Aptiv Wins 2021 Automotive News’ PACE Award

For 27 years, the Automotive News PACE Awards, has been recognized around the world as the industry benchmark for innovation. Aptiv was recently named a 2021 PACE Award winner for its Solid State Electrical Center. This marks the 24^th innovation from Aptiv to win this prestigious honor. 

Aptiv’s President of Connection Systems Stefan Rustler shared, “As we move toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2040, this award underscores Aptiv’s commitment to decarbonization by finding smarter ways to reduce vehicle weight, with products that deliver superior performance while using fewer resources, less energy and less space. Aptiv’s expertise in software and systems integration, combined with our ability to provide automotive-grade compute and signal and power distribution inside the vehicle, continues to set us apart from others looking to help OEMs address vehicle electrical and electronics complexity.”  

Aptiv’s Solid State Electrical Centers – also known as smart electrical centers – are power distribution devices that help put OEMs on the path to software-defined vehicle architectures, such as Aptiv’s SVA™ platform. Aptiv’s solution replaces traditional melting fuses with smart fusing  and electromechanical relays with solid-state switches, which reduces system costs, weight, and packaging while enabling diagnostics and intelligent power management features that can be improved after the vehicle has left the factory via over-the-air updates. 

Using the advanced technology in smart electrical centers, Aptiv recently demonstrated to a major OEM that it could eliminate one of three traditional electrical centers in one of its vehicles, save 4.4 pounds (2kg) in weight, reduce power requirements by 57 watt hours and reduce overall cost by $40 — all while improving functionality. The full case study can be found here.  

To learn more about Aptiv’s Solid State Electrical Centers, please visit here.