8 Kinds of Sensors Commonly Used in New Energy Vehicles

Sensors are widely used in automotive power, chassis, body and other systems, and the new energy vehicles that have been on fire in recent years are no exception, and sensors play a very important role in the electronic regulation system of new energy vehicles. A car usually has dozens to hundreds of sensors.

Let's take a look at the 8 kinds of sensors commonly used in new energy vehicles.

8 Kinds of Sensors Commonly Used in New Energy Vehicles

1. Pressure sensors

Pressure sensors play an important role in the vehicle safety management system - enabling side airbag adjustment. Compared to accelerometers, pressure sensors are nearly three times faster than accelerometers at checking side impact speeds, with less probability of false response.

In addition, pressure sensors are an important component in battery management systems and brake booster systems. The new energy vehicle brake booster system will use pressure sensors to check the vacuum level, and the battery management system will use pressure sensors to check the battery pack pressure for thermal runaway alarm.

2. Current Sensor

Current sensors in new energy vehicles are mainly used in the battery system management, motor drive control, power supply module and other three electrical systems.

The current sensor is able to perform accurate battery management on the vehicle battery, and hybrid vehicle power pack. For example:

• Open-loop current sensors that can use the principle of electromagnetic induction to protect against AC current signal overcurrent under isolated conditions, thus facilitating the implementation of switching outputs.
• Current sensors can also detect the current of charging and discharging to improve the efficiency of the vehicle battery.
• The current sensor can also collect the terminal voltage and temperature of each battery in the power battery pack of the electric vehicle, the charging and discharging current and the total voltage of the battery pack in real time to prevent the battery from over-charging or over-discharging.

3. Speed Sensor

Speed sensor is one of the key sensors for motion measurement of new energy vehicles and is also a more widely used sensor. Speed sensor is mainly used to measure the speed sensor, including measuring the car motor rotation speed, driving speed, etc.

4. Acceleration sensor

Acceleration sensors are widely used in the field of automotive electronics, mainly focusing on body control, safety systems and navigation, typical applications such as automotive airbags, ABS anti-lock braking system, electronic stability program (ESP), electronically controlled suspension system, etc.

5. Angular velocity sensor

That is, the gyroscope, which together with the accelerometer constitutes the inertial navigation system, is the main factor that determines the accuracy of the inertial navigation system of new energy vehicles.

6. Environment Sensing Sensor

Environment-aware sensors are the "eyes" of the car, and are the "major contributors" to the realization of the assisted driving function. They are mainly divided into on-board camera (image sensor), ultrasonic sensor, millimeter wave radar, and LIDAR.

7. Gas sensors

By installing gas sensors in new energy vehicles, we can monitor PM, temperature and humidity, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, VOC, ammonia, hydrogen, CO and other substances, which greatly increases the intelligence of the vehicle and also greatly enhances the experience of passenger safety and comfort.

8. Temperature sensor

The temperature sensors in new energy vehicles mainly include: sensors for detecting battery temperature, temperature sensors for monitoring motors, and temperature sensors for battery cooling systems, etc.

Multi-sensor fusion is an inevitable trend

ADAS fusion of multiple sensors, driving the development of the sensor market. As the proportion of smart cars increases in the future, the ADAS market will accelerate its growth. According to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, the current global ADAS penetration rate is generally low, with only 8%-12% penetration in Europe, America and Japan. According to Gaixia Automotive Research Institute, the penetration rate of ADAS in China is around 2%-5%; judging from the life cycle, ADAS has achieved the leap from the introduction period to the growth period.

In general, with the wave of smart driving and driverless, the level of car electronics and intelligence is increasing, and ADAS has great room for growth. As the hardware base of ADAS, the application of sensors is indispensable. The increase of ADAS penetration will lead to a significant increase in the demand of in-vehicle sensors, and the market scale of sensors will be further expanded in the future.

Environmental perception sensor is the eyes of the car, millimeter wave radar comprehensive advantage is outstanding. In the background of the era of intelligence, environmental perception is particularly important, and different sensors have different principles and functions, which play their own advantages in different scenarios and are difficult to replace each other. Millimeter wave radar has outstanding comprehensive advantages and is expected to be the first to become the main sensor of ADAS system.

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