Audi is king of patents for electric drives

By CARSIFU | 16 July 2020


INGOLSTADT: Audi is the leader in patent applications filed for electric drives in Germany.

In 2019, a total of 660 patents were filed in Germany. These applications refer only to vehicles with electric powertrains. Compared to 2017, this was an increase of 42 percent.

With 57 patent applications filed for the plug-in hybrids and the models of the all-electric Audi e-tron, Audi occupied the top spot.

“This is ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ and shows the great innovative spirit of our developers,” says Roman Straßer, head of development, power electronics and charging systems.

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Examples of patent applications include two Audi engineers inventing a new method of operating the electric machines of the Audi e-tron.

Their function for predictive energisation of the e-machines via smart and innovative power electronics enhances driving dynamics.

At the same time, it minimises electric power consumption by “anticipating” the desired driving commands and predictively initiating them.

Audi patents are also found in the field of fluid mechanics, in other words, the utilisation of the physical flow behaviour of fluids.

For instance, to efficiently cool the rotor in an electric motor. Traditionally, the heat is dissipated from the outside.

Audi does this additionally via a coolant fluid and smart cooling ducts directly in the rotor core – in other words, from the inside.

The complex technological feat of assembling the individual rotor sheets results in particularly effective rotor cooling.

Another example of e-mobility ingenuity at Audi is a patent on a solution enabling the absorption of hectic accelerator pedal actuations, which makes it possible to avoid load alternations from acceleration to deceleration mode.

This is achieved by complex filtering of driving behaviour, which considers and optimises all parameters from the driver’s wish to the current torque distribution on the two axles and on all four wheels.

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