Infineon Wins Bavarian State Award for Electric Mobility

“Infineon’s microcontrollers form the centerpiece of the drive in the e-bike. In 2009, some 25 million e-bikes were sold in China, the world’s largest nation of cyclists. About every third e-bike incorporates chips from Infineon”, said Peter Bauer, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. “The Bavarian State Award for Electric Mobility is recognition of our work. It underlines that mobility and the responsible use of resources are of the greatest relevance to society – all the more reason for our delight at this accolade.”





E-bikes are a strong growth market; Infineon is market leader





Within only three years, Infineon has carved out an approximately one-third global market share with 8-bit microcontrollers of the XC800 family in electric-powered bicycles. Since 2008, some 15 million e-bikes controlled by Infineon components have been sold around the world. Apart from the Asian market, the European market also holds enormous growth potential. Market experts expect to see the number of e-bikes sold annually in Europe more than doubling from the present figure of less than 2 million units to about 4 million in the year 2013.





Infineon’s chips are instrumental in reducing the cost of the drive and electronics in the e-bike and in boosting the energy efficiency of the overall system. The XC800 family enables Field Oriented Control (FOC) and hence smooth, efficient operation of the motor. Infineon’s 8-bit microcontrollers deliver the performance of larger and more expensive 16-bit and 32-bit chips. These features are pivotal in the very small and cost-critical drives for e-bikes.





Infineon also nominated for the Bavarian State Award for Electric Mobility in the “Storage Technology/System integration” category





Another Infineon innovation was nominated for the Bavarian State Award for Electric Mobility in the “Storage Technology/System Integration” category: active battery balancing. This solution equalizes the highly disparate behavior of the over one hundred single cells of a battery during charging and discharging to extend the battery’s capacity, range and life by more than ten percent.