Electromobility is the future of transport

As the world increasingly embraces sustainable transportation solutions, electromobility has emerged as a key driver of the automotive industry's transformation. Electric vehicles are rapidly becoming the future of transportation, and with their growing popularity, the need for efficient testing solutions has never been more critical. Therefore, turnkey solutions stand out as game changers. In this blog article, we will explore the importance of turnkey solutions in electromobility automotive testing and how they contribute to the development and success of electric vehicles.

Turnkey solutions for the electromobility domain of automotive testing refer to ready-made, pre-integrated testing platforms, corresponding software models, and test libraries specifically designed for evaluating the conformance, performance, safety, and efficiency of electric vehicles and their components. These solutions eliminate the need for manufacturers to develop their own testing systems from scratch, providing them with a comprehensive testing infrastructure. Turnkey solutions offer seamless integration of various testing modules, accelerate time to market, optimize costs, and provide expert support, enabling efficient and reliable testing of electric vehicles in the automotive industry.

Ready-to-use solutions

This is where dSPACE comes into play. As leading supplier of turnkey hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test systems, dSPACE extends this offer by ready-to-use test catalogs. In the following, we will explore how these solutions for Smart Charging, Battery Management Systems, and Power HIL testing are supporting electromobility testing.

Maximizing Efficiency, Flexibility, and Sustainability: Smart Charging Testing

Smart Charging, also known as intelligent charging, refers to an advanced charging system for electric vehicles that incorporates intelligent communication and control capabilities. By intelligently managing and controlling the charging process of electric vehicles, it helps to optimize the use of resources, reduces the strain on the power grid, and supports the spread of electric vehicles. Thus, Smart Charging maximizes the efficiency, flexibility, and sustainability of electric vehicle charging.

dSPACE offers a turnkey solution for testing and validating of Smart Charging components. Due to differences in charging standards for regions, electric vehicle manufacturers face complex testing challenges. dSPACE provides a Smart Charging solution which simulates electric vehicles, electric vehicle supply equipment, and the communication between both, according to the customer’s needs. While CAN communication can be managed by a standard real-time system, the Smart Charging Interface Box handles the powerline communication of the combined charging system standard.

The Smart Charging turnkey solutions include new pre-implemented compliance tests derived from standardized, binding communication protocols, such as ISO 15118, CHAdeMO, or GB/T. This enables immediate testing after connecting your device under test.
 

Ensuring Safety, Performance, and Durability: Battery Management System Testing

The Battery Management System (BMS) is a critical component in an electric vehicle. The BMS ensures the safety, performance, and longevity of the battery pack. By accurately estimating the state of charge, managing cell balancing, monitoring temperature, protecting against faults, facilitating communication, and enabling predictive maintenance, the BMS plays a critical role in maximizing the efficiency and reliability of electric vehicle batteries.

dSPACE offers a turnkey solution for testing and validating of BMS. This solution consists of the established BMS-HIL systems and Automotive Simulation Models (ASM) high-fidelity battery models, combined with high-precision battery cell simulation for testing actual and future BMS. Both, the BMS-HIL systems and ASM models have a modular scalable system design which enables the user to build BMS test systems from single BMS to multiple BMS use cases while respecting the individual topologies of the corresponding cell supervision circuits. Thanks to the fully integrated system design, the system can be tailored to your specific requirements based on a standard design. The core piece of the system is the cell emulation board with high voltage precision and the support of high currents. A corresponding setup is also available for software-in-the loop (SIL) to enable validation in early development phases.  

dSPACE completes the BMS-HIL and SIL test systems with new pre-implemented tests as a test catalog to provide a turnkey solution for instant testing. The tests originate from the EU research project 'Everlasting' and are realized in an open framework that allows individual extensions. The Everlasting project is developing technologies to improve the reliability, lifetime and safety of lithium-ion batteries by developing and validating more accurate and standardized battery monitoring and management systems. 

Validation and Verification of Performance and Functionality: Power HIL Testing

Power HIL test systems serve for testing inverters, including the controller as well as power electronics, with real voltages and currents. The systems enable validation and verification of the performance and functionality of the power electronics systems of an electric vehicle. 

The dSPACE Power HIL solutions provide highly dynamic emulation of electric motors and batteries. All drive components of hybrid and electric vehicles can be simulated with a real energy flow. The high-performance electronic load module for high-voltage systems allows system performance to be scaled. Current-based emulation for the simulation of variable motor inductances is also possible without having to change or replace hardware components.

In addition to the turnkey Power HIL systems, dSPACE offers ready-to-use test catalogs derived from test specifications of LV123, respectively ISO 21498.
 

Saving Time and Money

Using advanced turnkey solutions means faster time to market and cost optimization. Turnkey HIL and SIL systems can be tailored to your test and validation projects and put into operation immediately. Validation of compliance with mandatory communication standards for Smart Charging, ISO21498 Power HIL tests or the performance of standard battery management tests are also possible with minimal effort. 

We are happy to be your partner as a one-stop supplier for all your electromobility testing needs and look forward to talking to you.