Marelli expands its range of battery management technologies for electric vehicles with a new state-of-the-art Wireless Distributed Battery Management System (wBMS). This technology eliminates the wired physical connections typically needed in other Battery Management systems (BMS) architectures, allowing for greater flexibility, increased efficiency, improved reliability, and reduced costs, all crucial aspects of electric vehicles. Marelli is making available the solution starting from the second quarter of 2022, to support customer launches in 2024.

The solution eliminates the need for daisy-chain communication and wiring by using wireless technology to enable communication between batteries and the control unit. Compared to previous wired distributed solutions, the new wBMS developed by the company reduces the wiring harness by 90% and simplifies the battery cell construction and installation. In particular, the wBMS reduces complexity in the assembly and grants more flexibility for battery module placement.

The reduced weight due to connectors removal allows for more energy efficiency, thus increasing the driving range of the vehicle with the same charge. The solution also opens up room in the battery pack to allow larger batteries to fit, guaranteeing versatility, scalability, and optimization; ultimately, under the right circumstances, larger batteries also translate to enhanced power performance and again extended vehicle range.

The Marelli wBMS can be delivered with a highly sophisticated software application layer that uses advanced algorithms based on a proprietary technique so-called “Sensor Fusion”. The algorithms estimate several crucial parameters of each battery cell – including the State of Charge, State of Health, and the State of Power – to ensure a more accurate calculation of the battery’s overall status, and inform the other components of the powertrain accordingly.

Developing an advanced Battery Management System is a fundamental task for the Electric Vehicles design since it is a core and smart component in the complex architecture of EV energy management. The BMS represents the “brain” of the battery, manages the stored power and the capacity of the battery to deliver energy to the rest of the vehicle, checks and delivers information on the battery operating conditions and status, and ultimately monitors, optimizes,s and protects the battery.

In addition to this new wireless solution, Marelli already has a consolidated experience in the development of integrated and distributed BMS architectures over the years. These solutions are part of Marelli’s complete portfolio of modular technologies for vehicle energy management, which include a full selection of single components, as well as subsystems, up to solutions for the complete integrated vehicle energy management system. Complemented by proven e-powertrain and thermal design competencies, the battery management capabilities contribute to Marelli’s integrated approach, aimed at assure flexible and customizable solutions to control, manage and optimize the energy balance in electric vehicles.