The electric vehicles (EV) market is progressively developing worldwide: in only 10 years Europe has developed cutting-edge technologies. It must now speed up to enter early mass production, thus ensuring large market shares and a wide adoption of the products provided. The need for scalable and brand-independent technology platforms for the key EV elements, like the inverter-motor-transmission/gearbox (powertrain) and the battery, is evident. The project 1000kmPLUS addresses this point globally, to ensure the superiority of European automotive key technologies in terms of performance, scalability and costs for the 2nd and 3rd generation of EV.

The 1000kmPLUS project is organized in a matrix structure: Work Packages (WP) versus Supply Chains (SC) to ensure a smooth and continuous follow-up of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI: see Table 4), an on-time delivery and a high-quality outcome. The WP represent the development process in general and the SC represent the different systems and components developed in the project to achieve the 1000kmPLUS project objectives. Each major demonstrator developed in the project is covered by a SC. This structure facilitates a clear separation between the research and development work carried out in the WPs on one side, and the actual implementation, testing and benchmarking performed on the demonstrators on the other side. Each SC is led by a highly competent partner in the respective application domain to ensure a perfect outcome. To do so, the 1000kmPLUS project brings together following SCs:

Scalable and highly efficient powertrain technology platform: common inverter-motor making use of highly efficient SiC MOSFET power modules offering scalability in power (40-120 kW) and in voltage (400-800 V), thus enhancing the driving range.

Fast charging capable and weight optimized battery system: 800 V modular battery system with reduced mechanical structure weight, improved thermal management performance and using battery cells optimized for fast charging.

Vehicle integration and energy management, including a demonstration: integrated thermal management with advanced insulating materials and new road routing algorithms pairing the fast charging infrastructure with short charging times, thus lowering the overall travelling time. The demonstration challenges (1000 km, 2000 km, 4500 km) will also take place in this Supply Chain.