Thermal management in electric vehicles

The average electric vehicle buyer will have no specific interest in a vehicle’s thermal management system, yet these systems play a huge role in determining an EV’s range, reliability and robustness. It is true that modern EVs have ranges that make everyday life perfectly possible, whether a quick trip to the supermarket, or a Sunday drive in sunny weather. But what if a driver needs to make a long journey in sub-zero conditions—a trip that tests the limits of an EV’s range which will also require in-vehicle heating? In these circumstances, the figures can be quite worrying: at zero degree Celsius, ranges might drop as much as 30%.

This is one of the many challenges which EV thermal management systems must address: EVs operate at far lower temperatures than ICEs, and must scrape together waste heat wherever they can find it, whereas ICEs can generally heat a car without issue, using the escaped thermal energy from an engine. Other issues for EVs include increasingly fast charging capabilities; a necessary component of increased EV uptake, but one that is potentially bad news for cells. These challenges and more are covered in this latest special report from Automotive World.

• Cooler batteries needed for a green future
• Immersive cooling could unlock key TCO gains for EVs
• Need for speed: EVs must warm up before fast charging
• What way for modern electric vehicle thermal management?
• Automakers eye thermal gains in next-gen EV platforms
• Silicon carbide takes EV power electronics to the next level
• The EV thermal management industry warms up

'Special report: Thermal management in electric vehicles’ presents insight from:

• IDTechEx
• Imperial College London
• Infineon
• Mann+Hummel
• Nio
• Shell
• The Faraday Institution
• Thermal Management Systems (formerly Wahler, Magal and Dauphinoise Thomson)