Collaboration project to explore EVs improvement by water-based lubricants

The Swedish Energy Agency granted CEVT resources to lead a joint project with SKF and Luleå Technical University to explore how water-based lubricants can improve the high efficiency of electric vehicles.

“Energy efficiency will always be a high focus area in CEVT. It must be. Our customers expect nothing less,” said Tommy Brandt, System Engineer at CEVT. “This project enables a close collaboration with strategic industry partners as well as with the academia. The likelihood that this will be implemented in future industrialization projects is great. It will be a win not only for the partners in the project but for the environment.”

The name of the research project is Longer Driving Range by Efficient Transmissions. It will focus on enhanced understanding of water-based lubrication of bearings, tribological effects on gears and transmission level requirements for the use of water-based lubricants.

“The electric vehicles of the future place new demands on materials and technologies. Through this collaboration we will expand our knowledge of water-based lubricants, giving us great insight into the future needs of sustainable vehicles,” said Gregory Zimmerman, Director Product Line Electric Vehicles, SKF.

“Oil lubricants have been developed over more than a hundred years. Now we must learn how surfaces and materials must be chosen to maximise performance for this lubricant as well,” said Roland Larsson, Professor and Scientific Leader, Luleå University of Technology. “This project is perfectly in line with the research strategy of Luleå University of Technology. It will be a part of the research platform Creaternity, which aims at finding sustainable and circular engineering solutions.”