ABB Formula E - Sustainable Business Magazine

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ELECTRIFYING GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW: ABB - FORMULA E

ELECTRIFYING Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Frank Muehlon, Head of Global E-Mobility Infrastructure Solutions at ABB, about the company’s charging expertise, partnering with Formula E, and delivering efficient transport solutions around the globe.

By Daniel Baksi

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Swiss-Swedish technology giant ABB is one of the world’s leading engineering companies. Headquartered in Zurich, ABB has a history of innovation dating back to 1883, and encompasses a number of mergers and acquisitions, primarily the 1988 coming together of ASEA and Brown, Boveri & Cie, two of the best-known names in European electrical engineering. Today, 110,000 ABB employees in over 100 countries work closely with utility, industry, transportation, and infrastructure customers, delivering

leading-edge products, services, and solutions across four business areas: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation.

“At ABB, we remain focused on delivering leading-edge products, services and solutions for our customers to support the fight against climate change” explains Frank Muehlon, Head of Global E-Mobility Infrastructure Solutions at ABB. “In ABB’s Electrification business, therefore, we have launched our Mission to Zero through which

we develop innovative solutions that help our customers to reduce consumption and to produce cleaner energy.”

DRIVING HIGHER STANDARDS ABB has long been a pioneer in the electrification of transportation. “As one of the first to be active in the e-mobility sector, we have a lot of experience and learning in an otherwise young industry”, says Mr. Muehlon.

“We’ve deployed 14,000 DC fast-chargers in more than eighty countries, placing us as

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INTERVIEW: ABB - FORMULA E

market leaders in the Western world when it comes to DC fast-charging. As a result, customers look to us as a natural partner, whether they are charge-point operators (CPOs), municipalities, or large fleet operators.”

Essential to these achievements has been the company’s holistic approach.

“It’s not just a couple of chargers here and there,” says Mr. Muehlon. “We focus on the complete infrastructure, whether that might be a substation, or software for energy management. We have also been founding members of a couple of charging standards, including the CHAdeMO standard, and the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard, which now accounts for the majority of chargers going forward. For buses, too, ABB has pioneered pantograph charging and opportunity charging. Although our foundations are in DC fast charging, we’ve also recently launched a new range in the AC space, because we know that the market for home-charging and workplace-charging solutions will continue to grow, and we want to play a role in that growth.”

PUSHING THE LIMITS Since early 2018, ABB’s ability to showcase new technologies and accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles worldwide has

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been enhanced by their partnership with the ABB FIA Formula E Championship – the world’s first fully electric international FIA motor sport series, soon to enter its seventh season. “In terms of bringing clean energy forward, working side-by-side with Formula E is a great showcase of what e-mobility can do, and what we as ABB can do,” says Mr. Muehlon. “These type of events and races offer a learning curve, a test-bed. You can try out new technology, new hardware, or new software, and see the impact immediately. In terms of software, for example, how fast is the handshake between car and charger? In terms of hardware, how much cooling do you need for charging and the electronics in each environment? You can push the limits. We also recently signed an agreement that, from Season 9, we will supply charging technology to all Gen3 cars racing in the championship. Naturally, things have been shaken-up somewhat by COVID-19, but we still believe Formula E is really fast-growing, and will soon outgrow other races that run on fossil fuels.”

The Formula E Championship also plays a key role in shaping the public perception of electric vehicles. “It takes place in metropolitan areas, so it’s really close to people,” says Mr. Muehlon. “That means you are bringing e-mobility closer to people. We can showcase our solutions throughout the whole event. It’s not only a race; it’s an exhibition. You can go, touch, feel, and become acquainted with the technology. Of course, when we have races in countries with a high e-mobility take rate, like in China, it’s very different to a race in Chile or Mexico. Precisely how you promote EVs depends on the visitors coming to the race. But in general, we make clear to the buyers of vehicles, and to everybody, just how far you can push the envelope for an EV. They can drive really fast,

“WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT WE LEAVE A CLEAN WORLD FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.”

at a distance. They can charge rapidly. The misperceptions that people often have are removed when they experience the technology for themselves.”

AFFECTING CHANGE ABB’s innovations are driven by practicality and are already helping to improve and expand e-mobility around the globe. “Our ambition is never to do something bespoke for a race, but to create technology that we can really use going forward,” says Mr. Muehlon.

“We work with the IONITY network, a large roll-out project in the UK and Europe, and the Electrify America project in the United States, as well as large CPOs, such as EVgo SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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in North America, as well as younger, growing partners, like Europe’s Fastned. Together with these companies, we construct networks that span countries and make electric-vehicle transportation easier.”

The benefits of electrification are not confined to public highways. “In cities, the push for clean buses is tremendous,” says Mr. Muehlon. “There’s a lot of political movement towards phasing out diesel buses. They produce noise and air pollution. We work on contracts for large charging depots for electric buses, and for charging en-route. In Belgium, we have two cities connected, with one-hundred e-buses on the road that we charge in the depot. We also electrified the largest bus depot in Germany, in Hamburg.

Again, we consider the overall picture: The incoming energy to the main substation, the medium voltage breakers and switchgear, the transistors and the low-voltage switchgear. Only then do we get to the chargers and the power-conversion. We’re then able to package all that on the rooftop of a bus, all contained within small boxes with cables that run down from the ceiling to maximize

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space-optimization. The drivers plug in when they drive into the depot, and the rest is automatic.”

A BRIGHT FUTURE ABB is predicting big things for electric vehicles in the years ahead. “We expect e-mobility to grow exponentially moving forwards,” says Mr. Muehlon. “Today, take rates of EVs are still low, but in the years ahead we’ll see a lot of new models coming to market, and we’ll soon come to parity of cost between EV and combustion engine cars. With that, and with the lower cost of maintenance, higher comfort, and a denser network of charging opportunities for EVs, we estimate that in another ten years 25% of new cars coming to the global market will be electric. That’s a significant uptake compared to what we have now. This will be further supported by a lower cost of batteries, and by higher densities of battery, which will guarantee a longer range.”

It’s an exciting time for ABB, and one that requires developments of their own.

“We invest continually”, says Mr. Muehlon.

“We recently opened a new R&D center in the university campus of Delft in the Netherlands. That’s a $10 million investment, dedicated entirely to EV charging. We’re able to drive cars into the center for testing purposes. The building is even designed in a way that accommodates buses, so we can carry out charging inside the building, and test new models. With regards to manufacturing, we’ve also announced a significant $30 million investment in Italy, where we’ve already built a new plant close to our current base. We’ll be moving there soon, giving us far more space in which to grow.” c

“WE’VE ALSO ANNOUNCED A SIGNIFICANT $30 MILLION INVESTMENT IN ITALY, WHERE WE’VE ALREADY BUILT A NEW PLANT CLOSE TO OUR CURRENT BASE. WE’LL BE MOVING THERE SOON, GIVING US FAR MORE SPACE IN WHICH TO GROW.”

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