All lubed-up and keeping things rolling
All lubed-up and keeping things rolling
Vehicle manufacturers are embracing the electric revolution, as most are developing, or already offering, their own version of the electric vehicle (EV). But what does this mean for the oils and lubricants industry? JACO DE KLERK investigates.
Various experts* have predicted that EVs will become the next big thing, as they will overshadow internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and, presumably, dominate the world’s roads. “A new set of lubricants and oils must be made specifically to tailor to the performance requirements of the electrical and gear components in the EVs.
“Creating lubricants for EVs is a difficult endeavour as original equipment manufacturers have their own unique electric motor design, thus requiring a specific lubricant for their electric motors to fit their needs for great performance.”
They explain that EV lubricants also have greater technical requirements compared with those of ICEs. “The lubricants must target important specifications such as anti-wear performance, friction reduction, efficiency, electrical compatibility and insulation and battery pack cooling.”
Efficiency is an important area of focus and correlates directly to the torque properties of EVs. “Since electric motors are designed to be compact to save weight and space, higher rotational speeds of up to 18 000 rpm must be dealt with. When there is high stress occurring on the motor, air can infiltrate the components and cause fluids to foam which causes damage to the components’ surfaces,” they warn.
“Therefore, reducing torque through the development of low viscosity lubricants will help solve those issues and push EVs to dominate the automobile industry. However, the formulated greases must refrain from altering mechanical properties such as tensile strength and crack resistance, which requires many trial tests to balance the properties.”
The experts add that many cooling concepts and thermal management requirements have to be considered when developing a compatible lubricant for EVs. “The electric motor generates heat that must be insulated from the electric modules.”
The most popular lubricants today include mineral-based oils with different additives and synthetic-based oils due to their improved lubricity and thermal and oxidative stability. But, with growing concerns regarding the environment, biodegradability is a trending development.
“Bio-lubricants is a prominent development for an accelerated biodegradability and can be incorporated into the making of EV fluids for a more environmentally friendly approach. Bio-lubricants are used as resources of mainly animal fats and vegetable oils. They are effective alternatives to mineral oils due to their physicochemical properties.
“Bio-lubricants have shown to display better lubricity properties than mineral or synthetic oils because of the oxygenated backbone. Their functional profile for EVs can be alleviated through the addition of nanoparticles or advanced polymers such as rubber, polypropylene, and methylpentene which all showed promising results in high-speed applications.”
But these oils and lubricants aren’t only to be used around racetracks … Shell E-Fluids has extended its portfolio to support battery electric (BEV) as well as fuel cell electric (FCEV) powertrains for commercial light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles. This extension to the portfolio builds on the successful launch of the Shell E-Fluids range for passenger vehicles in 2019.
“Once added to the sealed environments of BEV or FCEV commercial vehicles, the fluids need to perform at optimum levels over the vehicle’s lifetime; this is why first fill is so important for electric vehicles,” says Carlos Maurer, executive vice president of Global Commercial at Shell. “We have used Shell gas to liquid (GTL) base oil technology for the Shell E-fluids portfolio, because its low-viscosity properties allow for higher efficiency in the vehicle’s powertrain. Our lubricants research laboratories have focused on delivering cutting-edge fluid solutions to meet the specific electric drivetrain challenges of temperature control, oxidation, copper erosion and thermal conductivity.”
The Shell E-Fluids range for commercial vehicles consists of e-transmission fluids, e-greases and battery thermal fluids.
The company states that its specialised e-fluids deliver:
- Outstanding oxidation stabilitythat results in a longer lifetime of the lubricant to avoid any maintenance downtime, as much as possible, or oil changes needed during the lifetime of the vehicle;
- Even at high temperatures, standard oxidation tests show that the Shell E-Fluid technology oxidises 50% less than a competitor e-fluid solution;
- Up to eight times lower electrical conductivity when cooling the electric motor under typical operating conditions temperatures, compared to a conventional transmission fluid designed for heavy duty ICE commercial vehicles;
- Three times less copper erosion compared to a competitor’s specialised e-mobility driveline fluid, due to the reduction of sulphur content in combination with its optimised additive system; and
- Up to 9% higher thermal conductivitycompared to a competitor’s e-mobility driveline fluid, enabling higher cooling capabilities for end windings of electric motors and gearbox lubrication.
The experts summarise the benefits: “As EVs are becoming more mainstream and are slowly integrating into our society for a greener world, dedicated EV lubricants will inevitably follow.”
And with global players, such as Shell, joining the good fight, we can rest assured that the electric revolution will be all lubed up.
* In the article “The new age of lubricants for electric vehicles”, written by Dr Raj Shah, director at Koehler Instrument Company; Hillary Wong and Anson Law, chemical engineers at Stony Brook University; and Dr Mathias Woydt, managing director of MATRILUB Materials, Tribology, Lubrication. The piece appears in Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology International – which goes out to more than 10 000 OE automotive personnel across the globe.
Onward and upward
Moving to a centralised new head office in Isando, Johannesburg, and launching a unified product brand image in November is all part of a long-term strategy for sustained growth and expansion at Fuchs Lubricants South Africa, the 100%-owned subsidiary of Fuchs Germany.
“The fact that we remain an independent player is a key differentiator, as it allows us to focus on our core business and customers,” comments Andrew Cowling, sales director at Fuchs SA. The global group has nearly 60 companies and 6 000 employees worldwide, all while remaining a family-owned business that has been developing, producing and selling lubricants for close to a century.
Despite its independence, Fuchs has a range of over 10 000 products and related service lines covering the six main categories of automotive, industrial, metal-processing and special-application lubricants, as well as lubricating greases. “We can supply everything a client might require from a lubricant perspective,” Cowling says. “We are 100% focused on leveraging this extensive portfolio across our main markets, which are mining, construction, automotive, heavy engineering and general industrial.”
The company also has longstanding relationships with various OEMs, especially in the automotive sector, and has good penetration into Southern Africa – particularly in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. Apart from its main market focus, the company is also involved in niche sectors like glass, food and even wind energy.
Looking at the new packaging launch, Cowling highlights that the global campaign will unify Fuchs’ core automotive brands in line with the group’s product line, including Titan, Agrifarm and Maintain. Fuchs SA has held the well-known WM Penn under its umbrella for numerous years. With this latest change, the WM Penn range will now be rebranded into the Titan range. From a sales perspective, the rebrand is also part of a concerted effort to grow the retail part of the business.
“We have a strong focus on increasing our brand awareness and developing strategies to target specific market segments,” says Cowling. The newly designed bottles and packaging, which is 100% recyclable, also ties into another key theme of the global group – sustainability and environmental awareness. This theme is a key part of the Fuchs2025 strategy, which also looks at other major global trends such as autonomous driving, e-mobility and new digital business models.
“We believe that these trends represent a huge opportunity for us in Africa, especially with the move to ‘green’ energy. This is why we are looking very carefully at market segmentation to allow us to tailor specific strategies to cater for such developments and to introduce them into our entire approach, from product to customer focus, across Africa.”
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