Vitesco Technologies, a leading international supplier of modern drive technologies and electrification solutions has opened a new, 2,800 square metre manufacturing space at its Icheon electronics site.
The first components for Vitesco Technologies’ EMR4 (Electronics Motor Reducer) electric axle drive will be produced by series manufacturing equipment. The first parts from the new line will serve to confirm the original sample products’ robustness by testing series parts. This phase will last for around 6 months during which Hyundai will also integrate the new parts from the Icheon line in pre-series vehicles to validate them. Full series production at the Icheon site is scheduled to commence by 2024. The new line has a capacity of over 200,000 EMR4 units per year.
The company says the highly efficient and compact axle drive EMR4 integrates power electronics, electric motor, and reducer in a lightweight unit. The unit’s active parts and the power electronics (inverter) will be manufactured locally. Roughly a third of the new floor space will be dedicated to stator winding, another third to rotor and inverter production and the remaining third for assembly. In total Vitesco Technologies has invested more than 80 million euros in the site extension.
Thomas Stierle, Member of the Executive Board and head of the Electrification Solutions division of Vitesco Technologies said, “With the expansion of the production area in Icheon for the EMR4 axle drive production, we are continuing our long-standing and successful strategy of manufacturing in the region for the region.”
Vitesco Technologies says its electric axle drives EMR3 and EMR4 are successful products because they offer an attractive combination of compact size, low weight, high power density, and excellent efficiency. In addition, the new generation EMR4 is scalable and therefore suited to provide a single solution for complete vehicle platforms and segments.
Hyundai Motor Group had chosen Vitesco Technologies’ new EMR4 axle drive in March of 2022. Over its lifetime the contract for EMR4 delivery has a total value of more than 2 billion euros. The version for Hyundai will be a 400 V system with a nominal power of 160 kW. State-of-the-art silicon carbide (SiC) technology in the inverter together with many detail optimizations are giving the EMR4 an even better efficiency than the already very efficient EMR3 axle drive.
