E-vehicles are already an integral part of our mobility today. They are conquering the roads on every continent - also because there are attractive vehicle models for every need, from dynamic high-performance cars to family-friendly vans.
The wide range also means that the electric drive, the heart of electric vehicles, must be just as versatile. Different technologies are used depending on whether the focus is on starting power, continuous performance or the most sustainable production possible. However, the effort and costs for this individualization must not get out of hand. And finally: battery capacity is still expensive. Its energy content must be metered as efficiently as possible to ensure a good range. All of this requires system expertise for the e-drive - and that is why ZF has developed the SELECT eDrive platform.
SELECT is a complete system made up of various modular components. The advantage: everything can be perfectly combined and looks as if it has been cast from a single mold, regardless of its composition. ZF has developed some of the necessary modules - electric motors, power electronics, reduction gears and software - from scratch for the SELECT platform. Demand for electric vehicles remains volatile, which is why ZF has also developed production processes for the SELECT platform that can be easily scaled and are highly attractive from an economic perspective.
Thanks to this ideal interplay, highly efficient electric drives with efficiencies of over 96 percent are created. With decades of experience and over five million electric motors in use worldwide, ZF’s expertise in electric drive development gives our customers a clear competitive edge. Know-how that is also used within the Group for many other electric applications - from buses and trucks to construction and agricultural machinery.
Only a few suppliers can offer highly integrated electric drives from a single source like ZF - including essential components such as the electric motor, inverter, transmission and software. Thanks to the SELECT platform, these system solutions are even more powerful and flexible.
Automated production
The eDrive platform SELECT is an optimal synergy of our system expertise and the five technological “building blocks” on which the platform is based. ZF is breaking away from the traditional approach, which starts with the components to create a system that is as harmonious as possible. With SELECT, we first defined the system with all its requirements and then developed or adapted the necessary components - the aforementioned “building blocks”. The result is a technologically highly flexible platform for e-drives with optimized components that is also highly efficient in terms of development and production.
em:SELECT is a modular system for ZF electric motors. It is based on a scalable design for the stator, supplemented by ASM, PSM or SESM designs for the rotor - depending on the application and area of use. The power classes range from 75 to 550 kW for architectures with 400 and 800. Electric motors from ZF set standards in terms of performance, efficiency and sustainability.
in:SELECT summarizes the product solutions: 400 and 800 volt inverters and semiconductors in silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) versions, insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). With our experience and expertise, we can react quickly and flexibly and offer the most efficient solution for all customer requirements.
With rd:SELECT, ZF offers an essential building block for greater efficiency of the entire e-drive. Here it becomes particularly clear how the overall system and all components must harmonize perfectly with each other, for example to adapt the transmission ratio to the parameters of the electric motor and inverter.
Software is the key to electric drives, both in terms of functionality and implementation. With the Building Block sw:SELECT, ZF has modularized its software for the electric driveline to serve customers flexibly, quickly and cost-effectively. Thanks to our OPP algorithms (Optimized Pulse Patterns), ZF control software is also a key factor for efficient energy use.
With co:SELECT, ZF has built up its range of converter technology on a modular basis. Basic functions of an 800-volt architecture can thus be expanded and scaled as required - through the use of pre-standardized hardware and software.
This also increases the degree of integration in the direction of an X-in-1 solution.
Vehicle manufacturers have different ideas about the e-drive system, depending on whether they are designing a BEV as a sports car, a saloon, an SUV or a small, economical car. As the different requirements grow, so does the total number of e-drive systems needed.
Our platform approach, the ZF eDrive platform SELECT, offers precisely this flexibility in e-drive - but without increasing complexity, effort and ultimately development time and costs. Dr. Fabio Dohr explains how this works in this video.
