Sub-system
Everything between the pack and the motor, and between a charger and the vehicle, is a connector, a cable or a contactor rated for hundreds of volts and hundreds of amps — designed so that a technician, a crash or a wet day does not become an electrical incident.
In one sentence
High-voltage interconnect comprises the shielded connectors, cables, busbars and contactors that carry traction-voltage power within an electric vehicle and between the vehicle and a charging station.
The requirements are unusual because they are simultaneous. The connection must carry high current without overheating, be shielded so it does not radiate interference into the vehicle's electronics, be touch-proof so nothing live is reachable, and tell the vehicle when it is being unplugged so the system can de-energise before the contacts separate.
That last point is why high-voltage connectors have a secondary interlock circuit that breaks first. The vehicle sees the interlock open, opens the contactors, and only then do the power contacts part — which is what makes servicing possible at all.
Delivering very high power at moderate voltage means high current, and current heats the conductor. A passive cable able to carry it would be too heavy to lift, so high-power charging cables circulate coolant around the conductors — which is what allows a manageable cable and a connector a person can handle.
The pack is connected to the vehicle through contactors that open on a fault, a crash signal or an interlock. They have to break hundreds of amps of direct current, which does not self-extinguish the way alternating current does, so they are engineered specifically for that duty and are a safety-rated component.
Technology dependencies are solved by engineering; supply dependencies are solved by building something, which takes years.
Shape, pin assignment, interlock behaviour and creepage distances are standardised, which is what makes vehicles and chargers interoperate.
Charging standardsHigh-current cable is a large copper content item, shielded and jacketed to automotive durability requirements.
Copper foil and laminateHigh-voltage harnesses are still routed and terminated by hand, which is why the work sits where labour is cheap and why moving it between sites takes far longer than moving a machine.
Other pages in this map that name High-voltage interconnect as something they cannot do without.
What each company supplies at this step, and — where a public figure exists — its share of this specific market — with what that share measures, the period it covers and who published it. Some rows also show the company’s own reported revenue for the segment covering this step, which is a different thing: it says how much this business matters to that company, not how much of the market it holds. Not a ranking and not a recommendation.
Supplies high-voltage connectors, cable assemblies and electrical distribution systems.
Electrical Distribution Systems segment — 41.5% of Aptiv’s reported revenue ($8.8B)FY2025 · company filings · not a market share
Supplies high-voltage connectors, contactors and interconnect for vehicles and chargers.
Supplies automotive wiring harnesses and high-voltage cable.
Supplies high-voltage and charging connector systems.
One of the two largest wiring-harness makers, and the reason harness design is a labour-cost question as much as an engineering one.
Supplies high-voltage connectors and harnesses, moving into the market from consumer interconnect.
Supplies harnesses and the aluminium conductors used to take weight out of them.
Supplies the high-voltage and high-frequency connectors used where the shielding requirement is hardest.
Each page explains one technology in plain language, states what it depends on, and names companies by what they supply at that step. Company roles are described qualitatively and deliberately carry no market shares, revenue figures or rankings — those change faster than an explainer can, and a stale number is worse than none. Ticker links point at company pages on this site and are provided for reference only.
Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or a forecast. A company named on a page about a technology is not thereby a good investment, and the chokepoints described are structural facts about supply chains rather than predictions about prices. Technology moves; where a page describes something as unresolved or in development, that was true when it was written.
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