Rubrooks RND: Traction inverter for electric vehicles

Main article: Electric vehicles

2023: Development of RUBRUKS NTPI-600-50 traction inverter for electric vehicles based on domestic microcontroller

Rubrux RND, a developer of systems and components for hybrid and electric vehicles, has completely localized the production of a traction inverter in Russia. This is the most knowledge-intensive unit in the design that drives an electric car - it regulates the torque and speed of the vehicle. This was announced on April 20, 2023 by the Skolkovo Foundation.

The RUBRUKS NTPI-600-50 traction inverter was the first in the line built on the basis of the Russian microcontroller JSC NIIET. Production is completely localized in Russia: from the component base and software to the manufacture of structural elements and tests.

Chip is GSI a 32-bit microcontroller based on RISC the -kernel and is designed for industrial consumer, applications including remote monitoring systems, instrumentation, network devices production process automation systems, and automotive electronics control systems. It electric motors has a built-in flash memory of 64 KB, which can be used to storages load the user, software stated Vladimir Maleev, Commercial Director of NIIET JSC.

Inverters are used in power supply units or traction electric drive of special, agricultural and freight equipment, as well as passenger vehicles. The developed line of inverters is represented by devices with a capacity of 30 to 350 kW, which meet the transport requirements for size, weight and resistance to vibration loads.

The use of electromechanical transmissions in cargo and specialized equipment is a fairly developing direction. There are 150, 250 and 350 kW high power inverters for them. This direction can gradually replace the traditional mechanical transmission and hydraulic drive due to the available electrical components. For passenger vehicles, we have inverters with a capacity of 30 to 100 kW, said Kirill Ilyin, technical director of Rubrux.

Embedded software allows you to implement vector control methods, monitoring emergencies and debugging the device for the requirements and specifics of user tasks. The configuration, display of diagnostic parameters, as well as the history of control and emergency events are available to the service engineer through the graphics software.

Traction inverter is the most knowledge-intensive module of an electric car, both in terms of circuitry and in terms of control software. In many respects, the efficiency of the battery, its life and range on a single charge depend on the traction converter. Rubrux RND specialists have developed a line of traction inverters with high specific characteristics: for a nominal power of 100 kW - 4 kW/kg, 6 kW/L. Traction inverter has liquid cooling and has double overload capacity. It is also worth noting the possibility of configuring the device for the requirements and specifics of the operation of a specific platform of an electric car. The presence of domestic traction inverters is a critical condition for the development of an independent industry of electric vehicles. The cluster of energy-efficient technologies will continue to support the Rubrux RND team using the tools available to the company, noted Aleksei Belyaev, project manager energy efficient of the Fund's technology cluster Skolkovo"."

As of April 2023, the procedure is underway to include the product in the Register of Industrial Products of the Ministry of Industry and Trade produced in Russia. The planned release date for the series is the first quarter of 2024, the first samples have already been transferred to trial operation.