Power management company Eaton, Galesburg, Mich., announced on Feb. 22 that its 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, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), and dealing with packaging constraints,” said Anthony Cronin, product director, EV Gearing and Differentials, 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 include 2-, 4- and 6-speed electrified commercial vehicle transmissions. Eaton’s EV transmissions are based on proven, robust, and efficient layshaft architecture typical of automated manual transmissions (AMTs) and shifting is synchronized without a clutch using a traction motor.

Whether a large-scale industrialization project or a niche-market application, Eaton partners with customers on joint-development programs or acts as a single service provider of EV reduction gearing components or systems. Eaton’s expertise in both design and manufacturing allows it to optimize solutions from a technical, commercial and production aspect, reducing the risk of multi-iteration design and enabling shortened development times.

Eaton offers a full range of differentials for EVs, including automatic limited-slip, automatic locking and electronic selectable locking differentials. Each is highly engineered, tested and validated for a variety of traction control applications. Performance is verified at Eaton’s Proving Ground testing complex in Marshall, Michigan, which is home to more than 600 acres of testing facilities and tracks.

“Our new ePowertrain business unit can provide our customers with an optimized, integrated EV powertrain, which will help simplify their engineering development process,” Cronin said. “We will work with our global customers to determine the ideal combination of transmission, gearing and torque solutions that best meet their EV needs.”

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