COMMENT: It’s time to put the fuse first in electrified powertrains

Where are we going with hybrids and electric vehicles? Too often, the experience is taken back to the drawing board because, great as the futuristic concept of clean, good-for-the-environment vehicles may be, it is a failure to appreciate good old-fashioned physics that can be a stumbling block in the development of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Electricity is a wonderful source of clean power, but the way a fuse behaves in HEV and EV applications is often misunderstood - and that misunderstanding can be hugely problematic when it comes to protecting the vehicle from itself.