Automotive Traction Inverters: Current Status and Future Trends
Abstract
Traction inverters are crucial components of modern electrified automotive powertrains. Advances in power electronics have enabled lower cost inverters with high reliability, efficiency, and power density, suitable for mass market consumer automotive applications. This paper presents an independent review of the state-of-the-art traction inverter designs from several production vehicles across multiple manufacturers. Future trends in inverter design are identified based on industry examples and academic research. Wide bandgap devices and trends in device packaging are discussed along with active gate driver implementations, current and future trends in system integration, and advanced manufacturing techniques.
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Some production vehicles already include mechanical integration of the OBC with other vehicle power electronics modules such that they share a common housing, reducing cost and weight.
“Some production vehicles already include mechanical integration of the OBC with other vehicle power electronics modules such that they share a common housing, reducing cost and weight [6].”
From A Review of Bidirectional On-Board Chargers for Electric Vehicles (2021) · cites this paper as [6]
Tesla Model S and Model 3 use six IGBTs and four SiC MOSFETs, respectively, in parallel per each of the switches to handle high current.
“As an example, Tesla Model S and Model 3 use six IGBTs and four SiC MOSFETs, respectively, in parallel per each of the switches to be able to handle the high current [22].”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
High-power electric trains and ships use multilevel inverters, while lower-power vehicles like electric buses and passenger EVs are equipped with conventional 2-level inverters due to lower DC-link voltage and simplicity.
“While these structures are being used in high-power electric trains and ships [17], [20], [21], lower-power vehicles like electric buses and passenger EVs are equipped with the conventional 2-level inverter due to their lower DC-link voltage and simplicity in design and implementation [22].”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
Currently, all passenger EVs with 400 V batteries utilize two-level inverters.
“Currently, all passenger EVs with 400 V batteries utilize two-level inverters.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
All commercial EV drives are based on conventional two-level inverters.
“In spite of the studies that have been conducted in this area, all commercial EV drives are based on conventional two-level inverters [22].”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
Capacitors are the most voluminous and heaviest parts in the inverter, and low-frequency operation of traction drives increases voltage ripple in floating capacitors, necessitating higher capacities.
“The capacitors are the most voluminous and heaviest parts in the inverter. Moreover, low-frequency operation of traction drives increases voltage ripple in floating capacitors of the multilevel structure, necessitating higher capacities [22].”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
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References 118 · Cited by 375
- Authors
- Reimers, J., Dorn-Gomba, L., Mak, C., & Emadi, A.
- Affiliations
- McMaster University (CA)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
- Published
- 2019-04
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 3337-3350
- ISSN
- 0018-9545 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-9359
- OpenAlex
- W2911688936
- Cited by
- 375
- References
- 118
- Citations by year
- 2026: 44 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 68 · 2023: 65 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 8
- FWCI
- 12.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Multilevel Inverters and Converters
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technologies
- Keywords
- traction inverter, electric vehicles, power electronics, wide bandgap devices, device packaging, gate driver, system integration, manufacturing techniques, power density, inverter efficiency, production vehicles
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