Bosch is one of the largest suppliers of components to automobile manufacturers in the world. As the interest in electric cars continues to rise, Bosch is devoting more resources to designing controls for electric motors, charging systems, and battery management systems.
Now Bosch has announced it is building a factory in Dresden, where it will use 300 millimeter silicon carbide disks to make a new kind of semiconductor.
What’s the big deal?
Using larger discs drives down the cost of manufacture and the new chips transmit electricity about 6% more efficiently than conventional chips.
Greater efficiency has several benefits for electric cars-
- It means a car can travel about 6% further on a single charge. That can make consumers happy — 6% more range means 265 miles for a car currently rated at 250 miles
- It can allow companies to decrease the size of the batteries they need to get the range their cars need to be competitive.
- Smaller batteries also cost less, which means companies can lower the selling price of their electric cars to boost sales.
- Greater efficiency means less electricity is lost to heat during charging and driving.
- Less heat means smaller cooling systems, which can also save manufacturers money.
The new silicon carbide semiconductor design has better electrical conductivity than existing chips, thanks to more carbon atoms being packed in during the manufacturing process.
Reference- SlashGear, Clean Technica, Bosch PR