- China’s Geely has unveiled a new electric drive system that integrates just about all the hardware and software functions into a single unit.
- The “Thunder” setup has 30% less high-voltage wiring and 15% less low-voltage wiring compared to conventional systems.
- It weighs just 165 pounds but makes 328 horsepower. It’s also extremely efficient.
Everybody knows that electric motors are much more efficient than gas engines, but that doesn’t mean engineers have given up and called it a day. Despite the advantages over combustion, there’s still room for improvement in the electric car game, and China’s Geely wants to show everybody that it can lead the way.
This is the new “Thunder” intelligent electric drive system, a compact and low-weight all-in-one drive setup for EVs, which promises impressive efficiency and more than decent performance.
With a claimed efficiency of 93.8%, Geely reckons this is a production-level record in the industry, and it’s all down to the tight integration of multiple components that—in conventional drive systems—live in separate enclosures and require additional wiring to work correctly.
The Chinese car giant says the “Thunder” has 12 components sitting snugly inside the same enclosure, including the motor, motor controller, DC-to-DC converter, on-board charger, vehicle control unit, active pre-charge controller, low-voltage and high-voltage battery management systems, and power domain gateway. Additionally, four software features are baked into the brains of the system, and they’re powered by artificial intelligence, according to the automaker.
Geely claims it has eliminated over 180 components by going down this route, which resulted in a power density of 11.8 kilowatts/kilogram. The unit’s housing is made out of magnesium and is just 12.8 inches (325 millimeters) tall, which can free up to one cubic foot (28 liters) of capacity in the trunk, compared to a conventional drive unit. What’s more, the compact packaging reduces 30% of the high-voltage wiring and 15% of the low-voltage wiring. All of these design choices have led to a total weight of just 165 pounds (75 kilograms), which is 15% less than a comparable mainstream drive unit, according to Geely.
The first car powered by the company’s new “Thunder” drive system is the Geely Galaxy TT, an electric sports sedan, which makes 328 horsepower in the single-motor version and 570 hp in the range-topping dual-motor all-wheel drive variant. The EV is based on an 800-volt architecture and can be specced with either a 52.4-, 63.8-, or 75.2-kilowatt-hour battery, with a maximum CLTL range rating of 450 miles (725 km).