A characterization of EM coupling in a fully electric 4-wheel drive vehicle

Electric vehicles are complex systems in which EMC must be approached in a significantly different way to the one in conventional cars. The presence of high power supplies assembled in a very small room together with signalling, control and communications devices brings about new issues related to EM disturbances and noise coupling that must be addressed in order to ensure a good performance of the systems. To achieve this, the understanding of the way noise is generated, propagates and couples within the system is critical so as to improve the immunity of the components and, eventually, the whole car. This paper presents the results of an EMC study focused on the electromagnetic interferences that take place in a fully electric vehicle. The outcome in this work is part of an EMC approach that involves an analysis of the emissions and coupling phenomena that may cause an impact on the system safety and performance. To perform this analysis, a campaign of experimental tests has been carried out on the vehicle. This task has been performed within the E-VECTOORC project (FP7-INFSO-284078), in collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover and Skoda.