Here, Justin Lawrence, an applications engineer at TFC, discusses the challenges of producing hybrid and electric vehicles and explains how to overcome them.
In 2020, governments worldwide spent nearly £10 billion on incentives and tax breaks for electric vehicle purchases – a 25% increase year-on-year. This is just one incentive for environmentally savvy consumers who purchased and registered over 3 million new electric vehicles globally last year. Europe led for the first time with 1.4 million registrations, surpassing China and the US, while the UK saw registrations more than double to 176,000.
As total cost of ownership decreases, demand will increase, and manufacturers are looking for efficient ways to mass-produce electric vehicles.
Connector Challenge
Electric vehicle manufacturing requires significantly more connectors compared to the production of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. One reason is the use of connectors in EV charging stations and other supporting infrastructure. Another is increased design complexity—for example, batteries require more cooling, which increases the demand for connectors.
Compared to traditional vehicles, electric vehicles may have twice as many connectors due to the greater complexity of regulating the temperature of the battery, motor, power electronics, and other subsystems. This presents a design challenge—electric vehicles require connectors that can be installed in confined spaces and withstand high temperature and pressure conditions. To address this, manufacturers like ARaymond have developed connectors in various materials, configurations, and sizes. Until recently, however, manufacturing challenges remained.
Manufacturability of electric vehicles
Producing vehicles with more connectors has a ripple effect on production workers, who will need to connect more fluid lines. This significantly increases the physical exertion they need during the day, raising their risk of musculoskeletal disorders and injuries.
To improve working conditions on assembly lines, the electric vehicle manufacturing industry can opt for more ergonomic connector technologies to reduce insertion force. Specifying such components during the design phase can create a healthier, happier workforce, reduce morbidity, and accelerate production. An exciting technological advancement is the introduction of the VDA LOW PUSH quick connector, which reduces the required insertion force by 45% compared to other industry-standard components like the NW16. As a result, employees only need about half the workload per day—1,500 connections per day weighing 6 tons instead of 12 tons.
The need for more connections and different connector types also increases the risk of incorrect assembly. Since fluid lines have fundamental functions such as delivering fuel or coolant, they are crucial for safety and must be reliably connected. To ensure secure connections, manufacturers can use connectors that provide audio/video verification. ARaymond's new product features an optional verifier tab to confirm correct connections and displays a customizable, detectable, and readable QR code to prevent assembly errors.
As manufacturers increase the number of connectors they use daily, supply chain management becomes increasingly important. As part of a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) partnership, just-in-time delivery can help manufacturers save time and money managing the supply of C-grade components—a particularly compelling value proposition in a market where demand changes so rapidly.
In addition to solving inventory management issues, collaborating with experienced partners to assess the suitability of each connector for the environment and application also provides an additional safety net for manufacturers and designers.
