Germany-based
Mahle has commissioned a test bench for electric drives at its facility in Stuttgart which will be used to develop and test e-axles and e-drive units for a wide range of electric and hybrid vehicles. The first test on a unit was successfully performed on behalf of a customer only last week. Mahle has invested around 3 million euros in the new facility and the e-test bench marks another milestone in the company’s technological transformation.
Dr Martin Berger, Mahle vice-president corporate research and advanced engineering, said: “With the commissioning of the test bench, Mahle continues the targeted expansion of its global range of services for e-mobility. Both our customers and our developers can now benefit from an ultra-modern facility, which is one of only a very few in Germany.”
In future, the new e-test bench in Fellbach will be used on behalf of international customers to carry out functional development work, simulate highly dynamic, transient modes of operation, perform efficiency measurements and torque vectoring, and simulate wheel slip scenarios.
Operating map application and data population, testing of high- and low-voltage systems, and the investigation of thermal influences are also among the scope of services.
The test facility includes an e-axle unit consisting of two oppositely mounted load machines equipped with permanent-magnet synchronous electric motors. Thanks to a nominal power handling of 350kW per dynamometer and a peak torque handling capacity of 8,400Nm, the set-up boasts formidable performance data.
Separate battery simulators for applications ranging from 48V to 1,000V and a high-speed power analyser system allow for performance mapping, performance characterisation, and efficiency studies to be carried out.
In addition, the new facility has a high-performance thermal conditioning system that provides a temperature range from –30°C to +130°C for the accurate simulation of vehicle operating conditions. This ensures that the drives tested in the facility will function reliably under the widest variety of climatic conditions around the world.
The time an e-drive spends on the test bench depends on the specific customer requirements and ranges from around 200hr to test individual functions through to a whole year when endurance testing is required.