Power Electronics

The power electronics business as applied to electric vehicles is becoming so huge that very divergent approaches become viable.

IDTechEx interviews in Japan have established that supercapacitors across lithium-ion batteries in cars can increase range by 10% by permitting deep discharge, provided suitable batteries are used that can tolerate such a regime.

IDTechEx's Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing, conference was successfully held during the 28th and 29th of April 2015 in Berlin.

"Future Electric is unlikely to be the final name of our company," said CEO Jasper Vind in our interview at EVS28 in Korea last week.

Based on the latest research by IDTechEx analysts, the market for energy harvesting is expected to reach $2.6 Billion by 2024.

So far, there is very little true e-textile in production - that is, textiles with electronic and/or electric functionality based on weavable e-fibers. That is now changing.

IDTechEx Research's new report "Wearable Technology 2014-2024: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts" comprehensively covers wearable technology and concentrates on wearable electronics and electrics, which will remain over 99% of the business.

SiC devices will be widely designed into electric vehicles from 2014 and GaN from 2018. With manufacturers currently designing vehicles to be launched onto the market in 2018, it is predicted that by this date GaN semiconductors will attain price parity with silicon devices. This will make the technology attractive as a replacement for silicon for use in the power electronics in both pure electric and hybrid vehicles.

IDTechEx is forecasting that the total market for energy harvesting devices will rise to $2.6 billion in 2024.

Supercapacitors are increasing the range of electric vehicles in several ways and by doing so they are hugely increasing the addressable market for those vehicles. Typically, they last for the life of the vehicle regardless of how many cycles are endured.