Well, EVs do need fluids, so they may as well develop E friendly ones. How Shell May Speed The Transition To Electric Transportation
The application that is actually new is the thermal fluid, a dielectric oil for cooling the battery. Directly immersing the cells in this fluid could mean better cooling.
How is this significantly different than all the existing fluids used to immerse circuit boards in large supercomputers...for decades. Same idea...extract lots of heat as efficiently as possible so you can run the computers faster. Mike
Not just supercomputers. I managed a television broadcast transmitter that used fluid cooling fir the high voltage power supply circuit boards. I suspect many radio ant television broadcast transmitters use that. Perhaps cellular phone transmitter sites too.
It's not. But since I and most of the general population didn't know about that application, and many probably don't know personal computers have liquid cooling, Shell is justified in talking about it.
I'm convinced DIY computer builders are some of the most creative people in the world: Though, you don't need a fancy Shell-branded E-liquid, that's just their way of getting you to pay twice as much for something like a 10% improvement in performance.
The personal computers use liquid cooling that is contained in pipes. Not the same thing. Numerous companies make cooling systems for big data center computers that immerse entire racks of circuit boards. This makes the systems very quiet and allows the heat to be removed at a tiny fraction of the cost. The downside is you may have to shutdown to fix an issue or change something Others systems encapsulate new circuit board designs and allow liquid to be pumped in and out of each board...the fluid touches all the circuits and chips directly Mike
Now, Valvoline released a hybrid oil. Valvoline released a hybrid-specific motor oil: Do you need it?
Well it is a heavier 0W30 oil so it may be better for the engine but it would void the Toyota warranty.
According to this, it's also going to come in a 0w20, too. Valvoline Launches Its First Hybrid-Specific Motor Oil
I wonder if the transmission fluid would be an advancement on the trans fluid used in the Prius motor/planetary gearset up? The thermal fluid could be a real game changer for the PHEV battery pack allowing a large capacity pouch cell battery to be fitted in place of the prismatic cell battery or even a cylindrical cell battery pack and fast charging as well as direct feed and regen from the existing system by paralleling to the traction battery. Even locking the traction battery out when all the green bars are up on the Gen2 models and also the ability to feed 270vdc or more directly to the inverter for a higher motor voltage resulting in more EV torque. T1 Terry
Toyota hybrids use an automatic transmission fluids. In an automatic, the fluid has to be a lubricant and a hydraulic fluid. Meeting those needs results in a fluid that breaks down under heat. The HSD doesn't need a hydraulic fluid, so any gear oil of similar viscosity would be an improvement.
Bu the fluid does need electrical high voltage insulating characteristics. You do not want the fluid to attack the MGs either.
I would add that my Prius study revealed that AMSOIL attacks 'yellow metal'. This increases the subsequent test results showing high copper and tin. In effect, AMSOIL was eating the bushings IF you decide to test an alternative transmission oil/fluid: Oil test the old oil Oil test a virgin sample of the new oil Wait 5-10k miles and draw off a sample for oil analysis (or just drain and replace) If you see 'bad stuff' happening in 5-10k service miles, back that oil out. Bob Wilson
