The Saietta Group, a UK-based e-drive specialist, has revealed a new vehicle control unit (VCU) developed in partnership with HCLTech. The company’s latest offering is designed for three- and- four-wheeled lightweight electric vehicles (LEVs) in Asia.
Due to the complexity of electrical architectures in LEVs, the duo’s VCU will be responsible for managing a multitude of vehicle control functions, including how much electrical energy is supplied to the traction motors, managing the health of batteries and optimizing charging.
Saietta VNA – a JV between the Saietta Group and Padmini VNA – is scheduled to produce the VCU in India, with the first units to be delivered as part of complete e-drive solutions to a large India-based LEV manufacturer.
An e-drive supply arrangement – announced on December 6, 2022 – will result in 80,000 complete systems being produced and delivered over the first five years of the agreement. Initial deliveries are scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2023.
Thanks to its collaboration with HCLTech, Saietta will be able to undertake the end-to-end development of a scalable, modular, safe and secure VCU architecture for LEVs.
“As with all elements of our leading-edge e-drive solutions, the VCU is designed to be cost-effective for Asia and is highly modular,” explained Tony Gott, executive chairman and interim chief executive officer of the Saietta Group. “This allows our engineers to tailor the functionality precisely to a customer’s requirements and thereby deliver a competitive edge.”
Gott added, “Saietta seeks to work with the very best partners who have a proven track record of delivering insightful innovation at the required scale, on time, on cost and on quality, and we view HCLTech clearly as such an industry leader. We are honored to work alongside them and look forward to evolving this relationship and together helping clean up the air in mega-cities globally.”
For more on electric powertrain technologies, please click here.