TrendingNow – Silex Industrial Automation owns the unique position to have designed and manufactured the world’s first 8.5 tonne electric axle. It will be introduced to the European market in early 2019. Mr. Jozsef Ruck, CEO, said: “This will be apt for midi-buses and trucks where the total weight of the vehicle is 13 tonnes or less.” The electric axle is an integrated power train and such a system covers the whole activity of the vehicle and also boasts of embedded safety features as well.
TechnologyFirst – The new electric axle has a few unique performance features which comes with yet another world’s first – system guarantee for the whole electric system. Mr. Ruck talked about the features: “We are the only one in the world to provide 700 mm corridor in the center as against 550 mm that is available in the market. The wider corridor is highly useful because there are no bottlenecks in the vehicle at the rear axle. We also provide ISO 26262 certification with the axle which is a functional safety standard. This is a first too.”
IndiaCentric – Silex is planning to introduce the brand new electric axle in India and also begin with installations by the latter half of 2019. Mr. Ruck said: “First, we want to see the European reactions in the market because then it becomes much easier to make any corrections if necessary.” A major home-grown bus and truck OEM in India is interested in exploring the possibilities of this product further. It is for the same OEM that Silex is supplying some of the control units for its new electric vehicles in the making. He agreed: “We will be exporting the units to the Indian OEM from our manufacturing plant in Hungary. We are making system integration for them.”
WhatWorks – The market leaders in Hungary with their electronic controls, Silex is poised to expand their presence in the world with their electric axles. The electric axle project was begun three and a half years ago and according to Mr. Ruck the ‘last and the most intensive phase of it began two years ago’.
He shared: “The expansion of our product in Hungary, Germany, and Switzerland among others was received extremely well by our customers. It is because system guarantee is a value addition for the customer. They feel confident in our product because we take over the whole job and ensure that the whole vehicle runs properly.”
And the trump card up the sleeve of Silex is that their state-of-the-art electric axle enables their customers to run their electric vehicles up to 300 km a day without recharging the batteries. An ace move by Silex!