Buchs SG/Zurich – BRUSA HyPower and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) have built a prototype of a cost-effective, more efficient onboard charger for electric vehicles. The collaboration was funded as part of the EU’s Power2Power project.
BRUSA HyPower, a developer of charging devices for electromobility applications based in the St.GallenBodenseeArea, and ETH have developed new technologies as part of the EU-funded Power2Power project. The result is a prototype for a low-cost, more efficient charger for e-vehicles.
Power2Power started in June 2019 and had a term of 40 months. It was funded with 74 million euros. The 43 project partners from eight countries included BRUSA and ETH. Infineon Dresden acted as project coordinator. The overall objective was to develop power application systems with higher energy efficiency and power density for use in mobility, industry and the power grid.
“Developing new technologies, as was possible in the cooperation with ETH Zurich, is often not possible for us alongside our day-to-day business,” BRUSA systems engineer Lukas Riegler is quoted as saying in a statement. “We have made the most of the opportunity here to investigate and test new approaches.” For ETH, it was gratifying to see how the results of its research are being put into practice in the development of onboard chargers at BRUSA. BRUSA has traditionally maintained close cooperation with research institutions such as the ETH, according to the statement.
In addition to the prototype, a test board for the investigation of IGBT semiconductors had been made available to ETH. A concrete follow-up project is not yet planned, but BRUSA would like to continue the cooperation. In addition, the company intends to offer employment to further ETH graduates. mm
