The cleanest way to make an EV cheaper and lighter is to stop using separate hardware for each job. The motor's power electronics, the onboard charger, the DC-DC converter — historically separate boxes — do fundamentally similar things: they switch and convert electrical power. If one set of hardware can serve multiple roles depending on mode, you delete components. A 2023 GM grant is about controlling exactly such a multi-function powertrain.
The record: on September 5, 2023, GM Global Technology Operations LLC was granted US11745611B1, a “System and method for control of a multi-function electric powertrain.” The CPC classes are charging and propulsion classes — B60L 53/24 (charging using the motor/inverter), B60L 50/51 (battery-to-motor supply), and B60L 2210/40 (power conversion). The hardware does double duty; the patent is the control logic that switches its role.
Here is the idea. The same inverter that drives the motor when you are accelerating can, with the right control, act as part of the charger when you plug in — because the power-switching circuitry is similar. A multi-function powertrain reuses these components across modes: propulsion, charging, conversion. The hard part is not the hardware sharing; it is the control software that reconfigures the system cleanly and safely as it changes jobs.
Why does this matter on the cap table as much as the spec sheet? Because every box you remove is cost, weight, and packaging volume reclaimed. An EV that uses its drive electronics for charging needs no separate onboard charger of equivalent capability. Multiplied across a production run, that is real money and real range (from less weight). Integration like this is where EV unit economics quietly improve.
Trace it to the product and the significance is, again, architectural. A multi-function powertrain is a software-defined power system: the same silicon does different things on command. The capability lives in the control method, not in any single component — which is why GM patents the “system and method for control,” not just a circuit. The intelligence is in the orchestration.
The caveat: a granted control method is not a shipping spec, and multi-function sharing has its own limits — a component sized for propulsion may not be ideal for charging, so the sharing is a compromise. But the direction is the efficient one. On paper versus on the cap table, the win is the same: fewer boxes doing more jobs. A 2023 GM grant is about teaching one powertrain to wear several hats without tripping over itself.