Overview
The rise in the popularity and production of electric cars has highlighted the need for advancements in related technologies, particularly electric vehicle battery technology. This field is crucial as it directly impacts the sustainability, performance, safety and cost of electric cars. Efficient cooling of batteries is essential to their overall performance, and current options primarily focus on surface cooling solutions.
The main requirements for any Electric Vehicle (EV) battery are performance, safety, sustainability, and financial viability. Significant deviations from ambient conditions can lead to reduced performance, accelerated degradation and thermal runaway. Thermal management systems are crucial to lower degradation rates for the lithium-ion cells in operation, and therefore to increase battery pack lifetime. Surface cooling approach for thermal management dominates the EV market, yet published research suggests lithium-ion cell lifetime can be tripled if tab cooling is effectively implemented in the battery pack design.
Funded by the European Innovation Council, the Reliefed project aims to develop an innovative tab cooling solution for electric vehicle batteries, with the potential to triple battery lifetime. Such a breakthrough would lead to significant cost reductions and advancements in the efficiency and safety of electric vehicles.
Reliefed has developed a disruptive 3D-iExtrusion manufacturing technology that allows, for the first time, to produce tab cooled battery packs, delivering higher charging rates and lower costs while increasing lifetime and safety. To commercialise such a disruptive technology, Reliefed needs the help of the EIC to finish optimising and validating the tab cooled battery pack.