Inverter

Along with the traction battery, motor generators, and internal combustion engine, the inverter is a major component of the Hybrid Synergy Drive system.

It converts the high voltage current from the traction battery to lower voltage that powers the electric motors.

It also converts the power recovered from the regenerative braking to high voltage to store in the traction battery.

SCH-I535

 

Hi xliderider,

Actually it is from low voltage of traction battery to higher voltage of electric motors. The traction battery norminal voltage is 144V and the electric motors are from 144V up to 520V.

Vincent

 

[QUOTE="vincent1449p, post: 1991108, member: 1791]"
Actually it is from low voltage of traction battery to higher voltage of electric motors. The traction battery norminal voltage is 144V and the electric motors are from 144V up to 520V.
[/QUOTE]

"Step-up" inverters have been used for decades.

The first likely use was in a Motorola "Works in a Drawer" television set, where the horizontal scanning frequency, 15,750 Hz, was used as the carrier frequency for the 115 volt, 60 Hz to many hundreds of volts conversion as part of this TV set's "transformerless" power supply.

That was waaay back in the days of bipolar transistors, and the single-transistor "flyback" inverter.

Today's applications usually employ three-phase ac as the output, and as much as 600 volts output, and today's inverters use IGBT devices, and, usually, "H-bridges".

The higher output voltage results in conservation of copper, and the potential for higher mechanical power output per unit volume or per unit weight.

Variable frequency output is but one advantage of this system, in a hybrid automobile.

Indeed, MG1 and MG2 may be operated at different frequencies in the performance of their somewhat different mission functions.