April 22, 2022 at 07:20 by : The Electric Vehicle Industry Will Shift To Advanced 800-Volt Architectures “For the smaller platform vehicles like 3 and Y, there’s some wins and losses with 800 volts,” he said. “Not everything is better. And so, we look at that platform, and we’re not like ignoring the reality that you can go to a higher voltage, but there’s nothing really encouraging us to do so on that platform.” Baglino acknowledged that a higher-voltage platform does have advantages and could prove more beneficial for larger vehicles from the carmaker, such as the Cybertruck and Semi. “On bigger vehicles, where you’re talking about higher power on the charging side or higher power from the battery to the power electronics or you need more torque, the current requirements go up,” he noted. “There’s a little bit more semiconductor and actual conductor savings of going to the higher voltage. And so, we do consider that for Semi and Cybertruck. But for the 3/Y platform where we’ve got everything running, the benefit is questionably small.” Baglino’s statement about the Cybertruck and Semi potentially adopting an 800-volt system is intriguing. For starters, it has been four-and-a-half years since the Semi was first unveiled and two-and-a-half years since the Cybertruck was announced and one would have thought Tesla would have decided long ago whether to go down the 400-volt or 800-volt route with these models. But according to Baglino, it is something the automaker is “considering.” If that’s true, Tesla had better decide quickly as volume production of both models is expected to start in 2023. TAGS