are the new foundations of electrification.

Changing Priorities in an Ever-Changing Domain

In the end, technology never stands still; change, famously, is the only constant. That never-ending change has been propelling seismic shifts in the world of electric vehicle engineering. The ongoing expansion of electrification and the advance of EV technology will continue to influence the average engineering team’s priorities.

Among those priorities are firmware-enabled components, system-level engineering and unified energy flow management. The common denominator shared by all of these innovations is software integration.

New battery, motor and control capabilities are all made possible by intelligent sensors and the data they aggregate. Integrating and optimizing these components means merging hardware and software into an indistinguishable, inseparable whole. In turn, hardware and software engineering teams will have to collaborate more closely than ever before.

Though this progress within the EV industry may seem like it’s already in unstoppable motion, engineers are not relegated to the role of passive observers. Rather, engineering teams have the opportunity to be the pilots of such innovation. By reordering the priority list and considering distinct components as an indivisible system, EV engineers can deliver the vehicles that company stakeholders, industry regulators and operators are demanding.

Source:

1. Energy Transitions Commission. Electricity.