What is in every EV battery box?
£1 Billion is typically spent on developing a new Electric Car. The manufacturers put a whole lot of magic into battery system development.
Understanding key engineering concepts will pay off in the long run, so I made this video to break down ten items you will find, common misconceptions and why they are there.
A Battery Management System is crucial for maintaining the safety, efficiency, and longevity of lithium-ion batteries and you find it in every battery box. However, other components, such as Ferrites or a Battery Heater are less obvious.
I've been building electric cars since 2018, and in this post, I’ll provide a high-level overview of the ten components you find in every EV battery box, and why they are important.
The ten battery box components
- Batteries (arranged in series/parallel and grouped in modules)
- Thermal Management System (a fancy way of saying heater/fan or Air Conditioning)
- A Current Sensor reporting it's readings to the BMS
- Battery Management System
- High Voltage Contactors for precharging and isolating the system
- Bus Bars tying all the modules together
- High Voltage Safety Disconnect
- High Voltage Fuse as a last-resort fire-prevention catch
- A Ferrite hugging the HV cables to suppress EMI
- The Battery Box itself that needs to be waterproof & crash-proof
