Cleantech engineering firm Avid Technology is teaming up with Caterpillar and Imperial College London to develop a new battery storage system for electric off-highway machinery. The system should cope with the lifecycle and load demands of heavy-duty machinery, while still having the energy density to make them viable.
Using simulation techniques, the project will develop advanced controls, monitoring and thermal management to demonstrate that battery storage can be commercially viable for electric and hybrid heavy-duty vehicles.
The £2.8m (US$3.67m) project is partly funded by the UK government’s Innovate UK Faraday Challenge Industrial Strategy Fund.
Ryan Maughan, managing director of Avid Technology Group, said, “The emissions and environmental impact of heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks, buses and construction machinery is far greater [than with passenger cars] due to the high operating hours and power factors required. This means there is huge potential for the design and manufacture of electrification systems to improve the situation, but it also presents several challenges in delivering electric vehicle drivetrains that are robust enough and able to deliver the performance required.”