How do you achieve the same performance with a battery pack as with a petrol engine?
Owners of high-performance applications, such as racing, face a major challenge: the transition from fuel to clean powertrains. Because how do you achieve the same performance with a battery pack as with a petrol engine? And how do you meet the applicable regulations and safety requirements of the circuit? And, not unimportant for the driver, how do you maintain or increase the fun factor?
Unique cooling technology
Since 2020, Power Battery has been a partner of ERA Championship. ERA's mission is to set up the world's first fully electric junior racing class. It requires the necessary engineering skills to design and produce solid, safe and high-power battery packs for this application. ERA found these at Power Battery.
A critical factor in high performance applications such as racing is the cooling technology. This allows you to continuously extract a lot of power from a battery pack, without it overheating. With positive consequences for safety, and especially for the lifespan and reliability of the pack. What does this mean? cooling technology in?
Optimal cooling
By optimally guiding the cooling through the entire battery pack, the delta (temperature increase) of the cooling water is limited to half a degree Celsius. For comparison: in a Tesla the delta is 5 degrees Celsius. The cooling system of Power Battery cools no less than 25 percent of the cell surface and dissipates the heat generated very efficiently. The temperature on the outside of the battery cells remains at approximately 55 degrees, even after prolonged high discharge. Well within the specifications of the suppliers.
Rising voltage
In addition to cooling technology, the electrical safety another critical success factor. Did you know that the voltage of the drivetrains continues to increase? In 2020, 350 to 400 volts was still the standard bandwidth, but now most requests for new drivetrains run up to 700 to 800 volts. Voltages that can be downright deadly. That is why Power Battery pays a lot of attention to the safety systems and insulation inside and outside the battery pack. We also see this rising line in voltages in other types of applications such as industrial and maritime applications. We also apply the knowledge gained from racing to other places.
All time lap record
The racing activities of ERA are the perfect opportunity for a young club like Power Battery test case to test the battery packs in real life. The F4 race cars race over the curb stones at 200kmh and have to be on almost continuous high power perform. The first tests showed that the packages performed exceptionally well on the circuit. Both in terms of mechanical construction and technical and operational performance. The package and the car performed so well that in August 2021 the lap record on the Zolder circuit was smashed to pieces by 3,5 seconds.
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That record was previously held by InMotion, a student team from Eindhoven that is preparing to drive the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a fully electric car.
ERA Championship
ERA Championship is working hard and has managed to attract major sponsors such as Eurosport, Discovery and Software AG. In order to give more substance to the various sponsorships, ERA has joined other electric racing series in order to gain name recognition and experience. The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) is the global body that regulates these racing series. Both in the field of mechanical and electrical safety.
