Development of Fuel-efficient, Environmentally-friendly Hybrid Electric Vehicle Systems

OVERVIEW: In electrically driven systems for EVs (electric vehicles), HEVs (hybrid electric vehicles), and FCEVs (fuel-cell electric vehicles), the ability to mount electric motors and inverters onboard the vehicle is critically important. To address this challenge, Hitachi Group has thus focused its R&D (research and development) efforts on reducing the size and weight of motors and inverters while maintaining a high level of output. Excellent results have been achieved: the output-to-mass ratio of the motor has been reduced by about 4.5 times while the capacity-to-volume ratio of the inverter has been increased by close to 5.2 times. With the R&D and performance challenges now out of the way, we are currently putting in place the production infrastructure to provide motors and inverters that satisfy the reliability and other exacting requirements of the vehicle manufacturers. Haruki Hamada Shigeyuki Yoshihara Hiroshi Hamano