Eyeing the growing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), Texas Instruments has introduced at CES 2023 new automotive battery cell and pack monitors designed to increase overall life and safety of the battery.
The new devices are designed to maximize EV drive time and safe operation, which are seen as some of the major barriers to widespread adoption of these vehicles. Advanced battery management systems (BMS) allow automakers to create safer and more reliable driving experiences, which should help to spur EV adoption.
Called the BQ79718-Q1 battery cell monitor and BQ79731-Q1 battery pack monitor, these BMS devices offer accuracy and precision in measuring battery voltage, current and temperature to determine the true range of a vehicle.
“Automakers aim to get the most range possible out of their EVs, and accurate state-of-charge estimations are vital to achieve this,” said Sam Wong, general manager for BMS at TI. “Our new devices bring substantially higher precision to voltage and current measurement, giving automakers confidence to accurately measure an EV’s true range.”
Why it is needed
Providing accuracy and precision in measuring battery voltage is critical to the driving experience in EVs. A slight change in temperature can have a significant impact on the range of an EV, TI said.
In cold weather, this could have an impact of up to 40% on an EV’s range. Obviously, this creates uncertainty in battery voltage and creates stress on the driver on what range their car may have.
These devices provide a true range down to 1 mV of accuracy and allow measurement of the battery pack current down to 0.05% of accuracy, TI said.
The BQ79718-Q1 and BQ79731-Q1 allows for a clear picture of the state of charge and state of health of an EV cell and pack level.
Additionally, the devices provide instantaneous monitoring of battery pack power by providing a real-time snapshot of battery health. This enables electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to provide insight into cell core temperature, battery aging and state of charge of the battery.
