The Automotive Industry is seeing unprecedented growth in electric and hybrid vehicles. A culture of sustainability for future generations is driving car consumer vehicle purchasing trends away from conventional internal combustion engines towards greener choices like EV and Hybrid vehicles.
Automotive OEMs and tier-level suppliers are constantly innovating and developing battery technologies that can increase the vehicle driving range and shorten charging times. With the push to increase vehicle driving range and shorten charging times, thermal management of battery systems has become a critical topic with the goal of ensuring occupant and vehicle safety.
Increasing the driving range of vehicles can be achieved in multiple ways. The most common methods are: leveraging larger battery packs with more modules & cells, and implementing higher energy density cells. Regardless of how increased driving range is achieved, all battery systems are susceptible to thermal runaway.
What is Thermal Runaway?
There are myriad case studies and white papers that have done in depth research and analysis on thermal runaway in EV and Hybrid vehicle battery systems. The goal of these case studies and white papers has been determining the best sensing methodology for early detection of thermal runaway.
How Can Cubic “Solve” These Applications?
Regardless of the failure mode – battery abuse, overheating, overcharging and nail penetration testing – carbon dioxide (CO2) was the leading indicator for thermal runaway and was present in the vent gas of the battery systems. This rapid increase of measured carbon dioxide (CO2 )was followed by a subsequent increase in vent gas temperature and pressure to include the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
As the world’s largest air and gas sensing technology manufacturer, Cubic Sensors & Instruments has already commercialized an innovative and flexible thermal runaway detection platform. This platform allows the OEM or tier-level supplier the ability to create early-warning detection systems for EV and Hybrid vehicle thermal runaway specific to the vehicle platform.
Cubic S&I Application Focus
Our ODM capabilities are second to none – you select the detection principles best suited for the application and our Engineering and Manufacturing Team can accelerate from ideation to production in months, not years!
Cubic Sensors & Instruments and their N. American partner Innovaer Technologies will be showcasing a complete line of air and gas sensing technologies at the SAE World Congress on April 5th through April 7th. Our technologies are designed to support emerging automotive application needs as well as some of the most difficult and cost-constrained air and gas detection applications. These technology platforms can be applied to:
EV Battery Thermal Runaway
Child Left Behind Detection
EV HVAC System Optimization
Automotive Refrigerant Leak Detection
Driver Alertness Monitoring
Cabin Air Quality Monitoring & Improvement
