Electrifying a Movement: Connectivity for electric vehicle charging, energy storage, and controlled power management

Handheld, battery-powered devices are pervasive in our daily lives. Cell phones, tablets, laptops, leaf blowers, webcams, and drones (to name a few examples) are a part of everything we do. What once seemed like magic, are now common and ordinary. These devices all have several things in common:

1. they need to be charged quickly and conveniently;
2. they need to efficiently and safely store energy in a battery; and
3. they need to operate and function effectively and intelligently.

The same story holds true for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), yet they are not as pervasive as handheld devices because we are only at the early stages of making the necessary technological advances to meet their extremely demanding consumer and societal needs.
This is because there is a fourth (4) characteristic to the battery-powered electric vehicle: the need to operate flawlessly in extremely harsh environments and never leave an owner stranded. In a well-known quote attributed to Gene Kranz, former Chief Flight Director of NASA: “Failure is not an option.”

The automotive industry is focused on these four points, developing new and improved vehicle architecture approaches to efficiently address these challenges. Connectivity, from power to propulsion, is a key enabler of bringing the Electric Mobility vision to reality.

TE Connectivity’s team of engineers and scientists collaboratively engage with our customers and other technology leaders from across the industry, focusing on all aspects of connectivity – from the car charging inlet, to the battery through to the electric motor.