18 In conversation | John Stamford doubling the power to 120 kW and adding a turbocharger heat-recovery system, the MGU-H, to the kinetic system, which was renamed MGU-K – Stamford returned and developed a system he recalls as being “quite a work of art”. The entire system was the size of two shoeboxes, sat beneath the driver. He explains: “The integration of all the electronics in a volume-efficient package was really ahead of its time. It was running at high voltages, and we started to introduce more efficient silicon-carbide switches and new battery management systems. I believe the Mercedes ERS system was the envy of the field, and contributed significantly to the powertrain and team’s success in winning Formula One world championships.” So, did any of that technology truly transition from Formula One into roadcars? “Absolutely,” says Stamford. “The Formula One technology was expensive, but while they wouldn’t directly transition to the roadcar space, the concepts, the thinking and some of the integration did migrate, and now high-efficiency, high-speed electric machines and integrated high-voltage systems are seeing the light of day in many roadcars. “We also did a lot of work on both the roadcar and Formula One projects on electric shock and fire hazards. We set fire to lots of batteries – deliberately, I might add – and had some issues we weren’t expecting. The philosophy in Formula One is to push it until it breaks, then back off a bit, so by doing that with batteries we learned an awful lot about failure mechanisms.” Taking things forward Stamford left Formula One in 2017, to join Dyson as head of engineering on a roadcar project. The aim was to adapt in-house motor and battery tech for the slowly establishing EV market, with innovations such as 800 V architecture, battery switching to allow access to all chargers and a 600 mile range. But, ultimately, the project was doomed. “James Dyson had invested a lot in electric motors and batteries, and he wanted to benefit from the economies of scale in that space,” he recalls. “I brought in an understanding of what was necessary to meet legislative, safety and performance requirements, and deliver those in terms of an integrated battery, motor and power electronics solution.” However, just as the first prototype systems became operational, Dyson decided EVs were not for him. “It came as quite a surprise to us all,” recalls Stamford. “He had his eye on Tesla, which hadn’t at that time made any money, and as the magnitude of the programme became clearer, some OEMs were announcing plans to electrify, so stealing a march early was not going to be so significant.” Stamford was then snapped up by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to work on its electric and hybrid powertrains. There, he influenced work on 800 V architectures, silicon-carbide switches and in-housing key technologies, and he began to take on the task of improving component integration; latterly leading JLR’s advanced powertrain development team, based out of NAIC at Warwick University’s campus. “In the most recent generation of EVs, there are still four electric domains,” Stamford says. “There is the battery, the electric drive units, the charging and DC-to-DC converters, and the heaters and air-conditioning systems that all run off high-voltage circuits, but they’re all quite disparate, and all those enclosures, harnesses, connectors, cooling and safety systems that surround those components cost a lot of money. “Trying to integrate those components was the obvious next step. I think packaging and integration will see huge development. Ultimately, there will be two high-voltage domains going forward: the battery and EDU. If we can avoid lots of different high-voltage domains, it’s much easier to move electricity around internally inside an enclosure than it is between domains, where you’ve got to shield and protect it. “As you don’t charge and drive at the same time, you’ve got high-value power electronics in the inverter and a lot of high-power inductors in the electric motors, so there are opportunities to reuse the electronics and avoid duplicating them. That’s where the advantage comes; not just in the physical integration of the different components, but also in technical integration and reusing components for multiple purposes.” January/February 2025 | E-Mobility Engineering A sub-assembly for a plug-in hybrid system that Stamford worked on at JLR (Image courtesy of JLR)
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