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Batteries, motors, chargers, and energy management – all of these make a modern electric vehicle efficient. However, for it to also be sustainable and independent of global markets, Europe needs its own semiconductor technologies. Power electronics, which are the foundation of electric drive systems, are still largely produced outside Europe. The international project HiPower 5.0 seeks to change this. Its goal is to develop a new generation of power electronic components for both road and maritime transport that are more efficient, more reliable, and produced in Europe.

The project brings together 45 partners from across Europe, including leading technology companies, research institutions, and universities. One of them is the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The faculty has long been involved in power electronics research and will now contribute its expertise to this strategic European consortium. “It is important for us to be part of European projects that have a real societal impact and simultaneously strengthen our faculty’s research capabilities. HiPower 5.0 offers both,” said Zdeněk Peroutka, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at UWB, who took part in the July kick-off meeting held at the project coordinator AVL’s headquarters in Graz, Austria.

The HiPower 5.0 project – Highly Integrated and Reliable Wide Bandgap Power Electronics Components for Sustainable Transport Applications – builds on the previous HiEFFICIENT project and is funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking initiative, which supports the development of the semiconductor industry within the European Union. The project will run until June 2028 and focuses on developing components using wide bandgap semiconductors (especially GaN and SiC) for sustainable transport and advanced integration technologies in power electronics.