A Data-Based Review of Battery Electric Vehicle and Traction Inverter Trends
Christoph Sachs, Martin Neuburger
Abstract
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have advanced significantly over the past decade, yet drivetrain energy losses continue to limit practical range and raise cost. A dataset comprising more than 1 000 European-market BEVs (model years 2010– 2025) is combined with detailed inverter–motor co-simulation to chart technological progress and to quantify the efficiency and cost-saving potential of partial-load optimised multi-level inverters (MLIs) for 2030. Average drive-cycle range has climbed from 135 km to 455 km while fleet-average energy consumption has remained virtually constant. Latest trends like high-voltage architectures, multifunctional powertrain subsystems, wide-bandgap devices and thermal packaging are discussed.The assessment of three inverter topologies indicates potential efficiency gains and cost reductions: a conventional two-level (2L) six halfbridge (B6) inverter with silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) devices, and two three-level (3L) T-type neutral point clamped (TNPC) and active neutral point clamped (ANPC) inverters tailored for partial-load operation are evaluated. The 3L-TNPC inverter, realised with only 30 % additional SiC chip area, lowers drive-cycle drivetrain losses by 0.67 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">kWh</sup>/<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">100</inf> km relative to a SiC 2L-B6 baseline. These results show that partial-load optimised MLIs are a cost-effective way to reduce BEV energy consumption and total system cost by decreasing battery capacity while maintaining the same range.