Eaton’s Vehicle Group has formed a new ePowertrain business unit, which will focus on products from Eaton’s electrified vehicle (EV) transmission, reduction gearing and differential portfolios.
Combining the product lines into a new ePowertrain business unit creates synergy among Eaton’s powertrain and EV experts and allows the Vehicle Group to offer its global customers solutions for commercial and light-duty EVs.
“Automakers face many challenges when developing an EV powertrain, such as optimizing efficiency, weight and noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), and dealing with packaging constraints,” states Anthony Cronin, product director of EV gearing and differentials at Eaton’s Vehicle Group. “Eaton can help manufacturers overcome these challenges by utilizing our many years of experience and in-house capabilities in design, validation and manufacturing of high-precision, high-quality gearing, transmissions and differential solutions.”
Eaton’s portfolio of multispeed transmissions includes 2-, 4- and 6-speed electrified commercial vehicle transmissions. Eaton’s EV transmissions are based on layshaft architecture typical of automated manual transmissions (AMTs) and shifting is synchronized without a clutch using a traction motor. The EV transmissions feature a lightweight countershaft gearbox that has a range of torque capacities and electric gearshift actuation, allowing use of smaller electric motors. Eaton offers a range of differentials for EVs, including automatic limited-slip, automatic locking and electronic selectable locking differentials.
“Our new ePowertrain business unit can provide our customers with an optimized, integrated EV powertrain, which will help simplify their engineering development process,” Cronin adds. “We will work with our global customers to determine the ideal combination of transmission, gearing and torque solutions that best meet their EV needs.”
