Science & technologyElectric carsPump up the voltage!Electric vehicles which operate at 800v can be recharged in half the timeElectric vehicles (EVS) are becoming commoner.Some 750,000 of them were sold in the first quarter of 2021 according to JATO Dynamics, a British consultancy.JATO reckons EVS now account for just over 4% of new-car sales, up from 2% in the same quarter last year.Yet many potential buyers still suffer from "range anxiety", a wariness about having to interrupt a long journey while an EV's battery is recharged.The good news is that the time required to do this is about to be slashed.But a number of producers and their component suppliers are now gearing up to introduce 800v drive systems.Higher voltages supply the same amount of power with less current, which means electric cables can be made lighter―the consequent weight saving helping to increase a vehicle's range,says Christoph Gillen, a technology director for GKN Automotive, a British components group which recently announced that it is accelerating its development of 800v drive systems.As most cabling is made from copper, the price of which has been soaring, this should also save carmakers money.
科技板块电动汽车加大电压800v电动汽车充电时可以节省一半的时间电动汽车(EVS)变得越来越普遍。据英国咨询公司JATO Dynamics透露，2021年第一季度(1~3月)电动汽车的销量在75万台左右。据JATO估计，目前电动汽车在新车销售中所占比例略高于4%，高于去年同期的2%。然而，许多潜在买家仍有“里程焦虑”，即电动汽车在跑长途时需要中断行程进行充电。好消息是，充电所需时间将大大缩短。Most EVS operate at 400 volts (400v).大多数电动汽车在400伏(400v)电压下工作。但许多生产商及其零部件供应商现在正准备引进800v驱动系统。GKN汽车公司的技术总监克里斯托夫・吉伦表示，更高的电压以更小的电流提供相同的功率，这意味着电缆可以做得更轻，由此产生的重量减轻有助于增加车辆的行驶里程。该公司最近宣布正在加速其800v驱动系统的开发。由于大多数电缆都是由铜制成的，而铜价一直在飙升，这也为汽车制造商节省了资金。
