MILAN—Marelli has unveiled a battery management system for electric vehicles that reduces wiring harnesses by 90 percent. The state-of-the-art BMS reduces complexity and enables greater flexibility, increased efficiency, improved reliability and reduced costs.

 “Wireless BMS is a real game-changer for the automotive industry, eliminating the need for the battery harness, wires and connectors associated with the standard wired BMS systems, says Razvan Panati, Ph.D., head of power electronics technology for the vehicle electrification division of Marelli. “[We] designed both the wireless BMS and the wired BMS with identical base architectures, supported by two different ways of communication and interfaces.

“In that way, our technology can be applied across multiple vehicle platforms with minimal change,” claims Panati. “This flexibility guarantees significant reduction in engineering costs and allows [us] to make this high-end technology affordable for the mass market.”

According to Panati, weight reduction due to fewer connectors and wiring harnesses will allow for more energy efficiency, thus increasing the driving range of the vehicle with the same charge. It also allows more room for larger battery packs and extended vehicle range.