Kia And Hyundai Are Exploring Structural Battery Packs Which, If Profitable, Would Considerably Enhance EV Vary However Might Complicate Battery Upgrades Or Replacements

Kia and Hyundai have opened up analysis into structural battery packs, which contain implanting the battery packs into load-bearing elements of the body and physique. This could considerably enhance battery capability with out eradicating the cabin or storage room. Nevertheless, inserting cells inside load-bearing elements would additionally make them laborious to switch, offsetting this follow. There are three workarounds, although. Let’s discover them.

Workaround One: Modular Battery Packs

At present, EV battery packs are usually one giant unit that, when service is required, might be dropped and opened, after which the cells, relying on the design, might be eliminated and changed. It’s time-consuming and difficult with out greater than a little bit of hazard if these battery packs grow to be unstable or there may be some intermittent inner brief.

However for those who had been to take that monolithic battery pack and break it down into extra modular elements, elements sufficiently small to slip into the gaps in our bodies and frames, then you possibly can not solely service the first battery extra effectively by having the ability to unplug a part after dropping the decrease battery pack steel protect but in addition, comparatively shortly, pull and repair the elements put in in numerous elements of the automotive.   

With sensors and software program, we are able to now typically inform which elements of a battery pack must be changed, and it’s a minimum of potential that, at some future level, this might be made straightforward sufficient for an EV proprietor to switch faulty battery packs by way of, I anticipate, that’ll be a decade or extra out.

With 3D printing, it’s also possible to considerably scale back the steel utilized in structural elements with out sacrificing power, leaving substantial further room for these captured cells.

Higher Batteries

If we are able to make batteries extra dependable utilizing higher chemical formulations or totally different battery applied sciences (like solid-state batteries), the necessity to exchange batteries turns into considerably decreased. If handled correctly, an EV battery pack ought to final over 100K miles and 20 years or longer than the anticipated lifetime of an ICE (Inside Combustion Engine) car.

With a battery design that may reliably last more than the anticipated lifetime of the automotive, the one motive you’d have to switch the battery is that if it had been faulty or broken in an accident. On that latter path, you’d seemingly have to switch the part the battery was put in in, so that you would not essentially must attempt to take away the battery pack. A defect could be a a lot bigger downside, however testing these captured battery elements would must be rigorous sufficient to make sure that a faulty part did not make it into the construct.

However with higher batteries, you possibly can completely seal wherever the batteries are situated, making the ensuing buildings a lot stronger with out adversely rising restore prices since you’ve eradicated the necessity to restore them within the first place.

Modular Charging

Most EV drivers hardly ever use all of their battery vary; they solely want it on lengthy journeys. Subsequently, batteries constructed into load-bearing automotive elements wouldn’t be wanted for each day use; they might be maintained on the ultimate cost stage for the battery formulation and infrequently used apart from lengthy journeys.

Whereas this is able to put further load on the primary battery pack as a result of the distributed packs would not be used typically, the captured battery elements would have an nearly indefinite service life. If they’re hardly ever used and stored on the ultimate cost, these elements ought to final indefinitely, seemingly longer than the car’s anticipated life. 

Wrapping Up:

Hyundai and Kia are structural battery packs, which may enhance vary with a potential hostile affect on repairability. Nevertheless, if the carmaker had been to make use of modular battery packs, it might scale back the associated value of repairs throughout the entire automotive batteries; if that they had higher batteries, the necessity to exchange them could be considerably decreased, and in the event that they carried out modular charging the place solely the straightforward to switch batteries had been prone to want substitute, you possibly can get rid of the draw back to this. These three paths aren’t mutually unique; an automaker may implement three, resulting in extra simply changed or upgraded battery packs.

The outcome could be much more vary when wanted, a extra simple follow for changing or upgrading battery packs, and a extra dependable EV. All of this is able to considerably enhance the EV driving expertise. Kia and Hyundai are on to one thing that would assist each firms compete with Tesla and the approaching wave of Chinese language EVs.

Rob Enderle is a expertise analyst at Torque Information who covers automotive expertise and battery improvement. You’ll be able to be taught extra about Rob on Wikipedia and comply with his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.