CANbus Plays Critical Role in Electric Vehicles
Apr 19, 2021
Controller Area Network
Communication between components and systems is common in today’s heavy-duty vehicles and equipment with CANbus (Controller Area Network). As technology continues to evolve, so have CANbus systems and the components which are connected to them.
Because of its communication capabilities, CANbus plays a critical role in electric vehicles. With the latter, it is especially important for components and systems to communicate with one another to ensure safe and efficient operation.
How is CANbus being utilized with battery powered systems and battery chargers?
The battery and the charger are very dependent on each other. Typically, the battery is the first largest expense in electric vehicles. So when we look for a battery solution, we want to make sure you are getting the most return on investment when you purchase our vehicle. What that means is getting the best performance out of it, the most life out of it, and the most cost-effective solution.New Paragraph
If you think back to lead-acid batteries, because there were no electronics involved you really had to characterize the battery and be as efficient as possible on that characterization. Whereas now that you have the flexibility to scale how you want to use that battery and the performance of the battery due to the communication path which most often is CAN communication, you are able to scale how and when the battery is doing what it’s doing.
As an example, with a lead acid battery, if you are scaling down on capacity, you could tell the capacity is going down in voltage, but you can't control how much power that battery is able to give out. With a lithium-ion battery and charging, you could tell the system you want to cap it at a certain point, and it will abide by that.
This is essential and important to the total cost of the battery because you could either enhance performance, or you could manipulate the battery through the communications to optimize the life at the expense of some performance. It gives you flexibility.
As an example, with a lead acid battery, if you are scaling down on capacity, you could tell the capacity is going down in voltage, but you can't control how much power that battery is able to give out. With a lithium-ion battery and charging, you could tell the system you want to cap it at a certain point, and it will abide by that.
This is essential and important to the total cost of the battery because you could either enhance performance, or you could manipulate the battery through the communications to optimize the life at the expense of some performance. It gives you flexibility.
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