Research database

The flagship project aims to develop a scaled prototype at TRL 4 of an innovative braking energy recovery system (hereinafter referred to as BRB) for the next Italian sustainable high-performance car of the future, with a new regenerative powertrain with hard braking capability, characterised by the integration of high-energy and high-power cells within the same battery system. Additionally, it aims to develop all necessary BRB subsystems to prepare a functional vehicle by 2026, to achieve a TRL 7. BRB allows reducing the mass of the battery of electric vehicles up to 30% with a dramatic increase in performance in terms of charging time, regenerative power, and energy consumption reduction due to the better capability to recover energy in braking and due to the mass reduction of the vehicle. Two Italian laboratories are involved in the development activities, CNR-STEMS, based in Naples and CARS at Politecnico di Torino. They will acquire cutting-edge technology infrastructures to test innovative battery systems and develop a smallscale prototype to validate all BRB subsystems that will be used to set up the TRL7 vehicle demonstrator. MINERVA will therefore be an enabler for the development of future more efficient electric cars.