Visteon, a US auto parts manufacturer, announced the launch of its first mass-produced, completely wireless battery management system (BMS) to continuously monitor the health and charging status of battery packs. The system solution is jointly developed by Visteon, General Motors and other technology partners. General Motors will be the first OEM to adopt this solution in electric vehicles. GM will standardize the system in all planned electric vehicles, and Such electric vehicles will be equipped with Ultium batteries.
The system provides a platform that can measure the battery condition with high accuracy during the life of the vehicle, extend the range of the vehicle, and maximize the energy usage of each battery cell. In addition, this new BMS system can also support safe and sustainable zero-cobalt battery chemistries, such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP), and automakers are also committed to achieving this sustainability goal.
The modular solution can support multiple charging protocols to meet OEM requirements in terms of cost, weight and packaging. Visteon uses its research and development experience in cockpit electronic equipment, network security and vehicle interface control modules to create this kind of integrated wireless battery management system, which can speed up product launch, increase design flexibility, increase battery pack energy density, and speed up products Production speed.
General Motors hopes that the wireless BMS system can promote the faster listing of electric vehicles equipped with Ultium batteries, because it does not take time to develop specific communication systems or redesign complex wiring schemes for each new car. On the contrary, this type of wireless system helps to ensure the scalability of Ultium batteries in the future GM product line, allowing it to be extended to different GM brands and different models of heavy trucks and high-performance vehicles.
Because this flexible wireless solution has an integrated hardware architecture and system software, it can be extended to a variety of automotive platforms, and only requires minimal changes to the battery module configuration, so it can greatly reduce the cost of battery pack design and make it easier Integrate with thermal management system and other vehicle control systems.
Visteon said that its wireless innovation system can reduce end-user maintenance costs because the physical equipment and wires that may cause problems in the new system have been eliminated.