COSIVU — Compact, smart and reliable drive unit for fully electric vehicles

COSIVU is a three year collaborative research project that ended in September 2015 and which has been funded within the European Green Car Initiative (now the European Green Vehicle Initiative). COSIVU addresses one of the most critical technical parts in fully electrical vehicles (FEV) besides the energy storage system: the mechatronic drive-train unit. The COSIVU project has delivered a new system architecture for multiple wheel drive-trains by a smart, compact and durable single-wheel drive unit with integrated electric motor, full silicon carbide (SiC) power electronics (switches and diodes), a novel control and health monitoring module with wireless communication, and an advanced ultra-compact cooling solution. DfR utilizing FEM simulations ensures first time right solutions. This paper presents the main results including the architecture of the drive train solution as well as the modular design of the inverter based on Inverter Building Blocks, one per phase. Performance tests are presented here for the first time for both the heavy duty commercial vehicle solution performed in a test rig by Volvo, and the tests of the COSIVU solution adapted to a passenger car done by Elaphe.