Yazaki Takes Aim at Truck Wiring With New Busbar Tech
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LAS VEGAS — Yazaki Innovations unveiled a new line of busbars for trucks, as well as other types of vehicles and industrial applications, during CES 2025.
The new line of busbars focuses on performance, lightweight construction, efficiency and durability. They’re designed to improve electric current flow and energy loss and intended to replace wiring across many different vehicle types. The company sees trucking as a particularly good use case.
“ It’s not so much different than traditional automotive, but there’s more protection,” said David Scheffler, an executive at Yazaki Innovations. “The connection systems are generally more robust, and if there’s electrification, you obviously have the high-voltage physical layer. Now with the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and the BEVs, you can start looking at busbars. Busbars make a lot of sense.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Images from CES 2025
Scheffler pointed out that the new busbars can run a long distance along a truck. That reduces the need for many of the coverings and protections that a traditional wire might have. They are essentially metal rods of either copper or aluminum that act as a conduit and are covered in a protective layer like traditional wires, except they can be pressed or stamped into a rigid shape.
Scheffler
“You can even move towards automation with busbars because it’s not wires a human is routing around,” Scheffler said. “You take this busbar, you stamp it and just lay it in. So this is a big piece for the commercial truck industry, moving to busbars. And busbars are used in battery packs as well.”
Yazaki Innovations is an automotive and nonautomotive technology company based in Plano, Texas, focused on developing emerging innovations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese automotive parts supplier Yazaki. The busbars are currently being promoted to companies in Japan, and discussions also are being held with businesses in Europe. Product promotion is set for the U.S. market later this year.
“You will extrude a plastic over it, and then you will put it through a machine, bend it, shape it, punch it, strip it, weld it, whatever process you need,” Scheffler said. “So fundamentally, moving away from the stranded wire that bends around, and you just lay it into a vehicle after it’s bent. This is one of the new technologies we’re working towards in electrification, and commercial trucks are perfect deployment because the long runs mean big, heavy cables.”
#MediaDay at Yazaki Innovations. Our experts share success stories with journalists at #CES2025 pic.twitter.com/zVvRX24Qvn — Yazaki Innovations (@YazakiInnov) January 8, 2025
Scheffler added trucks tend to last longer in the field so they often require extra protection for their wiring. The cross-sectional area also doesn’t change compared with traditional wires. Because of that, it’s only the dimensions that change as opposed to the current-carrying capability. That means the busbars don’t weigh more compared with traditional wiring.
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