Design and Testing of a 1 MW 800V Truck Testbed for High Performance Applications

Abstract We present an overview of a 1 Megawatt 800V truck testbed that we created to study extreme acceleration, fast-charging and adjacent applications such as eVTOL propulsion. The system architecture details are presented along with the sub-system specifications. In order to get practical hands-on learnings as well as to demonstrate the operation of such high-powered systems, we designed and fabricated an 800V battery pack comprised of high-power cells. This battery pack was integrated into a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado truck to study “extreme” high power operation and the associated thermal management challenges.