It's Still Possible To Drive EV Innovation And Minimize Lead Times Today

As more consumers consider trading in their combustion vehicles for electric vehicles (EVs), EV manufacturers are trying to rapidly innovate on internal and external charging technologies to ease consumer fears relating to range anxiety and charging times. Therefore, EV manufacturers are focused on developing technologies that will increase the efficiency of both on-board and external power conversion and management devices.

However, the practicalities of sourcing components during our current pandemic-induced materials shortage are presenting many new challenges for EV purchasing managers. To ensure innovation keeps moving forward, it is critical for EV manufacturers to select suppliers who truly understand working with high voltages in the EV space. It is also equally important that a supplier is not stuck using traditional manufacturing processes and materials that may require long lead times. Thus, a more critical analysis of suppliers for components such as capacitors that inherently reduce losses in the AC-to-DC (or DC/DC) converter or filters designed to eliminate noise such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) on the AC line, is needed.