48-volt power is coming, offering a big advantage to automakers
With fuel economy regulations tightening and connectivity and autonomous-driving capability proliferating, the old-fashioned 12-volt automobile electrical system has reached the end of the road.
That’s the view of Mary Gustanski, Delphi Automotive’s vice president of engineering and program management. And I agree.
Gustanski is charged with looking into the future and developing electrical architectures that will have to support:
• All the components for autonomous driving -- cameras, radar, lidar sensors, computers, etc.
• A greater array of drivetrain components, such as the oil and water pumps, that will switch from mechanical to electrical power.
• An assortment of hybrid-drive parts that will propel the car under electric power.
• More computing power that will improve vehicles’ connectivity, not just to the Internet, but to other vehicles and buildings, traffic signals and other structures in the environment.
During a visit to Delphi’s North American engineering campus north of Detroit, I chatted with Gustanski on the changes coming to electrical systems.
It isn’t clear yet how elevating 48-volt capability to handle some of a vehicle’s electricity-guzzling components will affect costs at the automaker and consumer levels. But it won’t be cheap. Delphi estimates that adding 48-volt capability could cost around $1,200. But that seems low to me.
It’s no longer a question of the technology being fully baked. It is. Delphi engineers let me test drive a European 2016 Honda Civic diesel they converted to 48-volt power. The trunk contains a compact 48-volt lithium ion battery and a power converter. Under the hood, Delphi engineers installed a beefy belt-alternator stop-start system, an electric turbocharger and a few other components.
In early testing, the car’s fuel economy improvement is averaging about 10 percent. That’s huge. Engineers struggle to wring out even a 1 percent gain. But the Civic test mule’s higher fuel economy does not come at the expense of performance. The electric turbocharger not only eliminates traditional low-end diesel turbo lag (the pause in acceleration as the turbocharger impeller reaches high rpm), but it enables the engine to pull strongly at low rpms.
I drove the car around Delphi’s Troy, Mich., engineering center for about 45 minutes, testing not just acceleration, but the stop-start system and the car’s overall refinement. It’s clear that 48-volt systems offer significant advantages over today’s 12-volt electrical architectures. The Honda diesel engine has a 16:1 compression ratio, which makes it difficult to engineer a 12-volt stop-start system that is smooth and lightning fast. The Delphi system was nearly seamless.
Gustanski believes hybridization and the electrification of energy-hungry components will be essential for most automakers to meet tighter fuel economy standards.
By 2025, automakers must achieve a fleet average 54.5 mpg. But credits for such things as environmentally friendly air conditioners and stop-start systems means that the actual fuel economy rating on the window sticker will be less than 54.5 mpg in nine years, and vehicles still will meet the government’s mandates
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