Safety by Design for EV Batteries

At our recent “How Safe Are Our Vehicles?” conference at the University of Michigan, Bhoomika Narasimhan from General Motors showed us how much detailed work is involved in developing batteries that are safe.  The focus for battery safety is on thermal runaway, and Bhoomika, in this slide, shows us the necessity of managing safety through the whole battery manufacturing process:

- From cell level creation and testing

- To fusing the cells into a module

- To creating packs with cooling loops

- To the introduction of fuses and other electrical devices for high voltage safety

- To battery management software that diagnoses abnormalities and mitigates problems

- To integrating the complete battery into the vehicle system

Manufacturers have come a long way in designing batteries focusing on thermal runaway.  As they develop more expertise in cell technology and new battery materials, they will need to continue to focus on battery safety.  It was great to hear the work Bhoomika and her team are doing in this area.  In many ways it was reassuring that so much safety thought is going into designing every battery.  We look forward to hearing more about GMs future work on batteries as EV batteries evolve over the next 10 years.

The conference presentations and video are available on our website for our Affiliate and conference registrants.  Contact Bruce Belzowski about becoming an Affiliate at bbl@umich.edu.