Good Times in Nuremberg and Portable Power Sources

­Welcome to the July issue! And since we’ve passed the official start of summer, welcome to the agonizing heat and running up the electric bill! Just kidding…kinda…not really.

More importantly, we hope everyone in or around Germany and those who made the pilgrimage to Nuremberg had a fantastic PCIM!

PCIM bills itself as the “leading international platform showcasing current products, topics and trends in power electronics and applications”, and with a mammoth 30,000 m² exhibition area, 500+ exhibitors, and nearly 20,000 visitors, it’s hard to argue with that.

Course, equally as important as the conference, itself, was the opportunity to meet with my European colleague, Ally Winning, and here’s hoping a decent number of you availed yourselves of that privilege!

Meanwhile, with summer vacations literally heating up, next month will deal with a popular method for arriving at said vacations – EVs, Hybrids, and Charging Infrastructure – which gives us the perfect opportunity to focus on the single most important EV peripheral, batteries.

With the global electrification of the transportation industry and the unfettered rise of portable electronics (and the ever-evolving IoT), it’s no surprise that batteries have become such an important vertical for us – arguably, the hottest application in the industry.

Anyone who’s checked their e-mail or been to an industry conference in the last several years could attest to that. It wasn’t too long ago that wide bandgap semiconductors was on the tip of everyone’s tongue and you couldn’t tie your shoes without stumbling upon GaN or SiC.

And while they’re both still massively important, the approaching dates for self-imposed – or government-imposed – electrification deadlines are making batteries the new topic du jour.

So it should come as no surprise that batteries and battery-related applications weren’t in short order in Nuremberg.

Nor are they scarce in the July issue. Take Keysight’s article, “EV Battery Design – Innovating for Longer Range and Battery Life,” which cuts straight to the meat of the topic.

While the most expensive part of EVs – and the priciest to maintain – is the battery pack, as Hwee Yng YEO from Keysight points out, the average EV battery pack cost $153 / kWh in 2022, a 90% price drop over a 15-year period.

And as prices come down, as with every new technology, EVs will be more accessible to the average person.

“More affordable EV batteries will help bring about the price parity between an EV and internal combustion engine car sooner than later,” Hwee says.

And that affordability hinges on higher capacities and longer ranges. Otherwise, EVs will stay within the exclusive purview of the wealthy.

Enjoy the July issue!

Best Regards,

Jason Lomberg

North American Editor, PSD