Ever since Nikola Tesla discovered alternating current, his life was devoted to providing efficient ways to use it. For the better part of the 20th century, battery-powered devices used Edison’s direct current. Not only did Edison make DC batteries small & powerful, converting the power to AC would mean licensing patents from his rival George Westinghouse. Now that the “War of the currents” is over a century old, almost every big electric motor uses Tesla’s 3-phase AC.
Therefore, every electric vehicle (aside from golf cars and kid’s toys) needs a way to transform DC to AC and vice-versa. That is why Karma Automotive has unveiled efficient silicon carbide inverters. In their latest press release, we learned these 400-volt modules can be combined to support 800-volt charging. Not only will these be used in all Karma models, but they are also the most critical part of the universal chassis being developed for other automakers.
