Infineon supplies chip solutions for market-viable, affordable electric mobility

NEUBIBERG, GERMANY: With oil reserves dwindling, energy prices escalating, the climate changing, and strict restrictions limiting vehicle emissions, industry players and policymakers agree that tomorrow’s cars will be electric-powered. However, a number of technical and infrastructure challenges must first be overcome.

“Innovative semiconductor solutions are paving the way for and advancing electric mobility,” said Peter Bauer, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG at Hannover Messe, Germany. “With our sensors, microcontrollers and power semiconductors, we’re breaking the ground for market-viable and affordable electric mobility.”

To enable electric vehicles to make the transition from a niche product to the mainstream, two things must happen: a massive reduction in cost and the creation of an intelligent power distribution infrastructure – a smart grid.

Infineon’s semiconductor products play a major role in generating and transmitting power, charging electric vehicle batteries, and feeding power back into the smart grid. In automobiles, they help to radically reduce the cost of the power train and electronics, to increase mileage and to improve battery efficiency. Today, technology from Infineon already boosts battery life and capacity by at least 10 percent.

“We’re not just a key innovator in the field of electric mobility, we also stand to gain from the trend toward electric cars,” said Peter Bauer. Vehicles with a conventional power train are currently fitted with semiconductors worth around $300. In hybrid and electric vehicles, this figure will increase by around $600.

Infineon has built two electric carts (E-Carts) for research and development purposes that demonstrate the practical applications of chip-based technologies in electric drive systems.