ITB's Automotive Thermal Blogs

Battery packs are changing to reduce complexity, cost, mass, and vehicle height while improving safety and facilitating rapid charging and driving range. The battery pack is secondary to cell improvements, but as battery cells become more mature pack design becomes more important. It is not efficient to put battery cells [...]

China’s electric vehicle market is pushing the boundaries of thermal and battery system integration. In parallel, Chinese companies are leading development of new solutions such as natural refrigerant thermal systems. This progress isn't just about innovation - it’s about strategic simplification and […]

Picture Source: Manufacturers and The ITB Group, Ltd.

Thermal management is an important factor influencing electric vehicle battery charge rates and cost. The latest BEV battery packs from Tesla, BYD, and Geely are simpler and scalable with lower cost and mass through cell-to-pack (CTP) and cell-to-chassis architectures. In parallel, thermal systems are evolving toward greater battery pack integration. A recent CATL CTP battery pack, with integrated thermal design, reduces complexity by  […]

Picture Source: Volkswagen

Volkswagen is developing a new in-house designed R744 heat pump refrigerant and coolant thermal module. This new optional heat pump module shows that VW is making major value improvement through cost reduction.  […]

Data Sources:  VW, Mahle, Valeo, Chosun Univ., The ITB Group

Reports indicate that Volkswagen temporarily discontinued offering the heat pump system on its MEB platform electric vehicles (ID.4, Q4 e-tron, etc.). Although Volkswagen states that this is “due to the ongoing shortage of semi-conductors”, other factors are likely to have affected this decision. These include the fundamental value of  […]

Source: The ITB Group, Ltd.

Automakers are making tremendous investments in new thermal architectures involving both hardware and software. Despite this investment, the systems have great leeway for improvement, particularly in software and controls. For Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) the importance of thermal controls may have a […]

As vehicles become electrified new components including batteries, power electronics, and electric motors are added which present new thermal challenges. Although battery electric vehicles eliminate an internal combustion engine and traditional transmission, their thermal and fluid systems can be even more complex to compensate for lost waste heat. Automakers are making different choices to balance performance and cost challenges to maximize thermal/fluid architecture value.

Tesla sets the benchmark for highly integrated vehicles, including thermal and fluid systems. Other manufacturers are taking different approaches to maximize value based on different assumptions and constraints.

Click below to learn more about how other EV manufacturers such as BMW, BYD, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes, SGMW, and Tesla are choosing thermal/fluid design architectures.

Ford’s Electric Vehicle development shift highlights the importance of fluid management systems for future EV designs.  Changing thermal/fluid system designs are an important part of improving range, charging speed, and passenger comfort as well as reducing mass on the order of 2kg or more and supporting EV cost reductions on the order of $1000.  Furthermore, Ford realizes that it can’t wait for a minor platform refresh date, they must “reengineer the vehicle now” as a running change, as explained by Ford’s CEO Jim Farley.

Click HERE to learn more about Tesla’s thermal/fluid design change benchmarks and how other EV manufacturers like Ford must, and are responding »