Continental Engineering Services (CES) is proud to be a strong development partner for sustainable, new mobility technologies.
From our location in Nuremberg, Germany, CES has teamed up with experts from industry and academia to identify a range opportunities to improve the operation of electric vehicles under real world conditions. One such technology is a solar charging system, capable of directly charging the main vehicle traction battery.
In the project named “Street”, a light electric commercial vehicle powered by the energy converted from sunlight and stored in the high-voltage traction system has been modelled, a demonstration system built, and the resulting vehicle tested on the road.
The program is overseen by the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin (ISFH) alongside other leading research organizations including the Jülich Research Centre, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and the MBE Institute of Leibniz University Hannover.
Working together with CES are automotive suppliers Vitesco Technologies, a2-solar who design advanced photovoltaics (PV), and the solar technology team at Meyer Burger Technology AG. The light commercial vehicle demonstrator was supplied by German EV manufacturer StreetScooter.
The Project “Street” was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
All project partners collaborated successfully as a single unit. Everyone gave their best, especially in the challenging project phases, in order to meet the tight project milestones and complete the build of the prototype vehicle.
Dr. Mark Schudeleit
Head of System Engineering, Integration and Test
The demonstrator utilizes PV modules from a2-solar which are based on efficient silicon heterojunction solar cells from Meyer Burger. These were interconnected at ISFH using Smartwire interconnection technology. Vitesco Technologies provided the DC/DC converter to boost the harvested power up to 400V, enabling it to be stored in the traction battery.
Continental Engineering Services developed the control strategy to optimize the energy management and performed all system integration activities including final vehicle commissioning.
In applications like this we can demonstrate our strengths as a one-stop shop engineering partner, covering all disciplines from the systems team, including mechanical, electrical, thermal and controls integration.
Dr. Mark Schudeleit
The demonstrator vehicle is approved for road testing and will be monitored over a wide variety of driving conditions throughout the year to monitor and track energy performance.
